Accession of Georgia to the Russian Empire. Some facts

Georgia has always been a tasty morsel for conquerors due to its advantageous geographic location. Throughout history, its territories have changed hands - here was Rome, Byzantium, Turkey, Persia. Constant wars and attacks from neighbors forced the country to look for an ally. The entry of Georgia into the Russian Empire saved the country of Transcaucasia from destruction.

background

In 1453, after the fall of Byzantium, Georgia found itself in the middle of two powerful neighboring powers - Iran and Turkey. The borders of the country were constantly shifting, people were forcibly converted to the Muslim faith, taken into slavery. Georgia was so drained of blood that for centuries it could not get out of its plight. The result was political chaos - by the end of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th centuries, Georgia broke up into kingdoms, each of which was the possession of princes:

• Kartli;
• Imeretinskoye;
• Kakhetian;
• Principality of Samtskhe-Saatabago,

Constant attacks from neighbors and internal unrest forced the leaders of Georgia to look for allies. The history of Russian-Georgian relations dates back to the 11th-12th centuries, when the countries fruitfully cooperated in the political, economic and cultural fields.

In 1480, Russia was able to throw off the Tatar-Mongol yoke - this fact hastened Georgia to establish allied relations. In 1491, the first step towards rapprochement was made - the king of Kakheti, Alexander, sent ambassadors to the Grand Duke of Moscow, Ivan III.

Networking

Attempts to establish diplomatic ties between Russia and the eastern Georgian principalities took place several times:

• In 1589, Tsar Fedor I offered his help and protection to the Georgian kingdom. However, in reality, Russia at that time was too far away to compete with Turkey and Iran in the Caucasus.
• When Peter I was on a Persian campaign in 1722, he agreed on an alliance with King Vakhtang VI of Kartli. However, it turned out that the army was not ready for such exploits, and the Russian troops retreated, leaving Kartli without protection from Iran.
• The king of Kartli and Kakheti, Erekle II, the successor of Vakhtang VI, having ascended the throne, again turned to Russia. Catherine II needed an ally against Turkey, but she did not plan to send a large army to Georgia. In 1762-1772 a small detachment joined Georgia and fought on its side against the Ottomans.
• In 1783, Heraclius again turned to Catherine, offering to take Kartli and Kakheti under his protection. Then, in the fortress of St. George, the Treaty of St. George was signed - a document that guaranteed the military protection of Russia in exchange for a protectorate over the kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti. However, in 1787, Heraclius violated one of the terms of the treaty and signed a peace treaty with Turkey without the consent of an ally. In response, Russia sent its troops, and in 1795 the Persian Shah Agha Mohammed Khan Qajar entered Georgia and ravaged Tbilisi.
• After the death of Erekle II, a war for the throne began in Georgia. One of the applicants, George XII, turned to Paul I and asked for Russian citizenship for his country. On January 8, 1801, a decree was signed on the accession of Kartli and Kakheti to Russia.

In what year did Georgia finally become part of the Russian Empire?

Manifesto signing

After the assassination of Paul, Alexander I came to power, who was in no hurry to make a final decision on the annexation of Georgia. The advisers convinced the monarch that there were only two ways: to give the country complete freedom or to annex and make it his province. The question was whether Georgia could exist on its own. In order to find out, Count Knorring was sent to Tbilisi. Upon his return, he issued a negative verdict - he could not, which allowed him to make the final decision to annex Georgia. The count remained as the first representative of the Russian authorities.

The manifesto on the voluntary entry of Georgia into Russia was signed on September 12, 1801. On April 12, 1802, the document was read at the Sioni Cathedral in Tbilisi.

Land expansion

Thanks to joining Russia in 1805, Georgia was saved from the attack of the Iranian army on Tbilisi. In 1810, Imereti became part of Russia as a result of the suppression of the resistance of Solomon II, the head of the kingdom. Thanks to the conquests of the Russian army during Russian-Turkish wars from 1803 to 1878, lost Georgian lands, provinces joined back - Batumi, Akhalkalaki, Akhaltsikhe, etc. The territory also expanded due to the annexation of the lands of neighboring Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Society

At the beginning of the 19th century, the country of Transcaucasia became part of Russia, having the structure of a feudal society:

• were at the head royal families(they were expelled with the advent of Russian power);
• at the next level was the nobility, which accounted for about 5% of the population, in its hands was most of the land;
• serfs, the largest group of the population;

The Russian authorities sought to integrate Georgia into the empire. The societies of the two countries united:

• orthodoxy;
• the presence of serfdom;
• class of landowners.

The entry of Georgia into Russia equalized the rights of the peoples. The aristocracy accepted this fact with discontent - it turned out that in the territory with a population of 300 thousand people there are a little less than in the rest of Russia with a population of 50 million. Almost all Georgian nobility goes to the service of the state. Many are related to famous Russian families.

culture

If before inclusion into Russia the cultural orientation of Georgians was directed towards Eastern traditions, now it is towards Western, Russian and European ones. A new direction appears - "tergdaleuli". It unites Georgians who have visited Russia and imbued with its ideas. Ilya Chavchavadze, an outstanding Georgian writer, acts as its head. The progressive youth join the flow.

In the 19th century, Russification of surnames and given names took place on a large scale. After the inclusion of Georgia, a special attitude of Russians towards Georgians begins to take shape - they are perceived as a kindred and friendly people. Many Russian poets visited the country and then sang in their poems. V.Yu. was imbued with special love. Lermontov.

Abolition of serfdom

In Russia, serfdom was abolished in 1861. An obstacle to its abolition in Georgia was the fear of losing the loyalty of the Georgian nobility, whose well-being directly depended on serf labor. The abolition of serfdom in Georgia took place against the backdrop of an intensified class struggle. The decree on the release of the first peasants was signed on October 13, 1865, but serfdom finally left only in 1870. People became free and had the right to:

• free movement;
• marriage at will;
• implementation of political activities;
• obtaining land ownership after payment of compensation for it.

The landowners retained the right to all their land, part of it remained in full ownership, and the rest was leased to the peasants who lived on it for many years. Both peasants and landowners met the reform with distrust. The former were dissatisfied with the need to buy land, which threatened to drag on for decades, while the latter lost part of their income (although the conditions for them were better than in Russia itself).

Church

In 1811, the Georgian Church lost its independence and was annexed to the Russian Orthodox Church. The church-feudal organization in Georgia had the following features:

• monasteries and churches had their own lands and serfs;
• financing came from taxes and taxes that were imposed on the serfs.

Under the new regime, the property of the churches was transferred to the treasury, and the ministers were given salaries.

Confrontations

Part of the nobility longed for the restoration of the Georgian monarchical statehood and the return of power to the Bagration dynasty. Young nobles organized a conspiracy, the purpose of which was to overthrow the Russian government in Georgia. The plan was to organize a ball for which the conspirators intended to gather all representatives of the royal government in order to subsequently kill them. On December 10, 1832, the plot was uncovered.

The attitude towards the Georgians, even in this case of open confrontation with the authorities, was condescending. The rebels went virtually unpunished. They were exiled to prosperous provinces, and a few years later they were pardoned with the restoration of their rights. Many of them went on to have brilliant careers.

In 1841 there was an uprising of peasants in Guria. Among the reasons were:

• willfulness of officials;
• tax oppression;
• the introduction of a new monetary system of taxation, according to which taxes were to be collected in money, and not in kind, as was previously practiced.

More than 7 thousand peasants captured the fortified places and defeated the tsar's detachment under the leadership of Colonel Brusilov. The government of the region passed into the hands of the instigators. Despite successes, the rebellion was eventually crushed by the forces of local noble militias and regular troops.

Early 20th century

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Russia is weakening:

• loses the war with Japan in 1905;
• political unrest begins, in which many new parties and movements are created, from 1901 to 1911 about 17 thousand people became victims of revolutionary terror;
• the First World War begins, losses at the front are growing, the army is falling apart;
• a series of revolutions and uprisings begins in the country, Nicholas II is abdicated from the throne.

In 1917, after the February Revolution, power in Georgia passed to the Special Transcaucasian Committee. Russian soldiers from Tbilisi began to return to their homeland, Georgia was left without the control of the army, as a result of which power passed to the Mensheviks. They did not recognize the October Revolution and raised the issue of Georgia's independence from Russia. In May 1918, the Georgian Democratic Republic was formed, which lasted only three years, until 1921.

Conclusion

The voluntary entry of Georgia into the Russian Empire allowed the Transcaucasian country to escape from an external threat, preserve its territorial and state integrity, and also retain the Orthodox faith. However, a lack of understanding of the national characteristics of the country during Russian rule led to a growing national movement and uprisings. Today, relations between Georgia (Georgia) and the Russian Federation (Russian Federation) after the 2008 conflict remain difficult, but the first steps are gradually being taken to normalize the traditionally good relations of neighboring countries.

History of relations between Georgia and Russia

Russia and Georgia have been on friendly terms for a very long time, practically since the Middle Ages. The countries were united primarily by religion, but it was still too early to talk about joining, because. Russia was developing Siberia and was preoccupied with difficulties with the West.

However, Georgia suffered greatly from the pressure of Persia and the Ottoman Empire. These states behaved aggressively, seized Georgian territories, and the country was in danger of losing sovereignty and forcibly converting to Islam. Therefore, Georgia asked for help from Russia, which resulted in the dispatch of troops in $ 1594. This campaign failed, partly due to the indecision of the Georgian side, but to a greater extent due to the small size of the detachment and the difficulty of overcoming the territory, it was necessary to pass the Dagestan lands.

After the failure, Georgia was left alone, surrounded by hostile neighbors. As a result, a single state actually broke up into separate kingdoms (principalities), although the dynasty Bagrationov still retained some influence over them. These petty feudal kingdoms were at war with the Muslim Porte and Persia.

Attempts to join in the XVIII century.

Peter I made another attempt to help Georgia, during Persian campaign making an alliance with the king Vakhtang VI, but this time the attempt failed. Vakhtang VI had to flee from Georgia, and his kingdom was one on one with Persia.

Only Catherine II was able to bring Russian troops into the territory of Georgia in $1769$ after concluding an agreement with kings Erekle II and Solomon on an alliance in the fight against Ottoman Empire.

In $1774$, after the end of the Russian-Turkish war, was signed Kyuchuk-Kainajir Treaty, according to which the Turks left Imereti. Russia, on the other hand, entrenched itself on the sea and in the Crimea. However, Catherine II did not plan to completely take over Georgia, so, in $ 1783, she offered Heraclius II, the King of Kartli-Kakheti, an agreement on vassalage. This was Georgievsky treatise, according to it, Russia pledged to protect Eastern Georgia from attacks and sent a standing army there, and Tsar Erekle II swore allegiance to the service of Catherine II.

It should be noted that after $2$ of the year, Irakli II signed a separate peace with the Ottomans, violating the Treaty of Georgievsk, and the Russian troops left Georgia. As a result, in $1795$ Tbilisi was ruined by the Iranian Shah.

Accession of Georgia to Russia

After the death of Heraclius II, a struggle with the throne began, and in general, it was clear that without the help of Russia, Georgia could not resist. In $1800, a delegation arrived in St. Petersburg from one of the contenders for the throne, George XII, who asked to accept the Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti as part of Russia. Paul I granted his request, in December it was published Manifesto on the accession of Georgia to Russia. George XII retained the title for life. But this decision was on paper, but in reality the process dragged on. Alexander I, who replaced Paul I, did not appreciate the Manifesto; he violated the Treaty of Georgievsky, which assumed only a protectorate of Russia. But, given the expectation of the government and the Georgians, the emperor signed the decree.

Remark 1

It is generally accepted that Georgia became part of Russia in $1802, after the reading of the Emperor's Manifesto in Tbilisi. The country began to develop quite quickly, because. the external threat has passed. Most of the people supported joining Russia.

Tsar George XII died in the same $1800, and the general Lazarev I.P. headed the government, removing the sons of the late king from the throne. The princes left for Russia, but their mother, the tsar's widow, Mariam Tsitsishvili refused to leave. She stabbed General Lazarev I.P. dagger. The people were afraid of Russia's revenge, but Alexander I acted relatively gently, Queen Mariam and her daughter Tamara were sent to one of the Belgorod monasteries.

The secret committee tried to dissuade Alexander I from signing the annexation of Georgia, believing that this was not a matter of paramount importance, and the emperor should deal primarily with internal problems. Nevertheless, Emperor Alexander I insisted on his own, believing that the annexation of Georgia would strengthen Russia.

"Whoever does not remember his past is doomed to relive it."
(George Santayana)

Everyone knows the Soviet version of the annexation of Georgia (1) to Russia: in such and such a year the age-old dream of the Georgian people came true - they fraternized with the Russian people. The Georgian people chose this path voluntarily and with joy, because now they could not be afraid of aggressive neighbors, and in general “God's grace descended” on them immediately. The complete idyll was a little hampered by the capitalist exploitation of the workers, which ceased with the advent of Soviet power.
This version was not questioned during the times of the USSR, it is still very popular in the former territories of the Union
But times are changing. New sources of information related to those events become available, questions and doubts arise.
For example, if Georgia voluntarily became part of Russia, then why Russian emperor Alexander I treated the inclusion of Georgian lands in the Russian Empire as theft, calling it "unfair appropriation of foreign land" (2)?
Or why did the historians of tsarist Russia call the actions of the Russian Empire in Georgia “occupation” and “incorporation” (3)? Is that what they do with brothers?
Now that the new circumstances of those events are becoming known, it becomes possible to take a fresh look at the entire history of Georgia's accession to Russia.

The 18th century was decisive for the fate of Georgian statehood. At the beginning of this century, Georgia was split into three kingdoms: Kartli, Kakheti and Imereti and several other territories, mainly principalities. But the preservation of the ancient royal dynasty of Bagrations at the head of the Georgian kingdoms gave hope for the revival and unification of Georgia.
The relative military lull established in these years allowed the inhabitants of the Georgian lands to engage in the restoration of peaceful life. The capital of the Kingdom of Kartli, Tbilisi, has become the economic and cultural center of the region.
Certain hopes for help and protection were also placed by the Georgians on Russia of the same faith.
Georgian politicians, scientists, nobility, merchants often came to Moscow on business or seeking asylum. Since the end of the 17th century, there was a Georgian settlement in the Moscow region, a Georgian printing house worked.
In 1721, the Russian Tsar Peter I began to prepare a military campaign, later called the Persian. According to Peter, for the success of the campaign, it was necessary to enlist the support of the Kartli king Vakhtang VI, who was a vassal of Persia.

Peter was extremely interested in the help of the Georgian king, because the Georgian troops were famous for their high fighting qualities. According to the Astrakhan governor-general Volyntsev, “in all of Persia, the best troops are Georgian, against which the Persian cavalry will never stand, even if it had a triple numerical superiority” (5).
According to a mutually agreed plan, Russian troops were supposed to enter Transcaucasia through Derbent, unite there with the Georgian and Armenian troops and, after joint hostilities, spread Russian influence in Transcaucasia. Specifically, on the territory of Georgia, Russian military garrisons were supposed to stand in all key cities (6).
The help of Orthodox Russia promised Georgia the curbing of external and internal enemies and the onset of peaceful happy times.
Vakhtang readily accepted Peter's proposal.
On August 23, 1722, Russian troops under the command of Peter I triumphantly and without resistance entered Derbent.
At the same time, the 30,000-strong army of Vakhtang VI entered Karabakh, drove the Lezgins out of it and captured Ganja. Then Vakhtang received reinforcements - an army of 8,000 under the command of the Armenian Catholicos approached (7).
In Ganja, according to a joint plan, Vakhtang began to wait for a signal from Peter in order to move to join the Russian army.
But time passed, and there was still no news from Peter.
On October 4, Vakhtang sends a letter to Peter, in which he informs that he successfully fulfilled his part of the agreement regarding the campaign in Karabakh and the war against the Lezgins. Further, Vakhtang cautiously remarks that “we would have left Shirvan by now, but we are being delayed by the fact that we have not received your orders” and that right now “there is no need to delay” (8).
In a letter sent on the same day to the Astrakhan governor Volynsky, Vakhtang expresses himself less diplomatically: “how much time has passed since we arrived here in Karabakh and are standing here waiting for news from the happy Sovereign. Again we send you a letter in which we express our hope that the Sovereign will soon grant us news of himself. (nine)
In the study of I.V. Kurkin, it is reported that on August 3, Peter sent a letter to Vakhtang, in which he proposed to unite the Russian and Georgian armies "between Derben and Baku." But the letter did not reach the addressee (10). And it’s good that it didn’t come, because Peter’s plans changed very quickly, and the Russian troops did not move further than Derbent. And very soon the main Russian forces stopped altogether military operation and retreated from Derbent.
The reason that forced Peter I to abandon the continuation of the Persian campaign was the unpreparedness of the Russian army. The Russian ships that brought provisions turned out to be unreliable - many of them leaked during storms. They could not stand the unusual climate and the Russian soldiers fell ill. They died from lack of forage and the heat of the horse.
As a result of all this, on September 6, 1722, the Russian army turned back (11).
And the Georgian-Armenian army remained in Ganja for another two months, waiting for the imperial response (12).
The second lieutenant Ivan Tolstoy informed the Georgians about the refusal of the Russians from the Persian campaign. According to the historian Solovyov, the first to know this news was the son of Vakhtang VI Vakhushti: “Vakhusht was horrified when he learned about the return of the emperor from Derbent to Astrakhan, and Tolstoy could not calm him down; Vakhusht represented all the danger that Georgia is in: the Pasha of Erzurum, by order of the Sultan, sent threats that if the Georgians did not succumb to the Port, their land would be devastated. Vakhusht begged Tolstoy to keep silent about the return of the emperor, so that the people would not fall into despair ”(13).
Of course, it was impossible to keep the retreat of the Russian troops secret for a long time. Betrayed by a powerful ally, Vakhtang was immediately attacked by numerous internal and external enemies.
The outbreak of the war lasted three months. Kartli was plundered, Tbilisi was devastated, the Zion Cathedral was burned and robbed, many inhabitants of the kingdom, who managed to escape death, ended up in slave markets.
Vakhtang took refuge in the north of his kingdom in Tskhinvali, from where he sent ambassadors to the "fellow Russian tsar" asking for help (14).
According to historians, Peter decided to help his dying ally: in 1723, he even gave orders to prepare a military expedition to Georgia. However, Russian political priorities soon changed (15).
In 1724, Russia signed an advantageous Treaty of Constantinople with Turkey. Beneficial for Russia, but not for Georgia. In response to the territorial acquisitions significant for Russia in the west and south of the Caspian Sea, Peter refused in favor of Turkey from secondary territories, among which was “Georgia of the same faith”.
Assistance to Vakhtang was limited to an invitation to move to Astrakhan. In 1724, the Georgian king Vakhtang VI left Georgia with his court for Russia, where he died 13 years later (16).

Vakhtang VI was buried in the Astrakhan Assumption Cathedral.
At first, his grave was decorated with a tombstone covered with red velvet and a copper memorial plaque.
At the end of the 18th century, the velvet was stolen, and then the copper plate went missing.
In 1801, in connection with the rebuilding of the cathedral, the monuments over the grave of Vakhtang VI and the Georgian king Teimuraz II buried nearby were dismantled. (16-1)
It is noteworthy that in 2011, the Georgian Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II turned to Patriarch Kirill and the Russian authorities with a request to return the remains of the kings Vakhtang and Teimuraz to Georgia.
But the Russian side did not give consent to the reburial due to the fact that “the issue of returning the remains of the Georgian kings to Georgia needs to be publicly discussed in Russia, since without public support such actions can damage relations between the two countries.”
Why the Russian public may object to the transfer of the ashes of the Georgian kings to Georgia, and when the "public discussion" of the reburial will take place, the Russian side did not explain. (16-2)

The result of these events was the brutal oppression and systematic extermination of the population of Kartli, some of the most fertile and previously richest Georgian lands were depopulated for decades.
The Russian point of view about the reason for the failure of the Persian campaign is reflected in the letter of the Russian Empress Catherine I to the King of Kartli (at that time already in exile) Vakhtang VI (17).
The letter was written in an emphatically humiliating tone, not typical of correspondence between royalty.
In this document, Catherine puts the blame for the failure of the Persian campaign on Vakhtang himself. According to Catherine, after the capture of Ganja, he should have “easily gone to Shemakha, conquered all those places and strengthened themselves in them, since there was no one in those places, except for rebellious traitors.” Then, it goes without saying, "all the Armenians, having learned about your victories, would take your side." After that, “without fearing the Turks at all,” Vakhtang, having cleared the path of the enemy, had to join the Russian army, “expand his possessions and glorify his name.”
The fantastic nature of this plan is obvious: Vakhtang had only a couple of weeks to implement it, there was no coordination with the Russian army, the mere fact of the retreat of Russian troops from Derbent already made Catherine's plan unfeasible.
Interestingly, already in the 19th century, many original documents that told about this inconvenient page of history for Russia disappeared from the Russian archives (18).
For several decades, Russian-Georgian ties were almost interrupted. During this time, the political and economic situation in Georgia has improved significantly.
By the 60s of the 18th century, thanks to the political and military successes of the Kartli-Kakheti (the historical unification of the two kingdoms took place in 1762) King Erekle II, as well as a successful political situation, a political balance was achieved in the Kartli-Kakheti kingdom in relations with neighbors. Enemies subdued, mountaineer raids happened less and less. Political success was followed by economic prosperity (19).
The Georgian kingdom of Imereti also grew stronger. At first, King Solomon I of Imereti, in his struggle against Turkey, hoped for the alliance of Russia. He twice sent a request for help to the Russian Empress Catherine II and was refused both times. As a result, in 1757, in the Battle of Hersil, Solomon's troops were able to win an independent victory over the Turks (20). This victory allowed Imereti to get rid of heavy Turkish taxes.
In 1758, a military alliance was concluded between Heraclius and Solomon.
The military-political cooperation of the kings gave hope for the formation of a single Georgian state in the foreseeable future (21).
With the beginning of the Russian-Turkish war in 1768, Russia again began to show interest in the region.
Russian politicians had plans to involve in this war "all the peoples of our law living in the Turkish regions" (Christian peoples living near Turkey) - Greeks, Montenegrins, Poles, Georgians and so on. But the only ones who responded to Russia's call were the Georgians (22), (23).
What made the Georgians (this question relates more to the Kartli-Kakhetian king Heraclius II) to break the political order that suits them and revive the coalition, which in the recent past brought failure?
At the end of 1768, the Russian Empress Catherine II sent a request to the Collegium of Foreign Affairs (the then Russian Foreign Ministry), from which the degree of her awareness of the "universal people" is clear.
Catherine, in particular, is interested in who Georgia borders on, where her capital Tiflis is located (otherwise, some say that it is on the Black Sea, others say that it is on the Caspian Sea, and still others say that it is in the middle) and is it true that the Georgian king Erekle II - Catholic (24).
Although Catherine was interested in the largest Georgian kingdom - Kartli-Kakheti and its king Heraclius, it was decided to conduct negotiations with the Imereti king Solomon I, since Imereti directly bordered on Turkey, besides, Russia had experience of direct (albeit useless for Imereti) communication with Solomon .
Through Solomon, Russia hoped to involve Heraclius in the war as well.
On this occasion, the Russian Collegium of Foreign Affairs prepared a report under the eloquent title: "Discourses on the ways in which Georgians may be inclined to perceive participation in a real Ottoman war with Porto."
To involve the Georgians in the war, it was proposed to use their religiosity, "because the warmth of faith in the Georgians is great" (25).
Persuading the Imereti king Solomon to enter the war, Count Panin uses the arguments recommended in the Discourse: “thus you will render a service to all Christianity and Her Imperial Majesty, my most merciful sovereign as an Orthodox monarch” (26).
Reflecting on the spiritual spheres, the count does not forget about the promise of earthly blessings: “I can assure and reassure your ladyship on the highest name of my most merciful sovereign that when the Lord God blesses us with success over the common Christian enemy and that things will be brought to reconciliation, then her imperial Your Majesty will undoubtedly place your benefit and interest among the most beneficial articles for the Empire in your most peaceful treatise ”(27). Also, "Panin wrote to Solomon to try to persuade the Georgian (Kartala and Kakhetian) king Heraclius to act together against the Turks" (28). A similar letter with persuasion to enter the war was sent to Heraclius (29).
The plan of the Collegium of Foreign Affairs worked.
Solomon personally went to Tbilisi to persuade Heraclius to take the side of Russia in the Russo-Turkish war. Heraclius agreed.
As a result, "both kings sent noble ambassadors to St. Petersburg declaring their readiness to go to war with the Turks" (30).
The Georgian kings and people "enthusiastically accepted the appeal Grand Empress, calling them to fight against the common enemy of Christianity, and expressed their readiness to immediately follow the call of the "Orthodox monarch", which they really proved by fighting against the Turks throughout the five-year Turkish war" (31).
By joining Russia's allies in the war against Turkey, the Georgians upset the political balance established in the region and set many neighboring rulers against themselves.
It seems that it was at this moment that a mechanism was launched that soon led to the destruction of Georgian statehood.
As a result of the war, Georgians could count on Russia to help strengthen Georgia's position in relations with Turkey (32). But, despite the “most resolute promises” given by the Empress to the Georgians that they “would not be forgotten under the peace concluded with Porto” (33), the Georgians did not receive anything (34).
Moreover, in the treaty concluded with the Turks, Russia agreed with the right of the Turks to Imereti. And this stopped the process of unification of Georgia.
The Georgians saw their future in an alliance with Russia of the same faith and hoped to prove their loyalty in that war. “It would be cowardice on the part of the Georgians to miss such a chance. They took a risk and again lost the bet” (35).

