A federal-state entity that existed in Transcaucasia in 1918. The Transcaucasian Commissariat which preceded the Transcaucasian DFR was established in Tiflis on November 15, 1917, as a temporary supreme authority in Transcaucasia that operated until March 1918.

 

After the October coup of 1917, the representatives of the Social Democratic Party of Georgia (Mensheviks) and the Dashnaktsutyun, Musavat, and Socialist Revolutionary Parties held a meeting of local public organizations in Tiflis on November 11, 1917, which decided not to recognize the power of the Council of People’s Commissars in Petrograd and create an Independent Government of Transcaucasia. The head of this authority, which was called the Transcaucasian Commissariat, was the Georgian Menshevik Evgeny Gegechkori. The Commissariat supported the idea of an All-Russian Constituent Assembly and took a fully hostile position towards the Bolsheviks. In January 1918, the disarmament of revolutionary military units returning from the Caucasian Front began upon his instruction. This policy led to the massacres of soldiers (up to 2 thousand people) at the Shamkhor station in the Yelizavetpol region (Ganja) by the Tatar (Azerbaijan) armed groups (The Shamkhor Massacre).

 

On February 10, 1918, the Transcaucasian Commissariat of the deputies elected to the Constituent Assembly from the Transcaucasia convened the Transcaucasian Sejm (chairman Nikolay Chkheidze). The very fact of the convocation of the Regional Sejm testified to the process of separation of Transcaucasia from Russia. On the opening day of the forum in Tiflis, an opposition rally was shot by order of the authorities. On March 26, 1918, the Sejm accepted the resignation of the Transcaucasian Commissariat, formed the Provisional Transcaucasian Government, and on April 22, 1918, proclaimed the establishment of the Transcaucasian DFR.

 

The key roles in the Sejm were represented by the Georgian Mensheviks, Armenian Dashnaks, and Azerbaijan Musavatists. The supreme authority of the Transcaucasian DFR was the Transcaucasian Sejm, whose chairman with the rights of the president was the Georgian Menshevik Nikolay Chkheidze. The representatives of the Dashnaks and Musavatists became his two deputies. As the head of the government of the Transcaucasian DFR became Akaki Chkhenkeli (Minister-Chairman, Minister of Foreign Affairs). Officially, the Transcaucasian DFR was a parliamentary republic. The Constitution of the Transcaucasian DFR was never adopted due to contradictions between the three main factions of the Transcaucasian Sejm.

 

The key domestic political problem of the Transcaucasian DFR was the Soviet government formed at the end of April in Baku (the Baku Commune) and headed by the Bolshevik Stepan Shaumyan. In the field of foreign policy, the government of the Transcaucasian DFR did not recognize the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk of 1918. Having no capacity to repel the forces of the Ottoman Empire, it negotiated with the Empire in Batum in May 1918. The Transcaucasian delegation recognized the empire’s protectorate over the Ardahan, Batumi, Kars regions. Despite negotiations, Turkish forces took Alexandropol on May 25. In this critical situation, Azerbaijan, Armenian, and Georgian delegates started to negotiate with the Ottoman Empire separately. The political leaders of the three main peoples of Transcaucasia spoke in favor of the establishment of separate nation states. The Democratic Republic of Georgia was founded on May 26, the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was founded on May 27 and the Republic of Armenia was founded on May 28. Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic ceased to exist.