144 Ë The Caucasus Group and Japan
Another factor raised morale among the rightists: Italy’s challenge to Britain and
France by its invasion of Abyssinia in 1935. In 1936 Italy colonized and incorporated
Abyssinia into Italian East Africa. Many Caucasian émigrés, particularly rightists, per-
ceived Italy’s actions as a manifestation of Italy’snationalrise and discipline.⁶²(In
fact, even the Promethean group reacted favorably to Italy’s rise, arguing that Ethiopia
was not a uni ed country but a small “empire,” as it were, with its own oppressed peo-
ples. Italy “brings liberty, order, and the bene ts of civilization to the enslaved peoples
of Ethiopia.” It harshly criticized the League of Nations for condemning Italy’s action
while remaining silent about Moscow’s subjugation of non-Russian nations.)⁶³Italy’s
rising prestige also led to the creation in 1936 of an anti-Bolshevik and anti-Turkish
Armenian-Georgian Union by sympathizers of Mussolini’s Italy.⁶⁴Like Germany, how-
ever, Italy did not regard the Caucasus as a region of priority until 1936.
6.3 The Caucasus Group and Japan
In view of possible war with the Soviet Union, Japan began earnestly looking for re-
liable allies among the émigré groups, including the Caucasians. Japan correctly saw
Britain and France as being behind the Polish-sponsored Promethean movement.
Even though Tokyo remained aloof, it did not entirely reject the Promethean move-
ment since it did see in it political utility. In the Far East, for example, a Promethean
Club was created in 1932 in Harbin by Poles, with Ivan Svit, a Ukrainian, as its head.
Georgians and Tatars also joined the club.⁶⁵But although Japan did not explicitly sup-
port the Promethean Ukrainians (who were inclined to support the social-democratic
forces of the former Ukrainian National Republic) and was more inclined toward the
monarchist supporters of Pavlo Skoropads’kyi and the more radical Ukrainian Organi-
zation of Nationalists, it did nance the publication of the club’s organMan’dzhurs’kyi
Vistnykunder Svit’s editorship.⁶⁶
The Ukrainians, in turn, courted Japan. In 1931 the Ukrainian community in
Manchuria had begun entertaining the idea of forming an independent Ukrainian
state in the so-called Zelenyi Klin,⁶⁷covering the regions of Transbaikal, Amur,
62 See G. Mamoulia, K-M. Donogo, and M. Vatchagaev,Gaidar Bammat i zhurnal “Kavkaz”
(Makhachkala–Paris: Akhul’go, 2010), 208–209.
63 See, for example, the editorial “En marge du con it.”Prométhéeno. 108 (November 1935), 1-4.
64 Mamoulia,Les combats indépendandistes des Caucasiens, 159–160.
65 On 26 May 1932, the Society of Georgians in Harbin, headed by Dr. Dzhishkariani, celebrated the
Day of Independence and was joined by local Poles, Ukrainians, Azeris, and Mountaineers as well as
the consuls of the United States, Poland, and Belgium. The tone of the speeches made emphasized
the importance of the cooperation between the Caucasus and Ukraine and of a pact for a Caucasian
Confederation. Seedamoukidebeli sakartvelo(Independent Georgia), Paris, 1932, no. 79, 15.
66 See Kuromiya and Libera, “Notatka Włodzimierza Bączkowskiego,” 119–20.
67 See I. Kossenko, “L’Ukraine d’Extrême Orient.”Prométhéeno. 97 (December 1934), 4–8.