At this point, the reader may wonder: “It has long been known that politics is a dirty business. Treachery and violations of treaties were known in it before. So why on earth did the Georgian kings trust their Russian colleagues so much, on the basis of which they believed in the possibility of friendship with their large northern neighbor?
I will express my personal opinion.
The Georgians had every reason for such hopes.
Firstly, centuries-old economic, cultural, and political ties existed between the countries of the same faith.
In addition, Georgia provided invaluable assistance to Russia-Rus when it actually turned into a damper, the last Christian outpost in the east, which for centuries extinguished the raids of numerous eastern "conquerors of the world."
So, Russian Christians still celebrate the salvation of Russia from Tamerlane, as big celebration. Salvation, which was largely bought with the blood of the Georgian people.
At a time when Georgia had to deal with the issues of restoring and preserving its statehood over and over again, in Russia there were quite a few comfortable conditions to build a strong state that grew into a powerful empire.
It is quite logical that the Georgians expected reciprocal gratitude for these sacrifices.
And, finally, the childish gullibility of the Georgian tsars, which was manifested in their policy towards Russia, is explained by the patriarchal faith in Moscow, as in the Third Rome (36), faith in the factor of “Orthodox brotherhood”.
Some isolation of the region and the lack of awareness of the Georgian rulers about the political principles of the young Russian Empire played a cruel joke on Georgia.
Forgetting about the sad experience of Vakhtang VI, Heraclius II continued to be an idealist in relation to his northern neighbor.
Russia's position was much more pragmatic.
The Russian rulers viewed Georgia solely from the point of view of the usefulness of the new acquisition. When the moment was right, Georgia was swallowed up and digested.
In general, a comparison of the processes of accession to the Russian Empire of Georgia and, for example, the Sheki Khanate (happened in the same region at about the same time) eliminates all illusions about Russia's "special relationship" to Georgia.
In 1783, the Russian Empire signed the Treaty of Georgievsk with the Kartli-Kakhetian king Erekle II, with oaths of mutual friendship, love and guarantees of the inviolability of statehood and royal power.
A similar document was concluded in 1805 with the ruler of Sheki: “The letter of Emperor Alexander I on the acceptance of Selim Khan of Shaki into citizenship” (37).
The same guarantees eternal love and inviolability: "By God's hastening mercy, We, Alexander the First, Emperor and Autocrat of All Russia<...>we approve and recognize you, our kindly loyal subject, as the owner of the Shaki Khanate<...>promising you and your successors Our imperial mercy and favor<...>We affirm it in all its strength by Our imperial word for all eternity, inviolably for Us and Our successors.
The same signs of investiture (supreme power) that the Sheki khans receive from the Russian emperor: “For the glory of your house and in memory of Our imperial mercy to you and your legitimate successors, the Shaki khans, we grant you a banner with the coat of arms of the Russian Empire and a saber.”
In addition to the same banner and saber, the Treatise of 1783 promised the Georgian throne also an “imperious rod” and “ermine’s epancha”. The difference is not fundamental.
And the same processes of the destruction of statehood and the neutralization of contenders for the royal throne. Unless the liquidation (14 years after the signing of the Charter) of the Sheki Khanate took place quickly and without much publicity.
General A.P. Ermolov in his Notes devoted one paragraph to the story of the liquidation of the Sheki Khanate:
“After the subsequent death of Major General Ismail Khan Shekinsky, I ordered Major General Akhverdov to send artillery to the head of my office, State Councilor Mogilevsky, to describe the province and income. He issued a proclamation that the Sheki Khanate was forever accepted into Russian administration. He ordered the entire surname of the khan to be sent to Elisavetpol, so that she could not cause unrest. (38)
The Russian Empire spent much more effort on the liquidation of the Kartli-Kakheti and Imereti kingdoms.
That's the whole price of Russian promises of "eternal love and inviolability."
The hopes of the Georgian kings for special Russian-Georgian relations did not prevent the Russian Empire from violating the signed agreements and swallowing Georgia in the same way as the petty Caspian khanate.
But all this happened much later.

In the early 80s of the 18th century, a period of anarchy began in Persia.
According to the Russian Empress Catherine II, a suitable situation was created for Russia to consolidate in the region (39).
The kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti was chosen as a springboard.
The expansion of Russia into the region is legally framed by the most famous Russian-Georgian treaty - the Treaty of Georgievsk.
Its signing took place on July 24 (August 4, according to the new style), 1783, in the Russian border fortress of Georgievsk.
The agreement was concluded on terms favorable to both Russia and Georgia.
Russia established itself in the territories, the population and rulers of which were traditionally very friendly towards it. The Georgian tsar undertook to always fight on the side of Russia, wherever such a need arose.
Opportunities opened up for Russia to further spread its influence to the east - immediately to Persia and in the future to Turkey and beyond.
This seriously undermined the positions of Russia's eastern opponents and completely ruled out the possibility of Georgia's alliance with these opponents (which was very much feared in Russia).
According to the treaty, Georgia ceded to the Russian Empire part of its foreign policy functions, but completely reserved internal Georgian politics (Heraclius II and his heirs were given a guarantee of "preservation without fail in the kingdom of Kartli and Kakheti" - Article 6., p. 2). Georgia also automatically received a guarantee of internal and external stability - the agreement provided for the deployment of Russian military units in Georgia, reinforced by artillery.
Moreover, if the mere fact of an alliance with powerful Russia was a guarantee of protection against internal unrest, then regarding external enemies, the treatise unequivocally stated that any hostile actions against Georgia would be considered as hostile actions against Russia (Article 6, paragraph 1).
The “separate article” was very important for the Georgian side, according to which the Russian tsars undertook to make all possible diplomatic and military efforts to return the lost historical territories to Georgia.
The Treatise had many opponents among the Georgian princes. The wife of Heraclius, Queen Darejan (40), did not trust the Russians either.
The Treatise's supporters had high hopes for it. They hoped that the Treatise would help unite Georgia and return the Georgian lands torn away by the enemies, restore the Armenian kingdom and return to their homeland the Armenians scattered around the world, strengthen the union of Christian peoples (41).
Alas, the reality turned out to be just the opposite, and in the end even catastrophic for Georgia.

Immediately after the signing of the Treaty, the majority of its neighbors finally turned against Georgia. In addition, the very first serious test showed that Russia is not able to fulfill its allied obligations.
In 1785, the Avar Khan made a devastating raid on Georgia, ruined the main source of replenishment of the Georgian economy - the Akhtala mines, and returned to Avaria with rich booty. The agreement with Russia did not work.
Turkey did not even hide the fact that it was she who stood behind the back of the Avar Khan, and that the raid was a response to the signing of the Treaty of Georgievsk by Irakli.
In the summer of 1787, another very disturbing event for Georgians happened.
In the midst of the Russian-Georgian military campaign against Ganja, Russian troops are ordered to return to Russia. The order is immediately carried out: despite the persuasion of Heraclius, despite the references to the relevant paragraphs of the Treatise, all Russian military units leave Georgia.
Thus, Russia defiantly refused Heraclius the military protection of his kingdom and violated the Treaty of St. George.
“Now you are leaving Georgia, to the extreme despair of our subjects,<…>we are all the more sad that we do not know for what reasons such a sensitive misfortune befalls us, ”Irakli wrote to the Russian representative in Georgia Burnashev. (42)
Irakli was again left without Russian support. But the situation was fundamentally different from that which was before the conclusion of the Treatise of 1783. Now Georgia was surrounded by offended and embittered neighbors.
The most dangerous of these neighbors was Turkey.
Saying goodbye, Colonel Burnashev conveyed to Irakli that the Russian authorities did not object to the establishment of diplomatic relations between Georgia and Turkey. (42-2)
How to do this, the Russian authorities did not report.
Why did Russia violate the terms of the Treaty of Georgievsk?
Here is how the leading Russian military historians of that time explained what happened.
Russian academician and military historian P. G. Butkov, who was directly involved in the annexation of Georgia in 1801-1802, lists the following main reasons:
1. In the Russian plans for the Russian-Turkish war, military operations on the territory of Georgia did not appear (the next Russian-Turkish war began in April 1787).
2. It was believed that in the absence of Russian troops, it would be easier for Georgians to establish relations with their neighbors.
3. Russian troops experienced difficulties with food supply in Georgia (43).
In fact, the 2nd and 3rd reasons look frankly artificial.
It is unlikely that in Russia they knew better than the Georgian king how and with whom the Georgians should negotiate. But Erekle II was not even consulted on this subject.
And the version that food problems could become the basis for Russia to stop its military presence in an important region for it seems completely incredible (in November 1800, Russia introduced army forces into the Kartli-Kakheti kingdom, significantly exceeding the agreed limits (43-2) , and she was not hindered by the fact that famine raged on the Georgian lands devastated after the recent campaign of the Persian Agha Mohammet Khan).
Obviously, the main reason for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Georgia is the change in Russia's plans in connection with the Russian-Turkish war.
The same opinion is shared in his study by V.A. Potto, lieutenant general, chief of the general staff of the Caucasian army, military historian (40).
But why, then, after the end of the Russian-Turkish war in 1791, the Russian troops did not return to Georgia, as required by the terms of the Treaty of St. George?
There are three main reasons.
Firstly, the empress rightly believed that the main danger for Russia coming from this region was the invasion of Turkey. After the peace concluded with Turkey, Catherine considered the region not important enough for the Russian military presence, because the main danger for Russia had just been eliminated.
Secondly, Russia was afraid of the presence of its troops in Georgia to displease Turkey and pose a threat to the existing treaty.
third and possibly main reason was that the Russian rulers always quite easily violated their agreements with Georgia.
In December 1789, Catherine wrote to A.A. Bezborodko, acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, “We have a treaty with Georgia. We do not know whether Porta has a treatise with her; but if the Porte forbids the Akhaltsikhe Pasha and the peoples subject to her to lead troops into Georgia and to oppress and ruin Georgia with troops, then we promise her not to send troops into Georgia. (44)
Those. already in 1789, Catherine committed a violation the most important point Georgievsky Treaty and agreed to defend Georgia only selectively - in the event of Turkish aggression. And in the case of, for example, the Persian invasion of Georgia, Catherine was not going to help Heraclius.
The political games of the Russian empress hid a mortal danger for Georgia.
In 1789, Persia was still weakened by internal strife, but the situation could change at any moment, as soon as a strong leader appeared in Persia. This is what happened a few years later.
In the meantime, Heraclius fought for the survival of his kingdom. The fact that it did not fall immediately after the withdrawal of Russian troops seems surprising, because the betrayal of the northern ally, like the one 65 years earlier, was supposed to be a signal for external and internal enemies to attack the unfortunate king and destroy his kingdom .
It took all the diplomatic and managerial experience of Heraclius II to keep the situation under control. In the end, he received a promise from the Turkish Sultan "not to do anything against Georgia." (42-3) The kingdom was preserved.
But Heraclius had no freedom of political maneuvering, any wrong step threatened to bring down the situation.
Soon this lack of freedom forced Heraclius to make one of the most difficult decisions in his life.
A few years before the events described, the king of Imereti, Solomon I, died. This happened in 1784.
Finding out who has more rights to the royal throne - the young grandson of Irakli II David Archilovich or the cousin of the deceased Tsar David Georgievich - was delayed.
In the end, the Imeretian tavads (influential feudal lords) came to the conclusion that the solution to the problem could be the annexation of the Imereti kingdom to the kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti.
For the first time in many years, these most important parts of Georgia could unite into a single state.
In 1789, a group of tavads arrived in Tbilisi to the court of Erekle II with a request to join.
On this important issue, the State Council of the Darbazi was convened. The council voted in favor of joining by a majority vote.
But with his decisive vote, Heraclius canceled this decision. (42-4).
A terrible step, which Heraclius probably could not forget for the rest of his life. But he had no other choice.
The unification of the Kartli-Kakheti and Imereti kingdoms would lead to an immediate direct conflict with Turkey. The kingdom of Heraclius was devastated by enemy raids, weakened by the betrayal of the main ally, and it would not have survived a new war.
The historical unification did not take place.
Meanwhile in Persia appears new figure- the imperious and unusually cruel ruler Agha Mohammed Khan, who quickly concentrates power in his hands.
In 1793, Heraclius becomes aware that Aga Mohammed Khan decided to punish Tbilisi for the Treaty of St. George and is preparing a major punitive campaign.
Heraclius immediately informs Catherine of this and asks, in accordance with the current Treaty of St. George, to return the Russian troops, but the Russian Empress is in no hurry to fulfill the contract.
The archives have preserved numerous letters of the Georgian king, his wife Queen Darejan, son, etc., addressed to Catherine and major Russian officials and calling for the return of the Russian military unit to Georgia. The first letter was sent on March 1, 1793, as soon as it became known about the plans of the Agha Mohammed Khan, the last - in September 1795 (45), when the 70,000th enemy army was already approaching Tbilisi.
All in vain (46).
For two and a half years, Catherine and her military leaders responded either with reassuring and humiliating replies that the danger was exaggerated, and Heraclius indulged in baseless panic, or with statements that the impenetrable Caucasus Mountains make it completely impossible to transfer Russian troops “due to heavy snow and cold” (47 ).
On September 11, 1795, after two days of fighting, Aga Mohammed Khan occupied Tbilisi and destroyed it to such an extent that even five years later the city was still in ruins. According to Tuchkov, who came to Tbilisi at the beginning of 1801, “he appeared to me as a bunch of stones, among which there were two streets along which one could still drive. But the houses, for the most part, were ruined on them. Only the gates remained from the royal palace, the rest is all hidden to the ground ”(48). During the invasion, churches were robbed and desecrated, tens of thousands of citizens were killed or taken prisoner.
Immediately after the ruin of Tbilisi, Heraclius begged the Russian generals to catch up with Agha Mohammed Khan, who was slowly leaving Georgia (due to abundant booty and prisoners). It was possible at least to rescue thousands of Georgians being taken into slavery (49). But these calls also remained unanswered.
“We have nothing left, we have lost everything!” - Heraclius wrote with sorrow to St. Petersburg to his son and the royal envoy Chavchavadze: “You yourself know everything that if we weren’t bound by the oath to the highest court, but agreed with Agoy-Magomed-Khan, then this adventure would not have come true with us " (fifty).
The reaction to the requests of Heraclius followed only in November 1795 - a Russian detachment was finally sent to Georgia. On December 14 he reached Mukhrani. Having discovered that "Tbilisi had long been plundered by the Persians," the Russian troops "having nothing to do, immediately returned to the line." (51-2)

