User:Dlesel777/sandbox

History
Leselidze village was founded in the 19th century as a settlement Ermolovsk (Ермоловск), named in honor of the Minister of Agriculture A.S.Ermolov who traveled to this place in 1894. Some authors linked the name of the settlement to General Ermolov (commander of the Caucasian war), but this presumption is apparently erroneous.

In 1944 the village was officially renamed in honor of the national hero Colonel-General Konstantin Leselidze (1903-1944) who fought in the Caucasus during the World War II. In the post-war years the village saw a lot of improvements, it was developed as a vacation site. A children's sanatorium was built as well as a resort and a sports training base. The base was favored by top Soviet athletes. Soviet Union national football (soccer) team and other Soviet football clubs trained there as well as handball players and track-and-field athletes. In 1975 a monument (created by Silovan Yakimovich Kakabadse) of K.N. Leselidze was erected in the village.

In September 1992, after the fall of Gagra during the Abkhazian war the Abkhazian separatist militias destroyed the monument along with other Georgian landmarks. They also came up with an Abkhazian name for Leselidze - Gyachrypsh. The name “Gyachrypsh” originated from the territory which was ruled by the Circassian prince named Gech or Gechkuaj. In historical literature there is a variation: “Gechiler” ( Circassian “Gech-chiler”). Under Abkhazian control the village is known to feature two all-inclusive resorts - "Gech" and "Laguna".

In the 90’s this area was severely victimized by a notorious Chechen militant and Islamist Shamil Basayev. A Russian general Gennady Troshev in his book "My War, Chechen diary of a trench General" described Basayev's activities in the vicinity of Leselidze thus: “The trademark of Basayev’s 'janissaries' (numbering around 5000) in that war was senseless cruelty. In autumn of 1993 in the vicinity of Gagra and the village Lеselidze 'the commander' personally led a punitive action for the extermination of refugees. Several thousand Georgians were killed, hundreds of Armenian, Russian and Greek families slaughtered. According to the accounts of miraculously survived eyewitnesses, the gangsters took pleasure in videotaping the scenes of abuse and rape.”