Raymond Duguet – Chronicler of the Last Days of the First Georgian Republicand Primary Sources Used by Him

Abstract

Raymond Duguet as a journalist and writer became known to the Georgian reader only in 1994, when his
book “Moscou et la Géorgie Martyre” was published in Georgian translation (Originally it was printed in 1927 in
French). Even ater 64 years of political ban (Georgia regained independence in 1991), Duguet’s book remained
a valuable source on the invasion of Russian Bolsheviks into Georgia. Of special interest are military actions
described in detail. Speculations began about the author’s possible presence in Georgia in 1921. Lately, certain
authors even suggested exact time of his stay in the country. In general, most of the details of R. Duguet’s
biography are not known to European readers.
I attempted to reconstruct R. Duguet’s biography from the scattered sources. I have collected accounts
about his occupation and activities from newspaper and journal articles published in France, USA and Luxსურ. 2 ეხტერნახის სასაფლაოზე (ლუსემბურგი) რ. დიუგეს
საფლავის ქვის ეპიტაფია
૰ොො෢૰ ૰ො მირიანაშვილი
emburg, as well as from an interview with Nano d’Abo, daughter of a legendary Georgian General Giorgi Kvinitadze, Commander in Chief of the Georgian army during the war with Russia in 1921, taped by me on 17 July
1996 in Tbilisi.
It turned out that R. Duguet had never set foot in Georgia. His book about the country was inspired by his
meeting with representatives of Georgian immigration in France. Details about military actions were obtained
primarily from conversations with General G. Kvinitadze. As it turned out, both R. Duguet and G. Kvinitadze
lived in a commune Chatou, suburb of Paris, and used to visit each other to discuss the events of 1921.
Identification and analysis of scattered sources made it possible to reconstruct a more or less complete
biographical history of Raymond Duguet, who was one of the first authors to show the face of fanatic and
brutal Russian Bolsheviks, and to reveal atrocities committed by them against own and neighbouring people,
including the Georgians.