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What did Lavrenty Beria write to Stalin?

Destructive policies continued for many years in Georgia. This
was apparent not only in wars and battles, but also in the area of
ideologically. The idea was introduced that Megrelians are not
Georgians and that Adjarians are a separate nation. In some cases
they have asserted that Svaneti was an independent part of
The letter of Lavrenty Beria is a clear example how Beria was
fought against such tendencies. Beria wrote to Stalin:
“The Adjarians separation and removal from the category of
Georgia is against Stalinist understanding. Adjarians and
Georgians have a common language, territory, cultural and
economic development.”
Adjarians are just as much Georgians as those of other religions.
There is little difference, they simply changed their beliefs in
the past. In this letter, Beria focused on the conclusions of
scientist about separation of the Georgian population into
different nations. According to the Academy of Sciences,
Georgians were divided into: 1) Georgians (Georgians,
Kakhetians, Meskhs, Klarjetians, Taos, Adjarians, Gurians,
Imeretians, Rachans, Lechkhumians), 2) Megrelians, 3) Chans, 4)
Svans, 5) Batsbis.
In 1937 the Institute of Linguistics made up a different
classification, according to which Lazis, Svans, Batsbis and
Adjarians were considered as a separate nations. According to
the Dictionary of Nations, Georgia consisted of Georgians
(Megrelians, Lazis, Svans, Batsbis) and Adjarians.
Beria asked Stalin to react immediately to this error in the
dictionary and to prevent the data from being sent Moscow for
processing, otherwise Adjara would be considered a separate
part of Georgia.
The Archive of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia