CHURCH-STATE RELATIONS IN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF GEORGIA (1918-1921)

Democratic Republic of Georgia (1918-1921) was one of the unique states in the first quarter of XX century. Despite the historical relations between the Church and the State in Georgia, the social-democratic government changed its official policy and chose French secularism, which was very unusual for the country. This was incorporated in the Constitution of 1921. This article is about the Georgian church-state relations during 1918-1921, the positive and negative aspects of the chosen form of secularism and the challenges that the newly independent State faced in the sphere of religious freedom until the Soviet occupation.


INTRODUCTION
The Democratic Republic of Georgia was one of the most interesting social-democratic experiments of the last century.During the three years of its existence, the Republic made huge reforms 1 , created an extraordinary Doctor of Law, Associate Professor, Vice-Rector of Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani University, Faculty of Law, Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani University, 3 Kalistrate Qutateladze St, Tbilisi, 0186, Georgia, e-mail: d.gegenava@sabauni.edu.ge.constitution 2 and made real the European democracy in East Europe.Unfortunately, Soviet Russia occupied the Democratic Republic of Georgia in 1921 and destroyed all the progressive ideas or results of reforms.
The Social-Democratic Party was the main ruling party of the State and had its own political course with idealistic and sometimes utopist ideas.In 1918-1921, the Georgian government tried to be more French than the French people could.Beside the past models of church-state relations 3 , the government implemented a radical model of secularism, with a strict and painful separation of the Church and the State.The parliament adopted this political direction in ordinary laws and even on the constitutional level.
Neither the religious entities nor the government had any intention to solve the problems in their relations.While there were confrontations, the State implemented a new model of church-state relations, which weakened religious organizations and then made it easy for the Bolsheviks to destroy them finally.IN 1918-1921   For many centuries, the Georgian State and the Orthodox Church were tightly connected with each other; moreover, the Christian Church was the main creator of the national ideology and Georgia, surrounded by Islamic countries, used it intensively as a tool against occupants 4 .This cooperation assumed different forms, sometimes the Church had priority over the State and sometimes the government had a dominant position.This model was very close to the Byzantine system of church-state relations called "Symphony" 5 .The Russian Empire occupied the Georgian kingdoms in the beginning of XIX century and implemented anti-nationalist politics against everything that was associated with independence 6 .In 1811, the Empire made an extraordinary decision -it abolished, against canon law, the Georgian Orthodox Church as an autocephalous institution, and merged it with the Russian Church. 7Since that moment, the restoration of the autocephaly and independence of the Georgian Church was not only a religious but also a national question.

RELIGION AND GEORGIAN CONSTITUTIONAL IDENTITY
In 1917, the Russian Empire fell and the Georgian political and religious leaders decided to restore the independence of the Georgian Church, because this fact would be the first sign and important step in restoring the sovereignty of all Georgia 8 .The Georgian political leaders, both Social Democrats and National Democrats in St. Petersburg, helped the Church leaders 9 .Their activities led to the following results: the Georgian spiritual and secular leaders made the Russian temporary government adopt a special rule on "The rights of the Georgian Church in the Russian State" and recognized the autocephalous status of the Georgian Church 10  the State budget and treasury and recognized it as the official inheritor of the Georgian Hexarchy 11 .The Russian government automatically gave the Georgian Church all monasteries, temples, properties of the former Hexarchy despite the Russian clergy's objections 12 .
The political leaders and parties knew that the State could not achieve political independence separately and every basic social institution had to be involved in the process.The Georgian Church was an important ideological mechanism which could unite the whole nation.In 1917, the first council of the Church took place and it announced the restoration of autocephaly and elected a patriarch 13 .The newly elected patriarch Kirion II officially declared the Church's goal -serving for the welfare of the State and helping people in the process of restoring national independence 14 .Symbolically, the spiritual leaders took part in the council meeting when the National Council declared the independence of Georgia 15 .After two days, on 28 May 1918, the Georgian Church declared 26 May (Independence Day) as an official feast of the Church 16 and created a special loyalty oath of citizens 17 , which aimed to support the State and guarantee the establishment of the rule of law 18 .

