Round Table—Free Georgia

Round Table—Free Georgia was an alliance of political parties led by Zviad Gamsakhurdia. The governing party of Georgia in 1990-1992. It played decisive role in the restoration of independence of Georgia.
The alliance traces its origins to the Georgian independence movement of the 1980s. On 11–13 March 1990 several Georgian political organizations with the aim of secession from Soviet Union held conference in Tbilisi to create coordinating body for the independence movement. Soon pro-Gamsakhurdia parties established alliance Round Table—Free Georgia, calling for a peaceful transition to independence through participation in the official elections, while others opted to set their own elections for an alternative legislative body, the National Congress. In October 1990 the Round Table—Free Georgia took part in the first multiparty parliamentary elections in Soviet Georgia, receiving 53,99% of the overall votes and gaining majority in the Supreme Council.
The alliance managed to declare independence of Georgia on 9 April 1991. Zviad Gamsakhurdia was elected as a first-ever president of Georgia on 26 May 1991. Soon Georgia was dragged into the civil war between pro- and anti-Gamsakhurdia forces, with Zviad Gamsakhurdia forced to flee in January 1992. The Supreme Council ceased functioning and some of its members took part in the subsequent military actions. In September 1993 the Round Table—Free Georgia members gathered in Zugdidi to re-establish the Supreme Council. After the death of Zviad Gamsakhurdia and defeat in civil war the alliance dissolved.
Political platform
Economic policy
On 26 August 1991, the President Zviad Gamsakhurdia approved the prime minister–designate Besarion Gugushvili, who presented his economic program to the Parliament in support of state capitalism. It argued in favor of transition from socialist planned economy but also denounced calls for implementation of shock therapy and mass privatization. It claimed that the "egoistic stimuls" of the privatized enterprises would lead them to be more inclined towards Soviet market, exacerbating the economic dependency on Soviet Union and creating contradiction between the private entities and the national state. It thus argued that these policies were imperialist tools of Mikheil Gorbachev to retain influence on the post-Soviet sphere. It warned that the nomenklatura, a bureaucratic elite of the Soviet system, was trying to take control of the economy through converting its "political and administrative capital" into the "economic capital". The program warned about the risks of adopting foreign models and called for creation of economic policy based on general principles of private entrepreneurship, market economy and privatization, but in conformity with Georgian spirit, characteristics and traditional values. The program supported state capitalism, indicative planning, mixed economy and other forms of statism. The state should activily be involved in economy, while private enterprises are allowed to exist, they would compete with state companies. The state involvement in the economy will ensure the welfare of the population. Thus, while the program opposed full-scale privatization, it still supported privatization, but the state and private sectors should develop harmonically. The program described the public sector as "a joint-stock company in which the whole nation is a shareholder and which is run by managers who are elected by the nation". The state sector should be run on democratic, national, patriotic principles, unlike the Soviet system, which was totalitarian and social-imperialistic tool of plundering the colonies like Georgia. The program warned against viewing mass privatization of public assets as the only instrument of creating private sector, arguing in favor of giving secured loans and using other instruments instead to encourage building new factories and enterprises, instead of giving away already existing ones which would be mismanaged due to lack of "traditions of care of private capital".
Pan-Caucasianism
The party promoted the concept of "Caucasian home", based on the idea of shared Ibero-Caucasian languages and common identity among autochthonous Caucasian nations, primarily Chechens, Abkhazians and Circassians. Turkic-speaking peoples and Armenians were not part of the project. It included a common economic zone, a Caucasian Forum and an alliance against foreign interference. It was basis of allegiance between Georgian President Zviad Gamsakhurdia and Chechen President Dzhokhar Dudayev.
Role of religion
Round Table was a christian nationalist party. In his inaugural speech, President Zviad Gamsakhurdia spoke about strengthening the role of religion and proposed an initiative to declare Orthodox Christianity the state religion.
List of parties
Georgian Helsinki Group (sakartvelos helsink’is k’avshiri)
All-Georgian Society of St. Ilia II the Righteous (sruliad sakartvelos ts’minda ilia martlis sazogadoeba)
All-Georgian Society of Merab Kostava (sruliad sakartvelos merab k’ost’avas sazogadoeba)
Union of Georgian Traditionalists (kartvel t’raditsionalist’ta k’avshiri)
Georgian National Front — Radical Union (sakartvelos erovnuli pront’i-radik’aluri k’avshiri)
Georgian National–Liberal Union (sakartvelos erovnul-liberaluri k’avshiri)
Georgian Christian–National Party (sakartvelos erovnul-krist’ianuli p’art’ia)
Electoral performance
Parliamentary election
Presidential election
References
1990 establishments in Georgia (country)
1993 disestablishments in Georgia (country)
Defunct political parties in Georgia (country)
Defunct political party alliances in Asia
Defunct political party alliances in Europe
Georgian nationalism
National conservative parties
Nationalist parties in Georgia (country)
Political parties disestablished in 1993
Political parties established in 1990
Political party alliances in Georgia (country)
Pro-independence parties in the Soviet Union
Right-wing parties
Social conservative parties