The Role of the Kmara Youth Organization in the Preparation and Implementation of Georgia’s Rose Revolution

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to study the role of the Kmara youth organization in the preparation and implementation of the Rose Revolution, conducted in Georgia in the fall of 2003. The relevance of the research, which is being carried out on this topic for the first time in Russian historiography, lies in the need to analyze the destructive activities of youth movements during the color revolutions in order to prevent such negative scenarios on the territory of Russia, its allies and strategic partners. The article considerssuch issues asthe history of the creation of Kmara, the peculiarities of itstactics and strategy on the eve of the Rose Revolution, and the activities during the overthrow of Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze. The structures funded by George Soros, especially the Liberty Institute and the Open Society Georgia Foundation, played a huge role in the creation of this organization. Activists of the Serbian youth movement Otpor also had a significant influence. Thanksto funding from foreign structures and the advisory assistance of Otpor, Kmara quickly became an important actor in the Rose Revolution. Its main strategic task was to mobilize the protest electorate and to struggle against the political apathy of the population. The authors come to the conclusion that the role of Kmara in the preparation and implementation of the Rose Revolution is very significant, but in fact, the young activists were used skillfully by the organizers of the color revolution to seize power. After Shevardnadze's resignation, the new president and the government no longer felt the need for the youth structure, and in the absence of support from foreign sponsors, Kmara quickly sank into political oblivion.

Keywords

• color revolutions
• rose revolution
• georgia
• kmara
• eduard shevardnadze
• open society foundations
• gene sharp
• otpor
• youth movements