GEORGIAN GOVERNMENT AND RELIGIOUS POLICY
The Georgian Social Democrats did not trust churches and religious institutions.The Russian Church was one of the main ideological instruments of tyranny and official enemy of any democratic or liberal ideas in the Empire 19 .The Social Democrats tried to minimize the authority of the Church in the population and banish religious organizations from the everyday life of the society 20 .This policy became the official course of the government when the Social Democrats won the parliamentary elections and achieved an absolute majority.
The government's official policy on church-state relations was destructive and harmful not only for the religious organizations, but for the whole nation in general.It always caused confrontation between the Georgian Church and politicians between 1918-1921.Instead of making spiritual leaders and religious organizations partners in the fight against the Bolsheviks, the government weakened them and declared them unofficial enemies of the State.
In the beginning, during the period of the temporary government, the State budget had special clauses for funding the Church 21 , but this was changed after the restoration of independence.The national government 19  adopted a very strict religious policy and carried out actions that harmed religious organizations and religion generally: 1) on 13 September 1918, the National Council of Georgia abolished national divisions of seminaries in Tbilisi and Gori; the Government nationalized and reorganized seminaries of Khoni, Gori and Sokhumi as public schools22 ; the Ministry of Education subordinated all spiritual schools 23 ; 2) on 26 November 1918, the government prohibited teaching religion at all public and private schools 24 ; 3) on 3 December 1918, the Georgian Church was deprived of the rights of civil registry 25 ; 4) on 17 June 1919, the Founding Council (parliament) reduced rest days by annulling numbers of religious feasts 26 ; 5) on 21 May 1920, the government of the Democratic Republic of Georgia adopted a decree and expropriated treasure and property of the Church 27 ; the Church had objections on this point and demanded at least the return of its treasure (icons, crosses, etc.); the reaction of head of the government to the demands was as follows: "I will not bear a state in the State" 28 ; 6) the Republic interfered in the internal affairs of the Church, tried to define its basic directions and even influence its personnel policy 29 .
The Democratic Republic of Georgia carried out an agricultural reform.The government did not return the lands and retails expropriated by the Russian Empire, but also confiscated a certain amount of lands owned by the Georgian Church even during existence of the Hexarchy 30 .
The government annulled the Caucasian Synodal Cantor, which was the official organ of the Russian Church and Empire in Georgia, and this gave broad opportunities to the national Church for future operations 31 .In 1920, the Minister of Justice gave a special report on the condition of the Russian, Greek and Osetian Orthodox parishes in Georgia 32 .The Minister of Interior Affairs transferred them to the Georgian Church 33 , but it was for the benefit of the State to guarantee the unity and stability of State security.
In September-November of 1920, the State worked out a bill on "the Separation of Church and State".This bill was clearly anti-religious and against religious organizations.It consisted of 24 articles and it did not so much express the concept of State secularity as it involved the deprivation of all functions and rights from churches 34 .According to the bill, churches had to pay special additional taxes and a breach of this obligation was a criminal act 35 .
After serious debates, a special commission of the parliament adopted only 5 articles.They expressed the following ideas: 1) religious neutrality; 2) freedom of religion and conscience; 3) prohibition of funding religious organizations and religion from national or municipal budgets, except for salaries for priests in hospitals, jails or the army (this article made an exception for temples and religious buildings with a cultural heritage status); 4) granting religious organizations the right to create special entities for solving financial questions; 5) limiting the right to acquire legal personality to religious organizations that had only non-commercial, non-profitmaking goals were able to obtain the status of legal entities 36 .

ISSUES PERTAINING TO LAW ON RELIGION IN THE PROCESS OF DRAFTING THE CONSTITUTION
The Constitutional Commission of the parliament discussed the chapter on the Church and the State on 24 February 1919 37 .This part of the Constitution was one of the most clear and most extensively discussed and debated ones.Giorgi Naneishvili and Razhden Arsenidze presented two projects of the articles.Naneishvili's project intended implementation of French secularism (Laïcité) in Georgia, whereas Arsenidze's version was closer to liberal secularism.Arsenidze was against "radical" clauses and suggested to adopt the article from the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution to avoid the concretization of religious freedom 38 .The Social Democrats were in favour of Naneishvili's project and opted for State secularism 39 .
The Georgian Church and Partiarch Leonide supported separation, but were against the French model of secularism, that was so popu-lar in the Social Democrats 40 .The Church wanted to separate from the State, but collaborate in the future and implement the European model of church-state relations, which was more familiar to the people and in Georgian history.
The Social Democrats added a special article about funding religious organizations 41 .The National Democrats and independent members of the Constitutional Commission were against such clauses, but the Social Democrats had an absolute majority in the Commission and parliament, and therefore they passed the bill.

