The Eurasian Triangle. Russia, the Caucasus and Japan, 1904-1945

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180 Ë War and Dénouement


Fig. 7.2.Mikheil Kedia in the 1930s, France.


liberate the peoples of the Caucasus.” The group, Berishvili emphasized, “has a lot of


money at its disposal, and Bammat in particular.”⁴²Clearly the money came from the


Japanese. According to Berishvili, however, Bammat refused to cooperate with “Geor-


gian fascist organizations” (namely rightists, united in January 1940 in Paris under


the name of the Georgian National Committee), which demanded that a Georgian, not


Bammat, lead the common front against Moscow.⁴³These Georgians, however, did not


blindly follow the Nazis. For example, Mikheil Kedia (see p. 120), who worked closely


with German intelligence, protected from Nazi pursuit in occupied Paris the Georgian


Social Democrats who were very critical of Nazi Germany. Kedia also used his rela-


tions with the German Sicherheitsdienst (security service) to prevent the deportation


of eighty Georgian Jews living in occupied Paris.⁴⁴


42 See Mamoulia,Les combats indépendandistes des Caucasiens, 232.
43 SeeOrgany gosudarstvennoi bezopasnosti SSSR v Velikoi otechestvennoi voine, vol. 1, part 1
(Moscow: Kniga i biznes, 1995), 275.
44 Mamoulia,Les combats indépendandistes des Caucasiens, 295.

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