20 Facts About Kakutsa Cholokashvili

Kaikhosro "Kakutsa" Cholokashvili was a Georgian military officer and a commander of an anti-Soviet guerrilla movement in Georgia.

Kakutsa Cholokashvili is regarded as a national hero in Georgia.

Kakutsa Cholokashvili's remains were reburied, in a state funeral, from the Leuville Cemetery near Paris to the Mtatsminda Pantheon in Tbilisi, Georgia, in 2005.

Kakutsa Cholokashvili was born into an aristocratic family of Prince Ioseb Cholokashvili at the family estate at Matani in the eastern Georgian province of Kakheti.

Kakutsa Cholokashvili attended the Gymnasium for Nobility in Tiflis, which was then directed by the historian Ekvtime Takaishvili.

Kakutsa Cholokashvili served in the 16th Tver Dragoon Regiment and returned to Georgia with the rank of podporuchik in 1912.

Kakutsa Cholokashvili was severely wounded and awarded the Gold Sword for Bravery in 1916.

Kakutsa Cholokashvili joined the National Democratic Party of Georgia and helped organize national cavalry units early in 1918.

Kakutsa Cholokashvili accompanied General David Chavchavadze to western Georgia to recruit volunteers for the Georgian cavalry.

In March 1921, the Georgian government and military leadership sailed in European exile; Kakutsa Cholokashvili remained in Georgia.

In February 1922, Kakutsa Cholokashvili was arrested by the Soviet security agents on charges of "counter-revolutionary activities" in Sighnaghi in his native Kakheti, but he escaped and took to the mountainous Pankisi Gorge, where he formed a group of followers known as the Band of Sworn Men and joined the rebellious Khevsur mountaineers.

Kakutsa Cholokashvili took command of the single largest rebel unit operating in eastern Georgia.

Later in the 1920s, Kakutsa Cholokashvili was close to the right-wing nationalistic organization Tetri Giorgi.

Kakutsa Cholokashvili even tried to bribe him into making a pro-Soviet recantation, but Cholokashvili demurred.

Beria then foisted forged gold coins on Kakutsa Cholokashvili and denounced him to the French police in 1927.

Kakutsa Cholokashvili was then framed for stealing French War Ministry funds.

The Soviet agents spread rumors that Kakutsa Cholokashvili planned to assassinate the exiled Menshevik leaders, Noe Zhordania and Noe Ramishvili.

Kakutsa Cholokashvili was later reburied to the Leuville Cemetery of Georgian emigres and, finally, to the Mtatsminda Pantheon in Tbilisi, Georgia's capital, in 2005.

Under the Soviet rule, Kakutsa Cholokashvili's name was expurgated from the Georgian history for several decades.

In 2007, Kakutsa Cholokashvili's portrait was depicted on Georgia's new 200-lari banknote.