LEO KERESSELIDZE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22546, 13 April 1935, Page 7

LEO KERESSELIDZE

A GEORGIAN PATRIOT FOUGHT RUSSIA FOR THIRTY YEARS GRIM STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM. Georgia is that unenviable country that lies between Russia and Turkey flanked on one side- by the Black Sea and on the other bv the Caspian. Its record since the day's of Alexander of Macedon has been one of invasion, violence, and bloodshed. The Russians annexed it in 1801, and found that they had caught a Tartar. The Georgians, says Mr H. C. Armstrong, though only 3,000,000 strong, revolted against the might and massed strength of Russia; and the Russians trod them down with fierce reprisals, sending thousands to the gallows, and tens of thousands to exile in Siberia. But it was in vain, for though sometimes. tor a while crushed, their spirit remained unbroken, and again, untamed and untamable, they revolted; and they carried on their unending battle for freedom. And the Georgians fought like furies. Every Georgian, we are told, " as soon as he felt a rifle in his hands, and smelt burnt cartridge, saw blood and went mad for a fighi." ESCAPE THROUGH THE WINDOW. A typical Georgian, and one of the most intractable in his enmity towards Russia, is Leo Keresselidze. For 30 years he fought and schemed. He was as hard to kill as Felix the Cat. Captured on one occasion, he was led before a Russian colonel. Feigning weakness, he asked for a glass of water. As soon as the policeman left the room, Leo picked up one of the heavy candlesticks and brought it down with all his force on the colonel's head, so that he sagged down in his chair without making a sound, his beard strewn grotesquely over the crumpled breast of his tunic. Pinching out the other candle, he ran to the window, opened it, and let himself down by his hands. Hanging to the sill, he dropped into the street 10ft below. He was soon safe in hiding. Another time, having been ambushed, ne was rescued at the last minute in true wild west style. His friends carried him off, but were hotly pursued by a band of Cossacks. The Cossacks were gaining, so one of the Georgians shouted I'll stop 'em," and, swinging round his horse, rode straight at the enemy, a grenade in each hand, drawing the fuses as he went and keeping his horse straight with his knees and legs, and as he reached them threw both grenades into the mass of charging Cossacks, who rode full over him; but the explosion of the grenades, and the shock of riding into the man threw them into confusion. The other Georgians opened fire, the Cossacks scattered, and gave ud the chase. THE ASSASSINATION. The Georgian used any weapon against his enemies. Assassination was popular amongst the hotheads. Griasnoff, the Governor-General of Tiflis, the capital of the country, was one of their victims. A young man named Arsene disguised himself as a bootblack, and hid a powerful bomb among his brushes and tins. As the Governor-General drove out from his palace Leo saw Arsene pick up his box, run into the roadway and throw the whole thing into the carriage. It seemed as if all was done in dead silence, as if he and all those around him were still. There was a searing, eye-blinding I flare of white flame and a terrific roar which shook the ground around, and made him stagger, and there was Arsene running up the street and doubling in a garden. ... As the dust and smoke cleared, Leo saw a mass of struggling animals and torn men in a heap. On them lay bits of the carriage, ripped and smashed. Griasnoff and most of his escort had been blown to pieces. Arsene was caught and hanged the next ay ' HANGING THE HANGMAN.

The chief of police was blown to bits another day. One of Leo's own little exploits was to murder the public hangman of Tiflis. It makes a grim episode in a grim history. With some of his friends, Leo held up a train on which the bailsman, a Russian called Kouzma, was travelling with a number of soldiers. Leo ordered the soldiers to hang their compatriot. " Judases," howled Konzma, " Judases. you're hanging a respectable man." One of the station staff ran up with some rope. Twice Kouzma broke away and was dragged down and eventually his hands and feet tied and a noose slipped round his neck. By now a crowd had collected from the-village. Two of the soldiers, running the rope over the bougti of a walnut tree, heaved him up by. the neck. The noose held under his chin, tightened, and they left him there, dangling and twisting. In his enthusiasm for the heroism of Leo Kercsselidze, Mr Armstrong permits himself a. sneer at his own countrymen. Talking of Leo's difficulty during the war in persuading the Arabs to fight for the Turks against Russia, he says: " The English agents had already been through the deserts, some from India up from Basra, others, such as Lawrence, from Egypt, buying the Arabs with handfuls ot good gold coins, and promising them independence as soon as the war was won, so that they were hostile to the Turks. "Lawrence in particular was spending money among them, not in handful*, but by the sackful, golden sovereigns and liras, and promising them a glorious Arab Empire with Damascus as its capital." RUMOURS ABOUT LAWRENCE. All kinds of extraordinary rumours were flying about concerning Colonel Lawrence. Leo was told that Lawrence was a multimillionaire who organised rebellions for amusement. Others said that they had seen him. He was apple-cheeked, and blue-eyed, so that Lhey did not believe that he was a man. lie must be a woman. The eight of him had set them on fire, for he was as graceful as a palm tree and as delicate in his manners as a gazello. They were sure he was a great lady of

the English aristocracy, exquisitely lovely and wanton, who crept into the tents of the Arab sheiks, and by her beauty ensnared and led them away from their true allegiance to the Sultan. " "Whatever he was," says Mr Armstrong, "Leo found Lawrence and his monev continuously in his way." The Great War came as a fine chance for the Georgians to stab Russia in the back —as the Russo-Japanese war had been some years before. But the Georgian cause, like Prince Charlie's, is one long story of missed opportunities. They failed against the Czar'e troops and they failed against the Bolshevists. They don't seem to be any better off now than they were 30 years ago when Leo Keresselidze entered the fray.