SUMMARY:

This article is a micro-study of a case of peasant rebellion in a peripheral region of the early Stalin-era Soviet Union that was dominated by an ethnically based local patronage network. Using primary source materials (especially secret police reports) from the Georgian party archives and from Nestor Lakoba’s personal archive, the article examines the significance of nationalism and ethnically constructed identity for peasant resistance under Stalinism within the context of imperial exceptionalism. The study explores the role of the center–periphery relationship in the attempts of the local leadership to accommodate the peasants’ demands and to resolve the incident peacefully, and also the resulting trajectory of the incident in local historical memory, in order to demonstrate the ways in which the complexity and diversity of the Soviet empire presented both challenges and opportunities for both the center and the periphery. In so doing, the study draws upon and consolidates recent approaches to peasant resistance, subjective mentality, and imperial diversity under Stalinism.