ABSTRACT
Having successfully warded off the threat of the Mirzabekyan commission investigation, Lakoba and his group are now confronted by an unexpected and very comprehensive and hostile report by a lower level functionary from the Azerbaijani SSR, Seid Kadyrov. The report renews some of the earlier allegations and adds more details, focusing in particular on the criminal misdoings surrounding the tobacco dealings of the local Armenian clique in the Tsebelda region, allegedly protected by Lakoba. The Georgian Central Committee delegates another committee, but at the same time an official from the All-Union Central Control Commission in Moscow, B.L. Tseitlin, takes an interest in some of the reports coming from Abkhazia and launches his own investigation. Given this new circumstance, the new Georgian commission, sensing the change in atmosphere, cooperates with Tseitlin, resulting in a much more vigorous approach to investigating the many allegations against Lakoba and his group. At the height of the confrontation in December 1929, Party General Secretary Iosef Stalin intervenes, offering some specific criticisms of Lakoba, but pointed out that Lakoba could not be replaced. Armed with this implicit support from Stalin, Lakoba is able to once again mobilize the support of his patrons in Tiflis in order to survive the onslaught following Tseitlin’s commission report.
