Overview

Following the collapse of the Russian Empire, the small nation of Georgia established its independence in May 1918. Its leaders surprised the world by creating the first social democratic state. Based on a combination of parliamentarianism and direct democracy, it was a representative government of the peasants and workers themselves, with ballots in their hands. The First Social Democracy is the definitive history of a government that should inspire social democrats today. Stephen F. Jones chronicles how the founders of the new state navigated myriad challenges, including territorial threats from abroad, internal ethnic conflicts, and geopolitical rivalries between the imperial Ottomans, the British, and Germans. In the midst of these existential challenges, Georgia's social democrats set about writing a constitution to put the country on a distinctive path of genuine self-government-protecting democratic rights, promoting political pluralism, and championing equality. Jones brings to life the passionate debates that shaped Georgia's democracy during a moment of acute global instability. The Democratic Republic of Georgia was strangled in its crib. Just four days after the constitution was ratified, its capital fell to the Red Army. Under Soviet rule, the republic was lost to history. Soviet scholars were forbidden to research this Georgian story, and Western scholars had little interest in a small and peripheral state that was independent for only three years. Recovering a forgotten experiment in democratic citizenship and statecraft, Jones reminds us of those audacious times when Georgians created and defended political freedom against the rise of Soviet communism.

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Reviews

This long-awaited book is truly wonderful. Not only is it complete and surefooted, drawing evidence from archives that have only become accessible since Jones began his research, but also, most importantly, it bears the commanding voice and stylistic grace of a venerable scholar. Jones presents a coherent, clear, and convincing story of the Republic and makes persuasive arguments about the successes and failures of Georgian Social Democracy. -- Ronald Grigory Suny, author of <i>Stalin: Passage to Revolution</i> This book was forty years in the making, and it shows. One of the world's leading historians of contemporary Georgian history and politics, Jones has produced a meticulously researched and deeply insightful account of Georgia's first republic, the first social democracy in Europe. A must-read for people who study Georgia and the Caucasus or who are interested in the early development of social democracy. -- Neil MacFarlane, coauthor of <i>Human Security and the UN: A Critical History</i>

This long-awaited book is truly wonderful. Not only is it complete and surefooted, drawing evidence from archives that have only become accessible since Jones began his research, but also, most importantly, it bears the commanding voice and stylistic grace of a venerable scholar. Jones presents a coherent, clear, and convincing story of the Republic and makes persuasive arguments about the successes and failures of Georgian Social Democracy. -- Ronald Grigory Suny, author of <i>Stalin: Passage to Revolution</i> A masterful study that restores Georgia’s short-lived Democratic Republic to its rightful place in the history of political thought. With lucid scholarship and remarkable depth, Jones uncovers how Georgian leaders crafted an indigenous model of democratic socialism that blended European ideals of pluralism and parliamentarism with anticolonial aspirations for self-determination. The First Social Democracy is an essential contribution to modern political history—erudite, empathetic, and profoundly relevant to contemporary debates about democracy, sovereignty, and social justice. -- Alexander Mikaberidze, author of <i>The Napoleonic Wars: A Global History</i> Stephen Jones offers a masterful account of how the world's first social democracy took shape on Europe's periphery. Drawing on a remarkable range of Georgian sources, Jones deftly and convincingly portrays Georgia's Social Democrats as idealists, innovators, and pragmatists who forged a version of socialism fundamentally different from Bolshevism. Essential reading for scholars of Russia and Eurasia, socialism, and modern politics. -- Michael A. Reynolds, author of <i>Shattering Empires</i> In the crowning achievement of a decades-long career, Stephen Jones has written the definitive history of the first independent Georgian state in the modern era as well as the world’s first experiment in social democracy. Combining his deep knowledge of the Caucasus with a keen global perspective, Jones shows how Georgians managed to build a new kind of republic even as they contended with colonial legacies, interethnic tensions, economic shortcomings, and treacherous geopolitics. -- Erik R. Scott, author of <i>Defectors: How the Illicit Flight of Soviet Citizens Built the Borders of the Cold War World</i> The Democratic Republic of Georgia demonstrated that it was possible both to reject Western imperialism and to be politically and culturally oriented toward the West. Accessibly written and evocative, The First Social Democracy recovers from obscurity one of the most humane post–WWI experiments in self-rule. -- Jakub S. Beneš, author of <i>The Last Peasant War</i> This book was forty years in the making, and it shows. One of the world's leading historians of contemporary Georgian history and politics, Jones has produced a meticulously researched and deeply insightful account of Georgia's first republic, the first social democracy in Europe. A must-read for people who study Georgia and the Caucasus or who are interested in the early development of social democracy. -- Neil MacFarlane, coauthor of <i>Human Security and the UN: A Critical History</i>

This long-awaited book is truly wonderful. Not only is it complete and surefooted, drawing evidence from archives that have only become accessible since Jones began his research, but also, most importantly, it bears the commanding voice and stylistic grace of a venerable scholar. Jones presents a coherent, clear, and convincing story of the Republic and makes persuasive arguments about the successes and failures of Georgian Social Democracy. -- Ronald Grigory Suny, author of <i>Stalin: Passage to Revolution</i>

Author Information

Stephen F. Jones is Professor Emeritus of Russian and Eurasian Studies at Mount Holyoke College and Professor of Modern Georgian History at Ilia State University, Georgia. He is the founder of the Program on Georgian Studies at the Davis Center at Harvard and the author of Socialism in Georgian Colors: The European Road to Social Democracy, 1883-1917 and Georgia: A Political History Since Independence.

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