ABSTRACT
In December 1936, Beria invites Lakoba to dine with him in Tiflis (now renamed to Tbilisi), after which Lakoba suddenly dies. Lakoba had been in poor health, yet his unexpected death following his meal with Beria remains highly suspicious. Lakoba’s remains are returned to Abkhazia in a funerary train car that is met by crowds of thousands, a state funeral is held in his honor, and several streets and institutions are renamed for him in Abkhazia and in Tbilisi. Yet Beria appoints Lakoba’s nemesis Agrba as his replacement as the head of the Abkhazian government, and gradually attacks begin to appear against Lakoba’s clients in the press. Over the space of a few months these evolve into accusations of counterrevolution and Lakoba’s group, and then Lakoba himself, are labeled as “enemies of the people.” A public show trial is held in Sukhumi in November 1937 against 13 individuals, including some of Lakoba’s closest clients and relatives. This is Lakoba’s final trial, but one for which he was absent in person but permeated in spirit. Many of the old accusations were once again rehashed, but this time enhanced by the more salacious allegations of attempted assassination plots against Beria, Stalin, and the other Soviet leadership (some of them supposedly canceled because of rain). At the same time, many more of Lakoba’s former clients and relatives are unceremoniously removed from their positions, arrested, and often shot in secret. Beria installs his own clients in the leadership positions in Abkhazia, eager to take advantages of all of the patronage benefits that this small but richly endowed territory had to offer.