Reflecting on the events connected with the invasion of Aga Mohammed Khan, one cannot get rid of the feeling of some paradox.
This commander spent two and a half years preparing a campaign against the Kartli-Kakheti kingdom. All this work could turn out to be meaningless in one day, if only Russia returned to the observance of the Treaty of Georgievsk and returned its troops to Georgia.
In 1801, Counts A. Vorontsov and A. Kochubey, in their report to the Russian Emperor, directly indicated that: “Aga Magomed Khan would not have dared to invade Georgia if at least a small number of our troops had been sent in advance to help her” (51).
But to everyone's amazement, the empress was in no hurry to provide the promised assistance to the state of the same faith. Her behavior caused bewilderment even in the military leadership of Russia.
“It is extremely surprising to me,” General Gudovich, the head of the Caucasian Line, wrote to Catherine II in 1795, “that until now I could not and now cannot send Russian troops to Georgia for not receiving your highest imperial majesty’s command” (52).
At the same time, Aga Mohammed Khan openly, not fearing the opposition expected by all from Russia, for almost three years, first carefully prepares for his devastating campaign, and then carries it out without too much haste.
It seems that he had some confidence in Russia's inaction, there were some guarantees...
Such an explanation could answer many questions.
Georgia at the time of signing the Treaty of St. George was a state headed by an ambitious king, a state with its own interests and its own development plans.
But Catherine needed something completely different, she needed a submissive, weak-willed territory, a springboard for the realization of Russian imperial ambitions. Catherine was not going to take into account the interests of the local population and its rulers in her plans.
To appear as a savior in a country burned by the enemy and generously swallow it on humiliating conditions that until recently were not presented to Georgians even in their worst dreams, is this not the highest political aerobatics?...
The possible conspiracy of Catherine with the Aga Mohammed Khan shocks with its deceit and betrayal, but it impresses with rationality: such a way of conquering the kingdom of Heraclius II turned out to be easy for the Russian army and Russian diplomacy and very reliable in achieving the goals.
The death of Catherine, which followed in 1796, somewhat delayed the completion of this plan, but did not cancel it.
As we will see below, Catherine's successors also easily resorted to deceit and betrayal in relations with Georgia, if the interests of the Russian Empire so required.

What happened broke Heraclius. He actually stepped aside from governing the country and died two years later, without having made unambiguous orders regarding the heir to the throne. Undoubtedly, this situation led to the weakening of the Georgian statehood.
The campaign of Aga Mohammed Khan finally ruined the economy of the Kartli-Kakheti kingdom, which was recovering with difficulty after the invasion of Omar Khan in 1785.
Summing up the results of 17 years of the Treaty of St. George, we have to admit that this period has become one of the most terrible for Georgia in its entire history.

In just 17 years, the population of the largest Georgian kingdom - Kartli-Kakheti - has almost halved (53), (53-2), (54). The country was completely ruined. Epidemics raged in it, wave after wave of raids by Turks, Lezgins, and troops of the Akhaltsikhe Pasha took place.
As noted at the meeting of the Russian State Council held in 1801: “The patronage that Russia has been giving Georgia since 1783 has drawn this unfortunate country into an abyss of evils, with which it has been completely exhausted” (55).
This greatly simplified for the Russian authorities the task of liquidating the royal dynasty of Bagrations and the entire Georgian statehood.
Between the death of Heraclius and the imperial manifestos about the accession of Eastern Georgia to the Russian Empire, more than three years passed. For the Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti, they became a time of internal strife and weakening royal power.
First, the Kartli-Kakhetian throne was occupied by George XII. His rights were challenged by another son of Heraclius, Tsarevich Alexander.
Even during the life of George, at the end of 1799, the Russian Emperor Paul I officially recognized the son of George XII, Tsarevich David, as the heir to the Georgian throne, whose rights were contested by another son of Heraclius, Tsarevich Yulon.
A year later, George XII died, and his son ascended the throne of Kartli-Kakheti under the name David XII. Some researchers believe that he was the king of the Kartli-Kakheti kingdom before the issuance of a decree by Paul I dated January 18, 1801 on the annexation of Kartli-Kakheti to the Russian Empire, i.e. three weeks. And then, until the removal and expulsion, only the "ruler". Some believe that he was not a king at all, because. did not go through the approval procedure prescribed in the Georgievsky treatise. So, with the last Georgian king, there is some historical uncertainty.
Shortly before his death, George XII, who feared for the state of his kingdom, sent with ambassadors to St. Petersburg a draft of a new treaty with Russia drawn up in the form of a “request”. The document, which consisted of 16 articles, was delivered to the Russian ministry on November 17, 1800 (56). According to this project, the Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti turned into something between an independent state and a Russian province. George planned to keep the kingdom for himself and his heirs (Article 2), keep some state attributes, but live according to Russian laws and actually obey the Russian administration. Due to this, George XII hoped to achieve political stability in his kingdom.

