26 Ë The Russo-Japanese War
Fig. 2.9.Title page ofLa Géorgie, the rst Georgian periodical published in Europe (1903).
of the Georgian school for nobles in Kutaisi shared the same sentiment.) In Baku, at
about the same time, a terrible incident took place when at the end of a service being
held in an Armenian church for the victory of the Russian army in the Far East, some-
one threw a bomb, killing “a large number of people.”³¹From his observations, the
consul concluded, quite rightly, that even though volunteer forces were being formed
from “Cherkessians” referring to Muslims in the Northern Caucasus, the Caucasus was
unlikely to be able to provide a large military force to the Far East.³²For its part, the
journalSakartvelotook an openly pro-Japanese and defeatist position when the war
broke out.³³
Akashi, familiar with the political situation in the Caucasus, took advantage of
it. The Georgians in particular attracted his attention. Already in April 1904, a con-
31 Archives du ministère des Aaires étrangères (AMAE), Correspondance politique et commerciale
dite “nouvelle série,” 1896-1918, Z (Europe), dossier Russie (Agitation révolutionnaire et anarchiste),
no. 12, fol. 354–56.
32 AMAE, Z, dossier Russie, no. 12, fol. 335.
33 See “La guerre russo-japonaises,”Géorgie, politique et sociale(Paris), 1904, no. 7, 4–6. It is possible
that the publication of this journal was helped by Japan. See also GARF, f. 102, DP PP 1904-II, op. 316,
d. 28, ll. 130, 163, 176, 191 (on Baud) and 132 (on Gabunia).