The August Uprising, 1924: The Georgian Anti-Soviet Revolt and the Birth of Democratic Socialism

by Eric Lee
Published by McFarland Books

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News

3 February 2026: Another positive review on GoodReads, from Natia Morbedadze -- see below.

25 December 2025: A superb review of the book by Professor Steve Davis -- see below.

23 December 2025: Second podcast interview -- this time with the Foreign Press Association USA. Watch it here on YouTube.

5 December 2025: A brilliant review of the book by Dr. Aidan McQuade - Read it here. There a video version of this here.

4 December 2025: More than 50 people come to central London for the first book launch event. The text of what the author said is available here.

3 December 2025: "Lee writes off the Bolsheviks as a whole. He is wrong to do this ..." The first hostile review appears -- as expected -- in Solidarity. Read it here.

30 November 2025: Great new review of the book appears - by Roger Darlington.

11 November 2025: Our podcast interview goes live on the New Books Network - listen to it here.

10 November 2025: Our first review on Amazon - and it's five stars.

8 November 2025: We did our first podcast interview -- and it's over an hour long! Details coming soon.

6 November 2025: Amazon.co.uk is now offering the book with a 13% discount.

19 October 2025: The Kindle edition of the book appears -- and it's considerably less expensive than the print edition. Download a free sample or buy the book from Amazon - United Kingdom or USA.

19 October 2025: Eric Lee's article, "Serendipity: the historian’s secret weapon", appears in Historia, the online magazine of the Historical Writers' Association.

9 October 2025: Official publication date.

About the book

For three years following the Russian Revolution, the small South Caucasian country of Georgia was a democracy, but Stalin later ordered the Red Army to invade and to bring the country back under Russian rule. Communist attacks on political opponents, trade unions, cooperatives, and even the church sparked resistance, and an armed uprising broke out across the nation in 1924. It was swiftly crushed, with massacres of thousands, including hostages. Social Democratic and Labor parties across Europe reacted with shock and indignation. Soviet opponents began to describe communism as “red fascism” and their own movement as “democratic socialism.” What followed—including Socialist support for the creation of NATO—resulted from the Georgian uprising and its aftermath. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine a century later, the long-forgotten Georgian experience seems more relevant than ever.

Reviews

Professor Steve Davis (USA)"In the runup to the Munich Crisis of 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain described what was occurring as “a quarrel in a faraway country, between people of whom we know nothing.” Something of great significance took place in a country even further and more obscure than Czechoslovakia when Georgians rebelled in August 1924 against Soviet rule. This excellent study by Eric Lee details what happened and why it matters. Georgia established its independence from Russia in 1918 and for the next three years, its ruling Social Democratic party modeled the true meaning of socialism with its commitment to free speech, land reform, union rights, and women’s suffrage. This important history is covered in The August Uprising and is the subject of Lee’s prior The Experiment: Georgia's Forgotten Revolution (2017). Russia’s Bolsheviks couldn’t tolerate such a democratic and therefore subversive example on its southern flank and the Red Army for that reason invaded Georgia and imposed Communist control in 1921.

The revolt led by Social Democrats and other opposition elements which is the main subject of this book lasted barely a week. Future Soviet secret police chief, Lavrenty Beria, crushed it with ruthless severity. Georgia would remain Communist until the collapse of the USSR. What was the importance then of this ill-fated uprising? It came at a crucial point when Socialist parties in Europe were trying to assess the meaning of the Bolshevik “revolution” (which Lee argues should more accurately be called a coup d’état) and their relationships with the resulting Communist parties, organizations that lauded the Russian example. Georgia’s fate clarified the fundamental difference between Russia’s Leninist/Stalinist dictatorship and the kind of democratic and egalitarian values that socialism inherently stood for. Indeed, Lee reveals that Georgian Social Democrats were among the first to assert that Soviet Communism in many respects resembled the kind of regime Mussolini established in 1922, terming it “red fascism” for this reason.

A few days from this writing, a democratic socialist named Zohran Mamdani will become New York City mayor. One prominent public figure, either as a result of gross ignorance or willful dishonesty, has called him a Communist. It’s too much to hope that people of that mindset will read this book and realize the errors of their language. But there are many other Americans, especially the sort of idealistic, “socialism-curious” youth inspired by Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who could read this invaluable history and learn from it. They should be strongly encouraged to do so."

Dr Aidan McQuade, UK: "What makes Lee’s account compelling is not simply its chronicling of another crushed national movement, but its portrayal of a deeper struggle, between democratic socialism and the totalitarian impulses that would consume it." read it here.

Paul Abbot, UK: "Lee writes off the Bolsheviks as a whole. He is wrong to do this ..." Read the full review in Solidarity here.

Roger Darlingon, UK: "Lee skilfully uses this 'small' event as a prism to shed light on major, contemporaneous shifts in the European balance between totalitarian communism and democratic socialism, a disruption in political tectonic plates that reverberates through to today when Russia and Ukraine present such different visions of how society should be run and other European powers have to decide whether and how to become involved." Read the full review here.

Roy Nitzberg, USA: "So, here it is: the first showdown between Soviet totalitarianism and an independent democratic state — the difference between Communism and Democratic Socialism. Now, a century later ... the distinction is still quite real." (Amazon.com)

Natia Morbedadze, Georgia: "A century has passed since 1924. Given the situation in the country, it is not surprising that this date has not been given much attention, although this does not apply to literature. An example of this is the new translation - a very interesting work by Eric Lee, in which the importance of the First Republic is especially emphasized, despite its short-term existence. Also noteworthy is Russia's fear of the birth of a democratic state next to it. Isn't that the case now? The same enemy is trying to break us from within and divert the attention of the West with the help of propaganda." [GoodReads - automated translation from the Georgian]

Oto Bakradze, Georgia: "Well, this work is like a kind of retelling of his previous book “The Experiment - Georgia's Forgotten Revolution, 1918-1921”. It often repeats many themes. However, the information about the uprising of 1924 and the failed unification of the Three Internationals was interesting." [GoodReads - automated translation from the Georgian]

Other books by Eric Lee

Britain's Plot to Kill Hitler: The True Story of Operation Foxley and SOE Greenhill Books, 2022

Night of the Bayonets: The Texel Uprising and Hitler's Revenge - April-May 1945 Greenhill Books, 2020

The Experiment: Georgia's Forgotten Revolution, 1918-1921 Bloomsbury / Zed Books, 2017

Operation Basalt: The British Raid on Sark and Hitler's Commando Order The History Press, 2016