On the basis of the Petition, which had no legislative force, it was planned to create and sign a Russian-Georgian “mutual Imperial Act”, which would replace the Treaty of Georgievsk (57). But these plans were never destined to come true - on December 22, 1800, King George XII of Kartli-Kakheti died (58). Russian-Georgian relations continued to be regulated by the Treaty of Georgievsky.
Therefore, when, three weeks after the death of the Georgian king, General Lazarev invited the most distinguished Georgian nobles and David to his Tbilisi house, the guests who arrived were sure that they would have to go through the solemn procedure for approving the new Georgian king David XII to the throne in accordance with the Treaty of St. George.
Instead, the general read out Paul I's ban on the appointment of the heir to the Georgian throne and the manifesto on the abolition of the Kartli-Kakheti kingdom and the annexation of Eastern Georgia to Russia.
Thus, the Russian emperor committed a dishonorable act, according to the concepts of that time, breaking his word. Indeed, in the charter signed by him in 1799, it was Tsarevich David, who was now sitting in front of General Lzarev, who was appointed heir to the throne (59).
The initiatives of the Russian emperor were reinforced by the transfer to Georgia the best regiment Caucasian line under the command of General S.A. Tuchkov. It turned out, as expected, that neither possible food problems nor winter are in fact an obstacle to the rapid passage of Russian troops through the Caucasus Mountains (60). And that the pretext by which in 1795 Russia left the Georgians in trouble was far-fetched.
Interestingly, according to some people close to the Russian Emperor Paul I, this well-known entertainer found an original way to compensate the Georgians for their losses.
Having the status of Grand Master and Protector of the Order of Malta, the oldest chivalric organization in the world, Paul planned, after everything calmed down, to make Georgia the new seat of the Order of Malta, and Prince David the grand master of this order (61), (62).
The fantasies of Paul I were never destined to come true. Soon, as a result of a palace coup, he received a fatal blow to the head with a snuffbox.
In the meantime, there was still time before this incident, the Russian emperor shared with Baron Knorring, the head of the Russian authorities in Georgia, his methods of winning the love of new subjects: at any cost, even the threat of persecution, “to call to Russia without exception all the persons of the Georgian royal house, as proof that that in Georgia all estates wish to enter into citizenship of Russia.
And in the same rescript, Paul orders the administrative reorganization of the new Russian possessions: "I want Georgia to be a province." (63)
Six days before the “snuffbox”, the incorporation of Georgia was legally formalized: “By decree of the Senate on March 6, 1801, the whole country constituted one Georgian province and, thus, became part of Russia.” (63-1)
The process of dismantling the Georgian royal power was in full swing.
By order of the head of the Russian authorities in Georgia, Baron Knorring, all royal regalia were confiscated from Queen Mariam. The seizure was led by S.A. Tuchkov, who soon became the head of the civil administration in Georgia (64). For some time, the Georgian royal regalia were kept in Russian Georgievsk - the place where the ill-fated treatise was signed, then they were transported to the Moscow Armory (65).
On August 8, 1801, a meeting of the Russian State Council was held, at which it was decided to leave in Georgia only those persons of the royal family who "due to their meek disposition and behavior will not show suspicion about themselves." “Send all the rest to Russia” (66).
When the Georgian princes who had previously left for Russia applied to the Russian State Council for permission to return to Georgia, the State Council refused their request” (67).
After Alexander I came to replace the murdered Paul I in 1801, the question arose about the choice of Russia's further policy towards Georgia. Two scenarios were discussed at the State Council: assistance to Georgia within the framework of the current Treaty of St. George or violation of the Treaty and the complete incorporation of Georgia.
The option of Russia's non-participation in Georgian affairs was not considered, because it was believed that Georgia's withdrawal from the Russian sphere of influence could have catastrophic consequences for the Russian Empire: what good, will surrender to Turkey, and then! then the consequences will be terrible for Russia. She will have to deal at a border distance of 800 miles with the hostile forces of the Caucasus, united by Turkey. Do not hesitate to join here and suggestion of other powers; then it’s terrible even to think about what will happen then” (69).
Despite the mental anguish mentioned at the very beginning of this exposition, Alexander I chooses the path of violating the Treatise.
He considered that the historical blame for this act could be shifted to the murdered Paul I: “During Our accession to the throne, We found that this kingdom, by all state acts, was already annexed to the Empire” (70).
Under the new emperor, the danger of eviction hangs over all the Bagrations. On August 6, 1801, Lazarev wrote to Knorring: “In my opinion, the best way to get the entire Bagrationov family name out of here; and as long as she is here, there will be no end to the unrest” (71).
The threat looming over the country finally reconciled the princes competing for power.
At the beginning of 1803, Yulon wrote to the Russian General Tsitsianov, the newly appointed "commander-in-chief of Georgia", that there were no longer disagreements between the princes over the succession to the throne. All of them, incl. Tsarevich David (still recently he was called King David XII): “My heirship is supported by a subscription” (72).
The princes are working together to develop and implement a plan to restore Georgian statehood (73), but the vigorous intervention of the Russian authorities does not allow this plan to come true.
In the course of armed special operations, Prince Vakhtang, Prince David (74), Prince Bagrat (75) are arrested and deported to Russia.
Operations to arrest the female part of the royal house are carried out with less precaution. But in vain.
If the arrest of the elderly widow of Heraclius II, Queen Darejan, did not cause any particular difficulties (76), then the arrest of the widow of George XII, Queen Mariam, was a tragedy. After General Lazarev, who was instructed to arrest Mariam and send her to Russia, made insulting remarks towards the queen, she unexpectedly drew a dagger and struck the general with a fatal blow (77). The queen was sent to Russia and there she was imprisoned in a monastery.
Representatives of the Georgian royal house exiled to Russia were deprived of power, most of them were forever forbidden to return to their homeland.
Attempts to fight the new authorities were made by the remaining at large prince Yulon from Turkey and prince Alexander from Persia (61), but it was useless to resist one of the best armies in the world.
Alexander died in Persia in 1844 (78).
Yulon's fate was not much different.
First, he took refuge in Imereti, which is not yet controlled by Russia. And in 1804, the rebellious Tagauri Ossetians, who were already joined by the Khevsurs, Pshavs and Tushins in Georgia, called on Yulon to lead their uprising. Tsarevich Yulon, accompanied by his brother, Tsarevich Parnavaz, together with a small armed detachment, moves forward to reunite with the rebels. But Yulon was not destined to reach his destination. During a stop in the forest, Russian soldiers attacked the Georgian camp, about 20 people from the escort of the princes were killed, Yulon himself was almost stabbed, but the Russian commander who came to the rescue recognized him by sight and captured him alive (79).
The arrested Tsarevich Yulon was sent to Russia and died in Tula.
However, Prince Parnavaz, who was with Yulon, was able to miraculously avoid arrest, made his way to the rebels and led the uprising.
Under the command of Parnavaz, the rebels achieved temporary successes, they even recaptured the city of Ananuri and pushed the Russian army back to Gori.
But the Russian reinforcements that came up crushed the uprising.
Parnavaz was taken prisoner. His life also ended in Russia (80).
The policy of the Russian Empire on the absorption of Georgia proved to be effective.
Regardless of the nature of relations with Russia, all self-governing Georgian territories, one after another, became part of the Russian Empire.
After the fall of the Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti, the center of resistance moved to Imeretia, the largest part of Georgia not yet subjugated to Russia (81).
In February 1803, Tsitsianov received a secret order from the Russian emperor to "acquire Imereti with the principality of Dadian, Mingrelia and Guriel, when an opportunity presents itself." In this order, the emperor gives his consent to the use of military force in the event that the Georgians resist (82).
In a later order to Tsitsianov, the emperor clarified the details of the operation: first it was necessary to occupy Imereti and after that - Mingrelia, but at the end he made a condescending postscript: "but by the way, you are left with complete freedom, whether to occupy Mingrelia first, or start Imereti" (83).
The only thing that kept Russia from starting the operation was the fear of arousing the wrath of Turkey (84), “because this kingdom” (Imereti) was “under the weak, but patronage of the Ottoman Port” (85).
But it was obvious that this factor was gradually losing its significance, and the day was not far off when Turkish patronage would no longer interfere with Russia's actions in Imereti. (86).
Realizing the threat looming over his kingdom, Solomon decides to conclude an agreement with the Russian Empire on the transfer of Imereti under the protection of Russia. The agreement, similar to the Treaty of Georgievsk, was supposed to guarantee the inviolability of the royal throne of Imereti and help Solomon in the fight against the rebellious princes.
In March 1804, a delegation arrived at Tsitsianov with the proposal of Solomon II to accept him into Russian citizenship "if only the mercy of His Imperial Majesty towards him would allow him to have the hope of remaining king." “I dared to reassure them in it,” Tsitsianov reports about his report to the emperor. (87).
Solomon had to swear allegiance to the Russian Tsar on March 20, 1804. But unexpectedly, Tsitsianov connected this procedure with the need to sign a document drawn up by him personally with "petition clauses on behalf of King Solomon to His Imperial Majesty." The points contained in the document were unrealistic for Solomon, and he refused to sign the document. The oath did not take place.
Having received this information, Tsitsianov decides to start bringing troops into Imeretia (88).
On April 25, Tsitsianov reported to the Russian emperor that Imereti was annexed to the Russian Empire and that "this kingdom has been turned into one of the Russian provinces."
Special detachments were sent to Imereti, whose task was to "induce the townsfolk to swear allegiance to the Russian Empire."
Faced with such treacherous pressure, Solomon was forced to yield. On the same day, in the presence of Tsitsianov, he took an oath of allegiance to the Russian emperor. The parties signed an agreement containing important points for Solomon on the return of the rebellious province of Lechgum (Lechkhumi) to his kingdom (89). and on guarantees for the preservation of Solomon on the throne of Imereti (90). And, although Russian troops received the legal right “for peace of mind” to enter the territory of Imereti: “the articles clearly explain that the rights and advantages of His Majesty remain in their former strength and that the army is brought in to protect against external enemies and to restore peace and tranquility” (91), Solomon ensured that the size of this contingent was symbolic: one major with 120 soldiers. The Russian military unit was supposed to be located where King Solomon wished (92),
Solomon's obligation to send a delegation to the Russian court "to bring loyal gratitude" was also included in the agreement (93).
Solomon was in no hurry to send this delegation, insisting that sending it would make sense only after the Russian side fulfilled its obligations. After all, it was on these conditions that he agreed to enter Russian citizenship.
Solomon's failure to comply with the clause on loyal gratitude became for the Russian side a formal reason for non-compliance with the agreement.
First of all, the Russian side violated the paragraph on Lechgum, which not only was not returned to Imereti, but even more than that - the only Lechkhum fortress belonging to Solomon was taken from him with the help of Russian troops. Then the violation by the Russian side of its obligations became regular.
In fact, for the empire, the treaty was just a tool for more or less legal political and military penetration into Imeretia and served to maintain the minimum decency in the process of seizing the “brotherly” Orthodox kingdom (94). The Russian representatives did not intend to fulfill their contractual obligations (95).
One can understand Solomon, who, knowing well about the fate of the Kartli-Kakheti kingdom, did not really trust the Russian signatures under the treaty. But he somewhat naively counted on the help of higher powers in this matter.
A story is connected with the signing of the treaty, which later gave the incident some mystical connotation.

The signing itself took place without surprises, but at the end Solomon asked those around him to leave him alone with Tsitsianov, after which he invited him to swear a "terrible oath" that "everything written will be fulfilled" and that Solomon "until the end of his days will remain king." Tsitsianov had to take this oath on "a wooden life-giving (96) cross with holy relics (97)". In his letter to the Russian emperor, Tsitsianov reports that the hopelessness of the situation forced him to fulfill this "Asian custom". (98).
In the subsequent time, Tsitsianov repeatedly demonstrated that he was not going to abide by the agreement and, in the end, directly wrote to Solomon that he did not consider himself obliged to "keep this word" (99).
For the sake of the empire, Tsitsianov made a certain sacrifice, because, despite the ostentatious disregard for the "Asian custom", he, as a superstitious person, could not help but be disturbed by thoughts of perjury.
Further events are described in the writings of V.A. Potto (he served in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as the head of the military history department at the headquarters of the Caucasian Military District). Before a campaign against the Baku Khan, which was quite ordinary for Tsitsianov’s biography, the general wrote in a letter to his friend Vasily Nikolaevich Zinoviev about a possible death and bequeathed his beloved horse to him.
“General Ladynsky also tells a strange incident, of which he was an eyewitness. When Tsitsianov was going on a campaign near Baku, he had to spend quite a long time in Yelizavetpol. There, every night, a dog appeared on the roof of his hut and howled terribly. She was killed, but others began to appear in her place, and their ominous howls at night haunted the sick prince. Alarmed, Tsitsianov ordered to kill all the dogs in Elizavetpol. The dogs were killed, but the superstitious expectations caused by this mysterious fact, unfortunately, were fulfilled ... "
On February 8, 1806, during negotiations on the surrender of Baku, Tsitsianov was unexpectedly killed. His corpse fell to the enemy and was buried near the walls of Baku. But he was buried without hands and without a head - the Baku Khan sent them to Tehran to the Persian Shah as a gift. (one hundred).
After the death of Tsitsianov, Ivan Gudovich was sent from Russia to take his place. The policy of consistent limitation of Solomon's power (101) continued.
In a letter to Gudovich, the king of Imereti expressed hope for the restoration of justice. But instead, Gudovich gives a secret order to “distance Solomon from the administration of Imereti” (102), Russian troops, under the pretext of the need to “suppress all methods of further suggestions of ill-wishers” and in violation of the existing agreement (103), enter Kutaisi. Solomon, fearing the fate of the descendants of Heraclius, is forced to leave his palace and his capital (104).
The vacated royal palace was occupied by Russian troops as barracks. (105) (After a year and a half of Solomon's continuous requests for the release of the palace, Gudovich writes him a mocking letter in the style of a joke about two news - good and bad: news No. 1: the palace is "completely cleared and there is not a single soldier in it"; news No. 2: “it fell apart due to its dilapidation.” (106))
New owners are quickly settling in Imereti. Solomon, in a letter addressed to the Russian emperor, complains that Russian soldiers attack even "princes and noble people." Even the king's son-in-law was severely beaten (107).
Attitude towards Imeretia, its king and Russian obligations "Commander-in-Chief of Georgia" Gudovich formulated in his letter to Count Rumyantsev: "such a small kingdom, which does not even constitute a principality, seems unworthy to be called a kingdom and the king is king", and it's time already "King Solomon at all removed from the administration of Imereti, as soon as an opportunity presents itself” (108).
On February 10, 1808, the Russian emperor orders “the former king of Imereti Solomon with all his family and with his heir Prince Konstantin to be sent to Russia” to Voronezh, and the kingdom of Imereti be renamed the Imereti region (109).
Major General Orbeliani is sent to Imeretia, before whom Gudovich sets the task of gaining Solomon's confidence, seizing him by luring him to Kutaisi or bribing his entourage, and "remove forever from the administration of Imereti" (110).
It was not so easy to do this - King Solomon, who settled in the middle of the Imereti forests and swamps, became as cautious as possible (110-1).
Orbeliani, who did not achieve success (the new “Commander-in-Chief of Georgia” Tormasov expresses dissatisfaction with his indecision (111)) was soon transferred from Imeretia, and the Russian command is inclined to the idea of ​​conducting an open military operation to capture Solomon (112).
With the advent of Alexander Tormasov - he replaced Ivan Gudovich at the beginning of 1809 - neither the goals of Russia in Imeretia, nor the methods for achieving these goals have changed. On the contrary, the new commander-in-chief is looking for (and finds) additional ways to weaken the Imeretian kingdom. A reliable means is being used - support for separatism.
Tormasov "in the name of His Imperial Majesty" declares the Gurian prince independent of Imereti "in order to divert him from connection with the king and thereby weaken this latter" (113).
How hopeless the position of Solomon had become by this moment is clear from his letter, which is available in the acts of AS. To liberate his kingdom from the "damned Russians", the Imeretian tsar is ready to resort to the last hope - the help of Turkey. In a letter to the Khan of Erivan, Solomon reports that he can put up 30,000 "armed brave men ready to shed blood" (114).
In the second half of 1809, everything was ready for the operation to finally overthrow the Imeretian king. The start of the operation is delayed only by the expectation "how the military preparations of the Persians and Turks will end" and because of the extreme caution of Solomon.
Additional troops were brought into Imereti under the guise of fortifying the Redut-Kale fortress. In fact, these troops were intended to suppress possible popular uprisings “if the Imereti people dared to defend their king with a military hand” (115), because “the Imereti people are used to their kings and are very committed” (116). The plan of the operation is still the same: Solomon, “reassuring him in safety”, lure him to Kutaisi, take hostage the heir to the throne of Imereti, Prince Konstantin, and “the most important princes by appointment”, and the Imereti king himself “to seize and escort to Tiflis” (117).
Around February 11, 1810, an ultimatum was announced to Tsar Solomon, according to which he must send a delegation to the Russian court within three days "to bring loyal gratitude" (118), give hostage the heir to the throne and several other people according to the list compiled by Tormasov and move to live in Kutaisi, where "he will be safe and no one will touch him."
Solomon was promised that if the ultimatum was fulfilled, he "until the end of his days will remain the autocratic owner of Imereti, with all his rights and advantages." And in case of non-fulfillment, he will be “permanently removed from the control of the kingdom of Imereti”.
The king refused to comply with the ultimatum. (119).
On February 20, 1810, by order of Colonel Simonovich, General Tormasov's proclamation (120) was published in Imereti, which announced "the removal of Tsar Solomon from the administration of the Imereti kingdom altogether, as a clear opponent of the sacred will of His Imperial Majesty, a violator of the people's peace and treaty a prisoner by him and as a perjurer who betrayed His Imperial Majesty in the given to him before God on St. Gospel oath "(121),
Specially created military units began to carry out mass bringing the people of Imereti to the oath of allegiance to the Russian emperor, in parallel, Russian troops went to the locations of Solomon and the heir to the throne of Imereti, Tsarevich Konstantin. The rebellious feudal lords (122) who went over to the Russian side and were seduced by Russian promises of independence (123) took part in the operation.
Meanwhile, Tormasov still continues to give Solomon his worthless promises: “I swear by the living God and my honor, which is dearest to me, that if His Majesty immediately fulfills the sacred will of the Sovereign, then he will not be the slightest harm, and that he will be left in quiet possession of the kingdom until the end of his life ”(124). And, after half a month, Tormasov continues to assure King Solomon “I also agree to assure His Majesty with my solemn promise of his safe stay in Kutais and that His Imperial Majesty will not take away the kingdom of Imereti from him” (125). At the moment when the "commander in chief of Georgia" makes his next solemn promise, Russian troops are already hosting the king's residence in Vardtsikhe (the fall of Vardtsikhe took place on March 6, 1810) and are pursuing Solomon with his small detachment (126).
On March 9, 1810, when Solomon, along with the remnants of his army, is surrounded in the Khani Gorge, his surrender is accepted on completely different conditions. Now he must give up the government of the kingdom, go to Tiflis, where, in the hope that the victors will allow him to stay in Imeretia, he will await his fate. Upon the surrender, Solomon was promised that the “commander-in-chief of Georgia”, General Tormasov, “out of his generosity, of course, will take sincere part and will not leave to intercede in his favor before the merciful Sovereign Emperor” (127).
In fact, the words about the generosity of Tormasov and the mercy of the emperor are another lie. For a long time there was a secret order of the Russian tsar to expel Solomon and his family to Voronezh. And Tormasov himself in the same days wrote to Count Rumyantsev about the need to “remove Solomon to Russia for residence”, in order to “deprive the people of Imeretia of any hope of seeing the return of their king” (128).
Tormasov's plans were to immediately transport Solomon to Russia, but due to the uprising of the mountain peoples that took place at that time, the expulsion had to be postponed. (129).
Also at the disposal of the Russian authorities, the heir to the throne of Imereti Konstantin was soon sent to Tbilisi, and from there to Russia (130).
By order of Tormasov, the tsarevich's trustees were assured that he was leaving for St. a short time at the request of his mother" (131).
Solomon is forced to disband his army, leaving only his retinue - about 100 "people he needs." Accompanied by a reinforced convoy, the arrested tsar arrives in Tiflis. The special precautions of the Russian administration for the protection of Solomon justified themselves - two attempts of the king to escape were stopped on the way (132), (133).
The army of Imereti, having lost its king, still continued to resist, but the forces were too unequal. By April 1810, the garrisons of only three fortresses continued to hold out. (134).
The new government took tough measures to quickly suppress popular resistance (135).
So, the winners triumph, Tormasov prepares a victorious report to the Russian emperor: “God helped me to fully accomplish the sacred will of Your Majesty regarding the Imeretian kingdom, not only by conquering it with weapons into the direct allegiance of the All-Russian Empire, but also through the acquisition of the king himself, taken prisoner and brought to Tiflis to complete the crowning of the quick successes of the victorious weapons of Your Imperial Majesty. (136), but then the unexpected happens. Having received confirmation of his impending expulsion to Russia, Solomon again attempts to escape. (137). This time, the carefully prepared plan, which required the participation of many people loyal to the king, works. On the night of May 10 to May 11 (138), Solomon flees from supervision. Immediate search for him does not bring success (139).
As a result of the investigation into the case of Solomon's escape, arrests were made. Among the prisoners in the fortress was even the Tiflis chief of police, Prince Baratov (140). Gen.-l. fell under the imperial wrath. Baron Rosen (141).
Solomon gets to Akhaltsikhe, which is not controlled by the Russians (142), Information about this quickly reaches Imereti, where an anti-Russian uprising immediately begins (143). And when the tsar returns to Imereti, what happens is what was so feared in Russia - the uprising becomes general (144). All sections of the population are rising up in the liberation struggle (145).
Colonel Simonovich in his report to Tormasov draws a fairly vivid picture of what is happening and its causes: “Here, with every battle, I must open fire against the enemy who has settled in the forests and gorges and, therefore, is invisible.<…>the rebels not only do not let up, but hour by hour they become more and more furious.<…>now that the former ruler, who was removed from them without their consent, has again come and demands their help, they consider it their sacred duty to give him all the experiments of their zeal and will not stop rebelling and shedding blood until Solomon is restored to the former kingdom, and that they do not agree to have another king. None of their princes or nobles are truly devoted to us, so there is no one to even send papers through, which, as 2 or 3 princes declare, remaining with me until the decision of the case, are everywhere intercepted by rebels, from which the real information about the whereabouts You cannot have a king and his troops” (146).
After the introduction of additional military units (147) into Imereti, Russia achieved the desired result - there was a turning point in the war in its favor.
But, despite the fact that the Russian regular army was opposed mainly by untrained Imeretian peasants, the Russian administration could not break their resistance. Fierce fighting continued throughout the summer and into September. (148), (149), (150), (151). To achieve its goal, the Russian army was ready for any methods. Hostages were taken in Imeretian villages. (152).
Relatives of the rebels were subjected to repressions (153), (154). By personal order of the commander-in-chief of Georgia, Tormasov, residents of other parts of Georgia were set against the Imeretians: “I instruct you to hurry through the Mouravs, gathering the Tushins, Pshavs and Khevsurs with their foremen, numbering at least 1000 people, so that their clergy would participate with them.<…>the party, assembled from the peoples of these, will have to follow to the general.-m. prince Orbeliani and, according to his testimony, go to plunder the villages where the rebels hide and where they get their booty. (155).
Solomon gave the last battle to the Russian army on September 24, after which, pressed by Russian troops, he was forced to leave his homeland. This happened on September 25th, 1810 (156).
Imeretian king Solomon II died 5 years later in the Turkish Trebizond, where he was buried (157).

