The Red Army invasion of Georgia, also known as the Soviet-Georgian War, was a military campaign by the Russian SFSR's Red Army aimed at overthrowing the Menshevik government of the Democratic Republic of Georgia and installing a Bolshevik regime in the country.
After the 1917 February Revolution, Georgia effectively became independent from the former Russian Empire. Georgia briefly joined with Armenia and Azerbaijan in forming the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic, but left after one month and formed the Democratic Republic of Georgia on 26 May 1917. By early 1920, local Bolsheviks were actively fomenting political unrest in Georgia, and the Bolshevik regime in Moscow planned to sovietize the Caucasus while the Allies were distracted with the Turkish War of Independence. In April 1920, the Soviets invaded and annexed Azerbaijan, and Bolshevik leader Sergo Ordzhonikidze planned to advance on Georgia without orders, hoping to support a Bolshevik coup attempt there. On 7 May 1920, the Russian SFSR recognized Georgian independence with the Treaty of Moscow. However, the Soviets covertly planned to invade and sovietize Georgia in the future due to Georgia's control of strategic routes from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea and its ties to several European nations, and, by the start of 1921, the end of the Polish-Soviet War, the defeat of the White Russian general Pyotr Wrangel, the fall of Armenia to the Red Army, and the British Army expeditionary corps' evacuation from the Caucasus enabled the Soviets to prepare an invasion of Georgia.
In early February 1921, the Soviets engineered a Bolshevik revolt in Georgia, and Red Army units from the Armenian SSR came in to support the uprisings without orders from Moscow. On 14 February, Odrzhonikidze and Joseph Stalin - a fellow Georgian who wholeheartedly supported the overthrow of the nationalist regime in Georgia - received the consent of Vladimir Lenin to advance into Georgia to support the "peasants and workers rebellion" in the country.
On 16 February, the main body of the Red Army crossed into Georgia and mounted an offensive against the Georgian capital of Tbilisi. The Georgian army put up a stubborn defense of the approaches to the capital, and the Red Army entered the city on 25 February and created the Georgian SSR. The Georgian army regrouped at Mtskheta, but the fall of Tbilisi demoralized the Georgian army and caused it to disintegrate. On 28 February, the French Navy provided fire support to the Georgians, but did not land troops to support the Georgians. The Reds, joined by Abkhazian peasant militias, captured Sukhumi on 4 March 1919 and Poti on 14 March. A Red Army surprise attack foiled the Georgians' attempt to hold out near Kutaisi, and the Soviets also took Kutaisi on 10 March. At the same time, the Turks sent troops to the border to protect the Muslim inhabitants of Georgia from the Soviets. The Soviets were held up by the Armenian February Uprising in Yerevan and a Dagestani uprising, and, on 16 March 1921, the Turkish authorities proclaimed the annexation of Batumi, whilst also signing a treaty of friendship with the Soviets. On 18 March, the Turks and Russians agreed to a deal under which Turkey annexed Ardahan and Artvin, and Batumi was returned to Georgia. On 19 March, the Soviets captured Batumi, ending Georgian independence, and, on 13 October 1921, the Treaty of Kars formally granted Artvin, Ardahan, and Kars to Turkey, while the Muslim Georgian population of Batumi was given political autonomy by the Soviets as part of the Adzharian autonomous republic within the Georgian SSR.