THE CONTENT OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS
Article 31 of the Constitution of Georgia declared freedom of conscience and religion 42 .This provision prohibited any prosecution or restrictions for reasons of religion 43 .It declared that everyone had the right to profess their own religion, to change their religion, or not to have any religious creed 44 .The Constitution separated religion from the sphere of interest of public authorities; according to the Basic Law, making use of religious freedom could not influence the scope of the civil rights or position of anybody 45 .
The Georgian Church was not against this formulation; the spiritual leaders, the patriarch and the Church generally always advocated tolerance to other religions at that time 46 .The Church, as the main religious institution and representative of the largest group of the society, was a guarantee for other religions and religious entities 47 .
XVI chapter of the Constitution of 1921 regulated church-state relations.The chapter consisted of three articles and constituted the main framework for institutional relations and religious policy.Article 142 provided a basic idea of separation of Church and State, and guaranteed the institutional independence and autonomy for religious organizations without any interference in their internal affairs.This was an ideal formulation of the modern secular norm, but unfortunately, the reality was quite different.The Social Democratic government fought against religious organizations and especially against the Georgian Orthodox Church as the symbol of the former government and Empire 48 .
The ruling party tried to implement the state policy in the organizational structures of the Church and involve public jurisdiction in it.In consequence, the Church was against it.The National Democrats and their followers supported the Georgian Church in the battle with the government 49 .But they were the opposition and political minority so they did not have an important influence on the ongoing political processes in the country.During the Second Council of the Church, on 27 June 1920, the participants discussed the separation of Church and State and the process of secularization 50 .The Georgian Church was not against its peaceful coexistence with the State and supported the idea of separation.In reality, the democratic separation was not implemented in the First Republic, because the government theoretically aimed to guarantee religious freedom and institutional separation, but in practice it also wanted to control all the processes inside religious organizations.
Article 143 was part of the State's secular policy and explicitly provided that "no confession or creed enjoys special privileges".This is a demonstration of religious neutrality on the constitutional level and underlines the importance of equality under the law in terms of religion.Unlike the first Constitution, the current Constitution of Georgia declares the historical role of the Georgian Church and gives it the privilege to regulate its relations with a special document -Constitutional Agreement (Concordat) 51 .
According to article 144, every state and municipal organs were prohibited to finance any religious organization for religious purposes.This provision is a classic norm of French secularism, which also prohibits transferring any kind of financial resources to religious entities.The Georgian Church was always a very strong and financially sustainable institution and it was not dependent on state funding: it had its property, lands, and donations from the people or nobility 52 .However, after implementing the anti-religious policy in the Democratic Republic of Georgia, the Church lost its property and the clergy did not have enough resources to live on.The situation was very dangerous for religious organizations and they were getting weaker and weaker as a result, which was the real goal of the government.Adopting this provision, the State cut the final resource for religious entities. 50Ibid, 593-594. 51

CONCLUSION
Every nation has its own way.On this way, everyone will meet one of the most important questions -how to organize church-state relations.In XXI century, the modern world knows: religion is a very personal category of human rights.Beliefs became a personal issue, but religious organizations, especially representatives of the majority, will find it difficult to accept their new functions and role in the society 53 .It is difficult even now, and we can only imagine how it was in 1918-1921.The Social Democratic government tried to implement the European ideology and principles in Georgia, but on the other hand, they did not realize the power of social institutions and traditions.It is impossible to overrule the ideas that used to be in practice for almost twenty centuries.
Reforming the State and society, the government of the Democratic Republic of Georgia declared war on religious institutions and pictured them as the most dangerous enemies.However, the reality was quite different.The real enemy was Bolshevism and the forces from the North.The national government seriously weakened religious organizations (but not religions), and the Communists easily finalized their work.In February-March of 1921, Soviet Russia broke the agreement and occupied the independent Georgia.Because of the strictly secular policy, neither the Georgian Church nor other organizations could fight against the conquerors.The Bolsheviks just ended the work of the national government: churches did not have their property, treasure, or any other material resources.Moreover, the incredible repressions and attempts to defeat the last citadel in the country -the people -began at the time.
Church-state relations in the Democratic Republic of Georgia are a good example how utopic ideas can be painful and harmful for the society.Any model of secularism must be based on historical, economic and social grounds, and while evolution is a very difficult process, it is always more effective and involves fewer victims than revolution or revolutionary actions.