Stalin and Beria Wanted the Black Sea, Not Georgia

2026-10-03

Yet another myth regarding Stalin and Beria needs to be dispelled:

"Stalin and Beria wanted to reclaim Georgian lands."

Indeed, Beria was actively grooming future district committee secretaries for Turkey, as well as a future president of the country. The objective was the Sovietization—the "reddening"—of Turkey.

Certainly—such a plan did indeed exist.

However, this was by no means an act of concern for Georgia.

Stalin and Beria’s goal was the geopolitical strengthening of the empire.

A Sovietized Turkey, fully subservient to Moscow, would have meant the Soviet Union gaining total dominance over the Black Sea.

The Black Sea is a super-strategic geopolitical space within the Eurasian continent.

When the Ottoman Empire seized control of the Black Sea, the Silk Road order came to an end. That was precisely when our country’s fragmentation and troubles began.

From that time on, Georgia found itself outside the geopolitical order—relegated to a geopolitical "back alley"—a state of affairs that ultimately led to our enslavement by the empire. Stalin and the "Red Empire" aimed to dominate the Black Sea, not to "shed tears" over Georgia.

In other words, Moscow intended to completely block the trade routes stretching from Europe to Asia, thereby dictating its political will to Europe.

This meant that we—and other nations—would have lost any chance of ever breaking free from that bloodthirsty empire.

Furthermore, it would have spelled the total collapse of Western democracies.

That is why the West, led by the democrat Truman, fiercely resisted this plan.

The detonation of the American atomic bomb over Hiroshima was an attempt to curb the geopolitical ambitions of the Soviet Union and Stalin.

Subsequently, Turkey became a NATO member, and the Stalin-Beria plan ultimately failed.

Control over the Black Sea was divided between the Soviet Union and the West on a parity basis, ushering in a post-war peace.

This was known as the "peaceful coexistence of the two systems." Today, Moscow is waging war against Ukraine precisely because of Ukrainian Crimea and the Black Sea coast—in a bid to somehow maintain its geopolitical positions in the Black Sea region.

However, the global and continental geopolitical orders have already changed.

What Moscow was geopolitically capable of achieving a century ago is completely out of the question today.

Democratic Europe will no longer cede the Black Sea, while the Eastern Partnership signifies the full liberation of Eastern Europe and the restoration of the Silk Road.

A unified Georgia poses a serious and paramount geopolitical threat to the Moscow empire. Moreover, Georgia acts as the geopolitical "gravedigger" of the Moscow empire. Georgia serves as a counter-alternative to Moscow for connecting Europe and Asia. Within the order of the New Silk Road, the "body" of the Georgian state will be fully restored.

Teimuraz Zakradze
Institute for Harmonious Globalization and Governance