54 Ë A Lull
Fig. 3.1.Nestor Magalashvili, Tiflis, 1906.
new manifestation of Russian political organization.” In January 1906, however, these
“self-governing communes” were brutally destroyed by Russian troops and Cossacks.⁶
The commander leading this military operation, General M. Alikhanov-Avarskii,
known for his savagery (“Bloody Alikhanov”), was subsequently interviewed by
American journalist Kellogg Durland (1881–1911), who visited Kutaisi soon after the
event. Durland asked the general point-blank:
Your Excellency, I have come to you on a strange errand. I have heard worse stories about you
than I have ever heard about any living human being. As an American I do not wish to repeat
these stories to my countrymen, if they are not true. On the other hand, if they are true, I want to
hear your side of the case, your justi cation – if such there be.The general asked Durland what stories he had heard, to which Durland responded:
“The people of this province,” I replied, “tell me that your soldiers are burning the homes of
the people indiscriminately at your order, – the homes of people against whom there is no legal6 Quotations in this paragraph are from David Marshall Lang,A Modern History of Soviet Georgia(New
York: Grove Press, 1962), 167–68 andRevoliutsiia 1905–07 gg v Gruzii. Sbornik dokumentov(Tbilisi:
Sakhelgami, 1956), 347.