Everything about The Mingrelian Affair totally explained
The
Mingrelian Affair, or
Mingrelian Case (
mingrel’skoe delo;,
megrelt’a sak’me) was a series of criminal cases fabricated in 1951 and 1952 in order to accuse several members of the
Georgian SSR Communist Party of
Mingrelian extraction of
secession and collaboration with the
Western powers.
Initiated on the personal orders of the
Soviet dictator
Joseph Stalin, the affair apparently aimed at eliminating the influence of
Lavrentiy Beria, of whom Stalin was getting increasingly suspicious. The fabricated accusations of forming the "Mingrelian nationalist ring", separatism, collaboration with the "Western imperialists", and the Georgian
émigré centre in
Paris, were followed by a purge, which delivered a hard blow to the Georgian party organization, and specifically targeted its Mingrelian (a subethnic group of the
Georgians) members, mostly Beria’s protégés (such as
Candide Charkviani) through which he exercised almost an unlimited influence in Georgia. Many leading officials were removed from their posts and arrested; thousands of innocent people were subjected to repressions.
Many aspects of the Mingrelian Affair are still not completely understood. Beyond Stalin’s growing mistrust of his lieutenant Beria, who had particularly consolidated his positions after
World War II, the affair also reflected a bitter power struggle among rival clans in the Communist élite of Georgia. It might also have echoed similar accusations of
nationalism leveled against the Georgian "National Communists" in the 1922
Georgian Affair.
As a result of the events, Beria’s power was reduced significantly in Georgia, but he still managed to retain his position in the
Politburo. After Stalin’s death in 1953, Beria managed to temporarily reinstate his clients in Georgia. The new Soviet government of
Nikita Khrushchev admitted that the case was fabricated and
rehabilitated its victims.
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