The union with Georgia was not popular among the Abkhaz populace or leadership. It was also received poorly in Georgia, where it was regarded as a ploy by the Bolsheviks to divert Georgian hostility from the authorities in Moscow towards the Abkhaz, as the Georgians were one of the most hostile groups towards the Bolsheviks. As the only "treaty republic" in the USSR, the exact status of the SSR Abkhazia concerned the Soviet and Georgian authorities, which did not want other regions to demand a similar status. To resolve this it was decided to downgrade Abkhazia, and on 19 February 1931 it was re-formed as the Abkhaz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, subservient to the Georgian SSR while remaining a member of the TSFSR. The move was met with public protests, the first large-scale protests in Abkhazia against the Soviet authorities.