Kakutsa Cholokashvili
Kaikhosro "Kakutsa" Cholokashvili (Georgian: ქაიხოსრო [ქაქუცა] ჩოლოყაშვილი; French: Kakoutsa Tcholokachvili; Russian: Кайхосро [Какуца] Чолокашвили [Челокаев], Kaikhosro Chelokayev; born 14 July 1888 – 27 June 1930) was a Georgian military officer and a commander of an anti-Soviet guerrilla movement in Georgia. He is regarded as a national hero in Georgia.
Kaikhosro (Kakutsa) Cholokashvili | |
|---|---|
| Native name | ქაიხოსრო [ქაქუცა] ჩოლოყაშვილი |
| Birth name | Kaikhosro Cholokashvili |
| Nickname(s) | Kakutsa |
| Born | 14 July 1888 Matani, Russian Empire (now Georgia) |
| Died | 27 June 1930 (aged 41) Passy, Haute-Savoie, France |
| Buried | Cimetière de Saint-Ouen (1930) Leuville Cemetery (c. 1970) Mtatsminda Pantheon (2005) |
| Allegiance | Russian Empire(1909–1917) Democratic Republic of Georgia(1918–1921) |
| Service/ | Cavalry |
| Years of service | 1909–1921 |
| Rank | Colonel |
| Battles/wars | World War I
|
| Awards | Gold Sword for Bravery (1916) |
| Spouse(s) | Nino Meghvinetukhutsesi (1913) |
Born of a noble family, Cholokashvili was a decorated officer of the Imperial Russian Army during World War I. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, he served in the ranks of the Democratic Republic of Georgia. Following the republic's overthrow in a Soviet invasion in 1921, Cholokashvili, with a band of followers, took to the mountains and fought a guerrilla campaign against the Soviet government in the province of Kakheti. After a failed August 1924 anti-Soviet rebellion, during which Cholokashvili commanded the largest single rebel contingent, he fled to France, where he died of tuberculosis in 1930. His remains were reburied, in a state funeral, from the Leuville Cemetery near Paris to the Mtatsminda Pantheon in Tbilisi, Georgia, in 2005. In 2013, he was posthumously awarded the title and Order of National Hero of Georgia.