ABSTRACT
Kamo escaped from the Batum prison on 11 September 1904. On the same day, Colonel Tiapkin, the chief of the Kutais Okhrana, sent a telegram to St Petersburg, stating: ‘Urgent. To the chief of the Special Section, Vasiliev. Simon Arshakov Ter-Petrosov (Kamo) escaped from the Batum prison… I have the honor of requesting an All-Empire search.’1 Batum was under the jurisdiction of the Kutais Okhrana, which made Tiapkin responsible for the investigation of Kamo’s case. Tiapkin summoned Koba to Kutais in the hope that he would help him locate Kamo. While in Kutais, Koba submitted several reports to the Okhrana providing information on local Social Democrats.2 But this time, he was not inclined to turn Kamo in, probably fearing that he would arouse Kamo’s suspicion if he once again delivered him into the Okhrana’s hands. Besides, Kamo promised to be a great asset to him as a source of funds acquired from ‘expropriations’— a euphemism for armed robberies of banks, post offices and wealthy individualsactivities that were growing in popularity among revolutionary groups and common criminals.
