ABSTRACT
By the early 1930s, Lakoba continued to cultivate his relationship with Beria and makes the fateful decision to use his influence with Stalin to support Beria’s candidacy to take over the leadership positions in the Transcaucasus and Georgian Party leadership, effectively displacing Orjonikidze. Beria’s clients (including many from the secret police) take over the positions held by Orjonikidze’s people to take control over the Caucasian network. Meanwhile, with Stalin’s “revolutions from above” in full force, Lakoba’s position in Abkhazia becomes directly threatened by the collectivization of agriculture, which undermines the lucrative market in tobacco and impinges on the interests of Lakoba’s client network. The peasants of Lakoba’s home district of Gudauta, his core constituency, stage a mass revolt against collectivization in February 1931, appealing to Lakoba for assistance and reminding him of the mutual oaths they had all taken as part of Kiaraz. Lakoba is able to defuse the situation, but the ever-increasing targets for requisitions of crops bind him into an impossible situation. Lakoba’s relationship with Beria begins to founder, as the latter resents Lakoba’s authority in his district and his close relationship with Stalin. Understanding that a key to Lakoba’s power was his ability to place a close client in the position of Abkhazian Party secretary, Beria strikes a severe blow against Lakoba in early 1936 by removing Lakoba’s man and inserting his own client, Lakoba’s old rival Aleksei Agrba, in that position.