Solomon II became the last reigning representative of the Bagration dynasty. With his removal from power and the abolition of the Imereti kingdom, the reign of one of the oldest royal dynasties in the world, the Bagrations, ceased. Along with this, the last hopes for the revival of the Georgian state disappeared.
After the liquidation of the Imereti kingdom, the Imereti region was founded in its place. (158), (159).
The process of incorporating Georgian lands into the Russian Empire continued further and was completed in 1878 with the annexation of Adjara.

But even after the annexation of Georgian lands, the dismantling of all signs of state independence, the removal of all kings, sovereign princes and legitimate contenders for their places, the replacement of the old government with a new Russian administration, Georgia did not turn into a conquered ordinary Russian province.
The threat to Russian power was now represented by ordinary residents of Georgia, its people. Wide sections of the country's population began to express dissatisfaction, the difference between the dream of friendship and patronage of the same-faith Russia and the revealed reality turned out to be very big.
The Empire fought the Georgian liberation movement until the very end of its existence, but could not cope with it.
More on this story next time.

(1) In the 18th-19th centuries, the concept of "Georgia" was rather vague.
This Russian word constantly changed its meaning and had no analogue in the Georgian language. Georgians called their country "Sakartvelo" or "Iveria". Until 1762, “Georgia” in Russia meant exclusively the Kingdom of Kartli. After the unification of Kartli and Kakheti, this term has already spread to the Kartli-Kakheti kingdom. The expansion of the concept of "Georgia" occurred after the annexation of the Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti and other Georgian lands to Russia. The Russian Emperor Alexander III, who pursued a tough national policy, generally removed the concept of "Georgia" from official circulation. And this concept began to return after his death.
Since the words "Sakartvelo" and "Iveria" are incomprehensible to the majority of Russian speakers, when speaking today about the 18th - 19th centuries, the word "Georgia" is commonly used to refer to all historical Georgian lands.
However, when historical documents are discussed in this text, the term "Georgia" is used in the same context as in the documents. Those. for the period after 1762, as a rule, the concept of "Georgia" is equivalent to the concept of "Kartli-Kakhetian kingdom" or "Eastern Georgia".

