the National Democratic Party of Georgia and helped organize national cavalry units early in 1918. After Georgia declared its independence as a Democratic Republic in May 1918, Cholokashvili was put in charge of a squadron in the Cavalry Division of the People's Guard of Georgia commanded by Colonel Giorgi Khimshiashvili. In this capacity, Cholokashvili served in the campaigns against Armenia (December 1918 – January 1919), White Russian forces (February–October 1919), pro-Bolshevik rebels in Gori (November–December 1919), and in a raid in the Batumi Oblast (February–March 1920). In April 1920, Cholokashvili and several of his fellow officers were dismissed from service after they protested against what they saw an unjustified dismissal and arrest of their colleague on criminal charges. When the Soviet Russian Red Army invaded Georgia in February 1921, Cholokashvili was still negotiating his return to the army. He accompanied General David Chavchavadze to western Georgia to recruit volunteers for the Georgian cavalry. By the time they formed two cavalry squadrons and took to the field, Tiflis had fallen and a Soviet republic had been proclaimed in Georgia. In March 1921, the Georgian government and military leadership sailed in European exile; Cholokashvili remained in Georgia. Partisan leader As the Soviets pushed for the efforts to consolidate their power in Georgia, an underground opposition movement emerged. In February 1922, Cholokashvili was arrested by the Soviet security agents on charges of "counter-revolutionary activities" in Sighnaghi in his native Kakheti, but he escaped and took to the mountainous Pankisi Valley, where he formed a group of followers known as the Band of Sworn Men (შეფიცულთა რაზმი) and joined the rebellious Khevsur mountaineers. The Bolsheviks used air force and artillery to squash the uprising. With Chechnya as his refuge, Cholokashvili and his guerrillas held out for two years. Revenge killings of the Soviet secret police executioners made him a folk hero. Foreign diplomats reported that "the affair of Chelokaev" was a source of much trouble for the Bolshevik military leaders. The Soviet officialdom and historians referred to the movement as "political banditry". In his 1976 study of the Georgian revolt, the Soviet Russian historian Trifonov wrote that "the most numerous and dangerous band was that of Chelokaev. In the fall of 1922 it consisted of about 500 persons." In August 1924, Cholokashvili left his mountainous refuge once again to join a larger anti-Soviet uprising in Georgia. He took command of the single largest rebel