Red Hundreds

armed detachments of revolutionary peasants in Georgia formed during the Revolution of 1905–07.

The Red Hundreds were led by revolutionary Social Democrats and were organized to fight government troops and the Black Hundreds of the dvorianstvo (nobility and gentry). The Red Hundreds first appeared during the spring of 1905 in the Ozurgeti, Gori, Senaki, and Rachin districts. Among the organizers and leaders of revolutionary detachments were M. Z. Bo-choridze, S. G. Buachidze, A. G. Dolidze, N. V. Dolidze, T. G. Zhgenti, S. K. Lezhava, A. A. Merkviladze, G. K. Ord-zhonikidze, V. N. Sturua, S. A. Ter-Petrosian, V. G. Khoz-beridze, and other Bolsheviks.

The Red Hundreds disarmed police and gendarmes, expropriated treasury funds for the needs of the revolution, and liberated political prisoners. In Guria and other parts of Georgia the peasants, with help from the Red Hundreds, created elective organs of popular rule, drove out the landlords, seized their lands, and maintained revolutionary order. During November and December 1905 the Red Hundreds played a major role in armed revolutionary uprisings in the Gori, Dusheti, Senaki, and Shorapan districts. They participated in the workers’ uprisings in Tbilisi, Kutaisi, Poti, and Sochi. On Dec. 17, 1905, insurgent workers, together with the Red Hundreds, took control of nearly all the territory of Upper Imeretia. During 1906 and 1907, while the revolution waned and punitive expeditions were active, some units of the Red Hundreds carried on partisan warfare.