(2) (Archive of the State Council. Volume three. Part two. Str. 1191; St. Petersburg 1878)
(3) (Z.Avalov "Georgia joining Russia" St. Petersburg 1901, p.92)
(5) (Lystsov V.P. "The Persian campaign of Peter I", chapter 3, paragraph 1)
(6) (Lystsov V.P. "The Persian campaign of Peter I", chapter 3, paragraph 1, pp. 206-210)
(7) (I.V. Kurukin “The Persian campaign of Peter the Great”, Moscow, Quadriga ed. 2010, pp. 68,69)
(8) (Correspondence in foreign languages ​​of Georgian kings with Russian sovereigns from 1639 to 1770, St. Petersburg 1861, pp. 142,143)
(9) (ibid., p. 144)
(10) (I.V. Kurukin “The Persian campaign of Peter the Great”, Moscow, ed. Quadriga 2010, pp. 68,69)
(11) (ibid., pp. 70, 71)
(12) (Lystsov V.P. "The Persian campaign of Peter I", chapter 3, paragraph 1, p. 208)
(13) (S.M. Solovyov "History of Russia since ancient times. Book Four. Volume 18. Chapter I. p. 704)
(14) (P. Ioseliani "Historical view of the state of Georgia under the rule of the Mohammedan kings" pp. 76-80)
(15) (Z.Avalov, “Georgia joining Russia”, St. Petersburg 1901, p.68)
(16) (P. Ioseliani "Historical view of the state of Georgia under the rule of the Mohammedan kings" pp. 76-80)
(16-1) (A.S. Khakhanov. Essays on the history of Georgian literature. Edition of the Imperial Society of Russian History and Antiquities at Moscow University. Moscow 1901. p. 151)
(16-2) (http://news.mail.ru/society/15506097/)
(17) (Correspondence in foreign languages ​​of Georgian kings with Russian sovereigns from 1639 to 1770, St. Petersburg 1861, pp. 183-189)
(18) (V.E. Romanovsky. Essays from the history of Georgia. Tiflis 1902, p. 202)
(19) (Tsagareli Vol.1. Document N151)
(20) (S.M. Solovyov. History of Russia since ancient times. Second edition, sixth book, volume 28. p. 573)
(21) Documents kept in the Moscow Main Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. D.11. March 14, 1769. Metropolitan Maxim's note. Quoted from: Tsagareli. Correspondence of Georgian tsars and sovereign princes with Russian sovereigns in the 18th century. Page 27; St. Petersburg 1890)
(22) (S.M. Solovyov. History of Russia since ancient times. Second edition, sixth book, volume 28. pp. 562, 573, 582, 658)
(23) (Tsagareli "Letters and other historical documents of the 18th century relating to Georgia". Vol. 1, p. II, St. Petersburg 1891)
(24) (Tsagareli. Letters and other historical documents of Georgia. V.1, p. 9)
(25) (Documents stored in the Moscow Main Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. File No. 1 of 1768. Quoted from: Tsagareli. Correspondence of Georgian kings and sovereign princes with Russian sovereigns in the 18th century. P. 7; St. Petersburg 1890)
(26) (Documents stored in the Moscow Main Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. File No. 3 November 30, 1768. Letter from Count Panin to Tsar Solomon. Quoted from: Tsagareli. Correspondence of Georgian kings and sovereign princes with Russian sovereigns in the 18th century. Pp. 24; St. Petersburg 1890)
(27) (Documents stored in the Moscow Main Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. File No. 3 November 30, 1768. Letter from Count Panin to Tsar Solomon. Quoted from: Tsagareli. Correspondence of Georgian kings and sovereign princes with Russian sovereigns in the 18th century. Pp. 24, St. Petersburg 1890, see also p.52)
(28) (S.M. Solovyov. History of Russia since ancient times. Second edition, book six, volume 28. p. 573)
(29) (Documents stored in the Moscow Main Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. File No. 3 on March 28, 1769. Instruction to the court adviser Mauravov. Quoted from: Tsagareli. Correspondence of Georgian kings and sovereign princes with Russian sovereigns in the 18th century. P. 42; St. Petersburg 1890)
(30) (S.M. Solovyov. History of Russia since ancient times. Second edition, sixth book, volume 28. p. 573)
(31) (Tsagareli Vol.1. pp. II, III)
(32) (Documents stored in the Moscow Main Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 32 D.III. 1769. Extract .... Quoted from: Tsagareli. Correspondence of Georgian tsars and sovereign princes with Russian sovereigns in the 18th century. P. 92, 93; St. Petersburg 1890)
(33) (Documents stored in the Moscow Main Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Case No. 1 of 1768. Discussions about the ways in which Georgians may be inclined to perceive participation in the present Ottoman war with Porto. Quoted from: Tsagareli. Correspondence of Georgian kings and sovereigns princes with Russian sovereigns in the XVIII century. P. 7; St. Petersburg 1890)
(34) (Z.Avalov, “The Joining of Georgia to Russia”, St. Petersburg 1901, pp. 106-109)
(35) (Z.Avalov, “Georgia joining Russia”, St. Petersburg 1901, p.100)
(36) (Z.Avalov, “Georgia joining Russia”, St. Petersburg 1901, pp. 119, 120)
(37) ("Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission" Volume II. Tiflis 1868, p. 652).
(38) (Notes of A.P. Ermolov 1798-1826. Moscow, Higher School, p. 338)
(39) (Z.Avalov "The accession of Georgia to Russia" St. Petersburg 1901, pp. 129-131)
(40) V.A. Potto “The Caucasian War in separate essays, episodes, legends and biographies”, Volume 1, Issue 1, Edition 2, St. Petersburg 1887, Ch.XX. P.268, Occupation of Tiflis by the Russians.
(41) (Documents stored in the Moscow Main Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. D.XVIII. February 7, 1792. A note submitted to Empress Catherine II from the “most loyal servant”. Tsagareli. Letters and other historical documents of Georgia. V.2. B, 2, p. 74; St. Petersburg 1902)
(42) New materials for the biography and activities of S.D. Burnashev, who was in Georgia from 1783 to 1787, St. Petersburg 1901. p. 38, Letter from Tsar Heraclius to Burnashev dated October 4, 1787.
(42-2) New materials for the biography and activities of SD Burnashev, who was in Georgia from 1783 to 1787, St. Petersburg 1901. p. 29, Order to Mr. Colonel and Cavalier Burnashev. Received on September 13, 1787 in the camp at Ganja
(42-3) N.Dubrovin "History of the war and domination of Russians in the Caucasus" Volume II, St. Petersburg 1886, p.223
(42-4) Vachnadze M., Guruli V., Bakhtadze M. History of Georgia from ancient times to the present day. Georgia in the 18th century. Kingdoms of Kartli and Kakheti in the first half of the 18th century
(43) P. Butkov, in "Materials on the history of the Caucasus 1722-1803" (1869, II, chapter 139)
(43-2), (P.G. BUTKOV - MATERIALS FOR A NEW HISTORY OF THE CAUCASUS pp. 465, 466)
(44) (Collection of the Imperial Russian Historical Society. Issue 42. p. 53, St. Petersburg, 1885)
(45) (George XII the last king of Georgia and its accession to Russia, St. Petersburg 1867, p. 21)
(46) (Letters and other historical documents of the 18th century relating to Georgia. Edited by A.A. Tsagareli. Volume II, issue II. St. Petersburg 1902, pp. 76-104)
(47) (Report from Gen. Gudovich to Count Pl. Al. Zubov on September 13, 1795. Letters and other historical documents of the XVIII century relating to Georgia. Edited by A. A. Tsagareli. Volume II, issue II. S.- Petersburg 1902, pp. 102-104)
(48) (notes by Sergei Alekseevich Tuchkov, p. 186, St. Petersburg 1908)
(49) (letter from Irakli to Count Gudovich dated September 17, 1795. Letters and other historical documents of the 18th century relating to Georgia. Edited by A.A. Tsagareli. Volume II, issue II. St. Petersburg 1902, p. 107 )
(50) (Letters and other historical documents of the 18th century relating to Georgia. Edited by A.A. Tsagareli. Volume II, issue II. St. Petersburg 1902, p. 106)
(51) (Z.Avalov, "Georgia joining Russia" St. Petersburg 1901, pp. 87,88)
(51-2) (G. Kazbek "Military history of the Georgian Grenadier H.I.V. Prince Konstantin Nikolayevich Regiment in connection with the history of the Caucasian War" Tiflis 1865, p. IX, X)
(52) (The Most Submissive Report to Emperor Catherine from General-Anshef Gudovich. September 28, 1795. Letters and other historical documents of the 18th century relating to Georgia. Edited by A.A. Tsagareli. Volume II, issue II. S.- Petersburg 1902, p. 110)
(53) (P.G. BUTKOV - MATERIALS FOR A NEW HISTORY OF THE CAUCASUS p. 477)
(53-2) (The most loyal report of General Knorring dated July 28, 1801, No. 1. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume I. P. 426. Tiflis 1866)
(54) (N. Dubrovin "George XII the last king of Georgia", St. Petersburg 1867, p. 226)
(55) (Arch. State Council, vol. III, part 2, St. Petersburg, 1878, p. 1197)
(56) (P.G. BUTKOV - MATERIALS FOR A NEW HISTORY OF THE CAUCASUS. Part two, p. 461, St. Petersburg 1869)
(57) (Note of the Georgian embassy about Georgia, November 23, 1800, St. Petersburg, "Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission" Volume I. Tiflis 1866, p. 179)
(58) (P.G. BUTKOV - MATERIALS FOR A NEW HISTORY OF THE CAUCASUS, part II, p. 465)
(59) (Vasily Aleksandrovich Potto, Lieutenant General, Chief of the General Staff of the Caucasian Army, military historian "The Caucasian War in separate essays, episodes, legends and biographies. Volume 1. From ancient times to Yermolov." S. PETERSBURG 1887, Chapter XXIII "Accession of Georgia" pp.300,301)
(60) (“Notes of Sergei Alekseevich Tuchkov”, St. Petersburg, 1908, pp. 175, 176)
(61) (notes by Sergei Alekseevich Tuchkov, p. 187, St. Petersburg 1908)
(62) (P.G. BUTKOV - MATERIALS FOR THE NEW HISTORY OF THE CAUCASUS, Part II, p. 463)
(63) Rescript to Knorring, January 20th, 1801. Tifl. arch. stationery US. Quoted according to N. Dubrovin “George XII the last king of Georgia, St. Petersburg 1867, p. 178
(63-1) Arch. min. internal dept. total affairs. Doing cargo. Book. 1. Quoted according to N. Dubrovin “George XII the last king of Georgia, St. Petersburg 1867, p. 199
(64) (notes by Sergei Alekseevich Tuchkov, p. 191, St. Petersburg 1908)
(65) (Letter from Dr. TS Guryev to General Tormasov dated September 25, 1810. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 109. Tiflis 1870.)
(66) (N. Dubrovin "George XII the last king of Georgia, St. Petersburg 1867, p. 234)
(67) (N. Dubrovin "George XII the last king of Georgia, St. Petersburg 1867, p. 241)
(68) (N. Dubrovin "George XII the last king of Georgia, St. Petersburg 1867, p. 209)
(69) (Z.Avalov "The accession of Georgia to Russia" St. Petersburg 1901, p.218)
(70) (Rescript of Alexander I of April 19, 1801; Dubrovin, p. 210)
(71) (Report of Lazarev to Knoring on March 23, 1801 Konstantinov. N. Dubrovin “George XII the last king of Georgia, St. Petersburg 1867, p. 218)
(72) (Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume II. P. 126. Tiflis 1868.)
(73) (P.G. BUTKOV - MATERIALS FOR A NEW HISTORY OF THE CAUCASUS, part II, p. 533)
(74) (notes by Sergei Alekseevich Tuchkov, pp. 197, 198, St. Petersburg 1908)
(75) (notes by Sergei Alekseevich Tuchkov, p. 199, St. Petersburg 1908)
(76) (notes by Sergei Alekseevich Tuchkov, pp. 197, 198, St. Petersburg 1908)
(77) (notes by Sergei Alekseevich Tuchkov, p. 200, St. Petersburg 1908)
(78) (Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume V. P. VIII. Tiflis 1873.)
(79) (Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume II. P. 135. Tiflis 1868.)
(80) (V.A. Potto "The Caucasian War in separate essays, episodes, legends and biographies", Volume 1, Issue 1, Edition 2, St. Petersburg 1887, Ch.XXXII. P. 428, General Nesvetaev )
(81) (Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume I. P. 572. Tiflis 1866.)
(82) (Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume II. Pp. 341-342. Tiflis 1868.)
(83) (The highest command to Prince Tsitsianov of October 26, 1803. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume II. P. 359. Tiflis 1868.)
(84) (Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume I. P. 571. Tiflis 1866.)
(85) (Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume II. P. 342. Tiflis 1868.)
(86) (Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume II. P. 378. Tiflis 1868.)
(87) (Report of Prince Tsitsianov to Prince Czartorysky dated March 10, 1804. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume II. P. 370. Tiflis 1868.)
(88) (The Most Submissive Report of Prince Tsitsianov dated March 23, 1804. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume II. P. 371. Tiflis 1868.)
(89) (Report of S.S. Litvinov to Prince Tsitsianov dated July 27, 1804. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume II. P. 395. Tiflis 1868.)
(90) (The most loyal report of Prince Tsitsianov dated April 25, 1804. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume II. P. 374, 375 Tiflis 1868.)
(91).
(92) (Letter from King Solomon to Gen. Tormasov dated January 5, 1810. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 216. Tiflis 1870)
(93) (Proclamation by Gen. Tormasov to the estate of the Imeretian clergy, princes, nobles and all Imereti peoples, dated January 21, 1810. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 219. Tiflis 1870.)
(94) (Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume II. P. 399. Tiflis 1868.)
(95) (Report of S.S. Litvinov to Prince Tsitsianov, dated October 12, 1804. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume II. P. 400. Tiflis 1868.)
(96) (Letter from King Solomon to Prince Tsitsianov dated June 15, 1805. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume II. P. 439. Tiflis.)
(97) (Letter from Prince Tsitsianov to Tsar Solomon dated October 8, 1805. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume II. P. 445. Tiflis)
(98) (The most loyal report of Prince Tsitsianov dated April 25, 1804. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume II. P. 374, 375 Tiflis 1868.)
(99) (Letter from Prince Tsitsianov to Tsar Solomon dated January 20, 1806. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume II. P. 450 Tiflis 1868.)
(100) (V.A. Potto “The Caucasian War in Separate Essays, Episodes, Legends and Biographies”, Volume 1, Issue III, Edition 2, St. Petersburg 1887, Ch.XXIV “Prince Tsitsianov”. Pp. 341, 342)
(101) (Letter of King Solomon to Prince Tsitsianov dated August 30, 1805. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume II. P. 442. Tiflis 1868)
(102) (Attitude of Baron Brudberg to Count Gudovich dated March 14, 1807. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume III. P. 135. Tiflis 1869)
(103) (Instruction, which has to be provided to the general-anshef, and with his permission to the Supreme Court, dated September 15, 1806. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume III. P. 124. Tiflis) occupy the capital of Imereti Kutaisi ( Letter of Tsar Solomon to Count Gudovich dated June 28, 1806. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume III. P. 115. Tiflis.)
(104) (Report of the general-m. Rykgof to the general-m. Nesvetaev dated July 27, 1806. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume III. P. 116. Tiflis 1869)
(105) (Report of General-Mr. Rykgof to Count Gudovich dated February 1, 1807. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume III. P. 130. Tiflis 1869)
(106) (Letter from Count Gudovich to Tsar Solomon dated July 14, 1808. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume III. P. 163. Tiflis 1869)
(107) (The Most Submissive Letter of Tsar Solomon dated July 29, 1807. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume III. P. 138. Tiflis 1869)
(108) (Relation of Count Gudovich to Count Rumyantsev dated December 1, 1807. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume III. P. 144. Tiflis 1869)
(109) (The highest command to Count Gudovich of February 10, 1808. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume III. P. 154. Tiflis 1869)
(110) (Proposal of Count Gudovich, General-Medical Prince Orbeliani dated February 10, 1809. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume III. P. 171. Tiflis 1869)
(110-1) (Attitude of Gen. Tormasov to Count Rumyantsev dated May 2, 1809. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume III. P. 195. Tiflis 1869)
(111) (Instruction of Gen. Tormasov, Gen.-M. Prince Orbeliani dated June 17, 1809. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 198, 199. Tiflis 1870)
(112) (Attitude of Gen. Tormasov to Count Rumyantsev dated July 10, 1809. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 202. Tiflis 1870)
(113) (Attitude of Gen. Tormasov to Count Rumyantsev dated April 13, 1810. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 248. Tiflis 1870)
(114) (Letter of King Solomon to Hussein Khan of Erivan dated 1809. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume III. P. 174. Tiflis 1870)
(115) (Attitude of Gen. Tormasov to Count Rumyantsev dated July 10, 1809. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 204. Tiflis 1870)
(116) (Report of Colonel Simonovich to General Tormasov dated December 12, 1809. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 212. Tiflis 1870)
(117) (Report of Colonel Simonovich to General Tormasov dated December 12, 1809. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 212. Tiflis 1870)
(118) (Proclamation of Gen. Tormasov to the estate of the Imereti clergy, princes, nobles and all Imereti peoples, dated January 21, 1810. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 219. Tiflis 1870)
(119) (Report of the researcher of Mogilev to General Tormasov dated February 12, 1810. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 225, 226. Tiflis 1870)
(120) (Report of Colonel Simonovich to General Tormasov dated February 21, 1810. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 229. Tiflis 1870)
(121) (Proclamation by Gen. Tormasov to the estate of the Imereti clergy, princes, nobles and all Imereti peoples, dated January 21, 1810. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 219. Tiflis 1870)
(122) (Report of Colonel Simonovich to General Tormasov dated February 21, 1810. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 229. Tiflis 1870)
(123) (Instruction of General Tormasov Colonel Simonovich of January 14, 1810. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 218. Tiflis 1870)
(124) (Handwritten letter from Gen. Tormasov to Prince Zurab Tsereteli dated February 25, 1810. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 234. Tiflis 1870)
(125) (Letter from Gen. Tormasov to Prince Zurab Tsereteli dated March 7, 1810. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 235. Tiflis 1870)
(126) (Report of Colonel Simonovich to General Tormasov dated April 11, 1810. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 241. Tiflis 1870)
(127) (Report of the researcher of Mogilev to General Tormasov dated March 9, 1810. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 235. Tiflis 1870)
(128) (Attitude of General Tormasov to Count Rumyantsev dated April 13, 1810. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 249. Tiflis 1870)
(129) (The most loyal report of General Tormasov dated May 25, 1810. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 273. Tiflis 1870)
(130) (Order of General Tormasov Capt. Titov dated July 31, 1810. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 311. Tiflis 1870)
(131) (Offer of Gen. Tormasov to Gen.-M. Simonovich dated August 9, 1810. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 313. Tiflis 1870)
(132) (Letter from General Tormasov to Empress Maria Katsievna dated April 1, 1810. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 239. Tiflis 1870)
(133) (Attitude of General Tormasov to Count Rumyantsev dated April 13, 1810. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 249. Tiflis 1870)
(134) (Order of General Tormasov Colonel Simonovich of April 11, 1810. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 244. Tiflis 1870)
(135) (Report of Gen.-M. Orbeliani to Gen. Tormasov on June 2, 1810. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 276. Tiflis 1870.)
(136) (The most loyal report of General Tormasov dated May 25, 1810. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 272. Tiflis 1870.)
(137) (Letter of King Solomon to Genateli-Metropolitan dated May 17, 1810. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 267. Tiflis 1870.)
(138) (Attitude of General Tormasov to Count Rumyantsev dated May 25, 1810. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 273. Tiflis 1870.)
(139) (Report of Ken.-m. Akhverdov gen.
Tormasov dated May 11, 1810. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. Page 264. Tiflis 1870.)
(140) (Order of Gen. Tormasov to Lieutenant Colonel Prosvirkin, holding the position of Tiflis commandant, dated July 26, 1810. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 308. Tiflis 1870.)
(141) (Attitude of General Tormasov to the Minister of War dated July 27, 1810. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 308. Tiflis 1870.)
(142) (Letter of King Solomon to Sahlt-Khutses Zurab Tsereteli dated May 23, 1810. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 270. Tiflis 1870.)
(143) (Report of the regiment of Simonovich to General Tormasov dated June 23, 1810. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 291. Tiflis 1870.)
(144) (Report of Gen.-M. Orbeliani to Gen. Tormasov dated July 5, 1810. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 299. Tiflis 1870.)
(145) (Letter of King Solomon to Sahlt-Khutses Zurab Tsereteli dated May 23, 1810. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 270. Tiflis 1870.)
(146) (Report of the Simonovich regiment to General Tormasov dated June 7, 1810. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 278. Tiflis 1870.)
(147) (Instruction of Gen. Tormasov, Gen.-M. Prince Orbeliani dated June 28, 1810. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 294. Tiflis 1870.), (Relation of Gen. Tormasov to the military Minister of July 6, 1810. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission, Volume IV, pp. 300, 301. Tiflis 1870.)
(148).
(149) (Instruction of Gen. Tormasov, General-Medical Prince Orbeliani dated July 15, 1810. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 304, 305. Tiflis 1870.)
(150) (Report of General Lt. Baron Rosen to General Tormasov dated August 6, 1810. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 312. Tiflis 1870.)
(151) (Report of General-Little Baron Rosen to General Tormasov dated August 22, 1810. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 314. Tiflis 1870.)
(152) (Report of General Lt. Baron Rosen to General Tormasov dated August 8, 1810. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 312. Tiflis 1870.)
(153) (Instruction of General Tormasov Colonel Simonovich of May 17, 1810. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 266. Tiflis 1870.)
(154) (Attitude of General Tormasov to Count Rumyantsev dated May 25, 1810. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 274. Tiflis 1870.)
(155) (Instruction of General Tormasov to General-Mate Akhverdov dated July 10, 1810. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 301. Tiflis 1870)
(156) (Report of Gen.-M. Simonovich to Gen. Tormasov dated September 30, 1810. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 322. Tiflis 1870)
(157) (Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume V. Page III. Tiflis 1873)
(158) (Attitude of Gen. Tormasov to Count Rumyantsev dated July 10, 1809. Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 204. Tiflis.)
(159) (Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission. Volume IV. P. 256, 259. Tiflis 1870)

