The Experiment

A well-researched, well-written and engaging account ... a welcome and necessary addition to the literature.' * European History Quarterly *
This is an important book. It is the first study in English of the Menshevik government in Georgia between 1918 and 1921. * Chartist *
Lee provides a fascinating account of what the country briefly looked like under Menshvik rule and how this compared to the regime established by Georgia's most famous son, Stalin. * Europe Now *
As Lee reminds us, this Menshevik-dominated government backed free elections, freedom of the press, an independent judiciary, parliamentary rule and free trade unions. Perhaps its most impressive achievement was to carry out agrarian reform, allowing peasants to buy land at reasonable prices and not resorting to the catastrophic forced collectivization the Bolsheviks later employed. Visiting Georgia, a Western socialist like Karl Kautsky could declare it the "antithesis to Bolshevism." * New York Times *
Lee's gripping, well-researched Operation Basalt shines a bright light on a tiny, yet important, corner of World War II ...exciting and illuminating * Praise for Eric Lee's previous book Operation Basalt, Tampa Bay Times *
Riveting * Praise for Eric Lee's previous book Operation Basalt, Wall Street Journal *
An authentic and compelling read * Praise for Eric Lee's previous book Operation Basalt, Damien Lewis, best-selling author of The Nazi Hunters and Churchill's Secret Warriors *
A sympathetic, lucidly written and politically literate account of the first Georgian Republic, which makes exhaustive use of the accounts of foreign observers as well as some of the major leading figures. * Donald Rayfield, author of Stalin and His Hangmen *
Covering a crucial but strangely overlooked period in the fevered evolution of socialism, we've been waiting for this book for a long time. Fortunately, it arrives excellently written and researched. * Peter Nasmyth, author of Georgia: In the Mountains of Poetry *
In a clear and succinct style, Eric Lee paints a sympathetic portrait of this remarkable experiment in democratic socialism. Lee has brought this almost unknown story out of the shadows, giving it its proper place in the historiography of socialism and the Russian Revolution. * Stephen Jones, author of Socialism in Georgian Colors *