1918: Georgia’s Act of Independence Proclaimed

The Georgian National Council, during its plenary sitting of May 26, 1918, declared as follows:

For many centuries Georgia existed as a free and independent State.

At the end of the eighteenth century, imperiled by its enemies from all sides,  Georgia voluntarily allied herself with Russia, with the stipulation that the latter should protect her from the enemies without.

In the course of the great Russian Revolution, internal conditions arose in Russia, that resulted in the disorganisation of the entire military front and the abandonment of Transcaucasia by the Russian Army.

Thus, left to her own devices, Georgia, and with her all Transcaucasia, took into their hands the direction of their affairs, creating the necessary bodies for this purpose; but under pressure from exterior forces the links which tied Transcaucasian nations were broken and the political unity of Transcaucasia was thus dissolved.

The present state of the Georgian nation makes it imperative, that Georgia shall create a statehood organisation of her own, so that she may escape the conquest from external force and lay a solid foundation for her independent development.

Accordingly, the Georgian National Council, elected by the National Assembly of Georgia on November 22nd (December 5th), 1917, declares:

1) Henceforth, the Georgian people shall hold sovereign power, and Georgia shall be a fully-fledged independent State.

2) Independent Georgia’s form of political organisation shall be a Democratic Republic.

3) In international conflict Georgia shall always remain neutral.

4) The Georgian Democratic Republic intends to establish good-neighborly relations with all nations, and especially with the States and nations at its borders.

5) The Georgian Democratic Republic shall ensure within her borders civil and political rights to all of its citizens equally, irrespective of their ethnicity, faith, social station and gender.

6) The Georgian Democratic Republic shall provide a wide field of free development to all nationalities that inhabit it.

7) Until the convocation of the Constituent Assembly, the governance  of Georgia shall be conferred to the National Council, with additional representation of the national minorities, and the Provisional Government responsible to the National Council.

The foundation of this text is Constantin Kandelaki’s The Georgian Question Before the Free World, pp. 180-181. as referenced by Mr. Eric Lee. Inconsistencies with the original text were found and fixed by Civil.ge @Republic100 project aiming to keep the style and word use as much in conformity with the original text as possible.