In modern Georgia, it is not customary to recall the reasons for joining Kakheti and Kartli to the empire. In Tbilisi, they prefer to talk about the mythical "occupation" and the mythical "crimes" of tsarism and the Soviet leadership against the Georgians.
One and a half thousand years of Georgian history are filled with a lot of events. The territory of Georgia either expanded in size from the Black to the Caspian Seas from west to east and from the mountain peaks of the Greater Caucasus to present-day Anatolia from north to south, or shrunk to the territory of only two regions - Kakheti and Kartli. It was the difficult foreign policy situation that forced Heraclius II to ask for protection and military assistance.
It must be said that Heraclius was not the first to turn to Russia with such a request, back in 1586, the Georgian ambassadors prayed to Fyodor Ivanovich, so that he "accepted their people into his citizenship and saved their lives and souls." The most difficult external situation of the country forced them to do this - the Georgians were exhausted in the fight against Persia and the Ottoman Empire. They could not give up, they were waiting for complete assimilation and the loss of their Christian faith. Interestingly, tsarist Moscow did not remain deaf to the requests for help from the fraternal - "in Christ" - people and staged two campaigns, in 1594 and in 1604. Their task was to break through a corridor in the Transcaucasus, through Dagestan. But the Georgian army on the other side of the ridge was in no hurry to meet them, and the Russian troops were unable to complete the task.
For the first time, the Russian army entered the land of Georgia in the autumn of 1769, when the kings of Kakheti-Kartli Heraclius and Imereti Solomon decided to become allies of Catherine II in the Russian-Turkish war of 1768-1774. A detachment of cavalry - 400 people with four guns - led by Major General Gottlieb Totleben, crossed the Main Caucasian Range. Then its numbers grew due to the Tomsk Infantry Regiment, 4 cavalry squadrons, 500 Cossacks and 12 guns. In 1774, the Kyuchuk-Kaynarji peace treaty was signed, according to which Imereti and Guria were liberated from Turkish troops.
The second time, Russian troops entered Georgia in 1783 under the terms of the Treaty of St. George, in which Kakheti-Kartli was declared a vassal of the Russian crown. That is, there was no talk of joining the empire. Petersburg allocated two battalions - Gorsky Lieutenant Colonel Merlin and Belorussian Lieutenant Colonel Kvashnin-Samarin - with the task of defending the kingdom from the North Caucasian highlanders. And the Russian battalions completed their task - the highlanders were defeated in several battles.

A new war with the Ottoman Empire forced the Russian Empire to withdraw the battalions, because there was nothing to strengthen them, and they did not want to sacrifice them.
Again, Russian troops came to Georgia in 1799 at the request of Tsar George. These were the 17th Chasseurs (later the Life Grenadier Erivan) Regiment of Major General Ivan Lazarev and, a little later, the Kabardian Infantry Regiment of Major General Vasily Gulyakov.
On November 7, 1800, Russian units and the Georgian militia on the Iora River met a 15,000-strong mountaineer army led by the Avar Khan Omar. A fierce battle went on all day, the highlanders attacked the Russian-Georgian forces over and over again, but they were driven back. As a result, the highlanders were defeated, Khan Omar was mortally wounded, the invasion forces lost 2 thousand killed.
In fact, these were the first battles of the Caucasian war, which will go on for 6 decades. Russian troops protected the Georgian people from the predatory raids of the highlanders. There were no more major invasions, when villages and cities were destroyed, thousands of people died and were taken into slavery.
George XII, shortly before his death in 1800, ordered his ambassadors sent to St. care...".
In St. Petersburg, on June 24, 1800, the Georgian embassy handed over to the College of Foreign Affairs a draft document on citizenship. The first paragraph read: Tsar George XII "earnestly desires with his offspring, clergy, nobles and with all the people subject to him one day and forever to accept the citizenship of the Russian Empire, promising to sacredly fulfill everything that the Russians do."
At an audience on November 14, 1800, Count Rostopchin and S. L. Lashkarev announced to the Georgian ambassadors that Emperor Paul I accepted the tsar and all the Georgian people into eternal citizenship and agreed to satisfy all the requests of George XII, “but not otherwise than when one of envoys will go back to Georgia to announce there to the tsar and the people about the consent of the Russian emperor, and when the Georgians for the second time declare by letter of their desire to enter Russian citizenship.
George XII was promised to leave him the right of king until the end of his life. However, after his death, the Russian government intended to approve David XII Georgievich as governor-general with the title of king, and classify Georgia among the Russian provinces under the name of the Georgian kingdom.
On November 23, 1800, the emperor gave a rescript addressed to George XII on the acceptance of his kingdom into Russian citizenship, he further wrote: Our".
On December 22, 1800, Emperor Paul I signed a manifesto on the annexation of Georgia to Russia.
A few years later, Imeretia and Mengrelia voluntarily joined the empire, and in 1810 Abkhazia. During the Russian-Turkish wars of 1828–1829 and 1877–1878, the Georgian fortified cities of Akhalkalaki and Akhaltsikhe, Adzharia were recaptured from the Turks. According to historians, the Russian Empire, recapturing Georgian lands from the Persians, Turks, repulsing the invasions of the highlanders, lost a total of about 130 thousand people.
It is thanks to Russia that Georgia exists within its current borders.

Russian Empire. In the future, until the end of the existence of the empire in 1917 and the collapse of the state in 1918, Georgia remained part of Russia. Russian rule established peace in Georgia and protected it from external threats. At the end of the 19th century, discontent Russian authorities led to the creation of a growing national movement. Russian rule led to unprecedented changes in the social structure and economy of Georgia, making it open to European influence. The abolition of serfdom freed the peasants, but did not give them property. The growth of capitalism led to a sharp increase in the urban population and the mass creation of workers, which was accompanied by uprisings and strikes. The culmination of this process was the revolution of 1905. The leading political force in the last years of Russian rule was the Mensheviks. In 1918 Georgia became independent for a short time.

background

Georgian-Russian relations before 1801

Accession of Georgia to Russia

Main article: Accession of Georgia to the Russian Empire

The rulers of Georgia believed that they had no other choice. After the death of Heraclius II, a war for succession to the throne began in Georgia, and one of the contenders turned to Russia for help. On January 8, 1801, Paul I signed a decree on the annexation of Kartli-Kakheti to the Russian Empire. After the assassination of Paul, the decree was confirmed by his heir Alexander I on September 12 of the same year. In May 1801, General Karl Bogdanovich Knorring in Tbilisi overthrew the Georgian pretender to the throne, David, and installed the government of Ivan Petrovich Lazarev. The Georgian nobility did not recognize the decree until April 1802, when Knorring gathered everyone in the Sioni Cathedral of Tbilisi and forced them to take the oath to the Russian throne. Those who refused were arrested.

The policy of the tsarist government alienated part of the Georgian nobility. A group of young nobles, inspired by the Decembrist uprising of 1825 and the Polish uprising of 1830, organized a plot to overthrow the royal power in Georgia. Their plan was to invite all representatives of the royal power in Transcaucasia to a ball and kill them. The conspiracy was revealed on December 10, 1832, all its participants were deported to remote regions of Russia. In 1841 a peasant uprising took place. After the appointment of Prince Vorontsov as governor of the Caucasus in 1845, the policy changed. Vorontsov managed to attract the Georgian nobility to his side and Europeanize it.

Georgian society

Education

Abolition of serfdom

Serfdom in Russia was abolished in 1861. Alexander II also planned to abolish it in Georgia, but this was impossible without losing the newly acquired loyalty of the Georgian nobility, whose well-being depended on serf labor. The task of negotiating and finding a compromise solution was entrusted to the liberal Dimitri Kipiani. On October 13, 1865, the tsar signed a decree emancipating the first serfs in Georgia, although serfdom completely disappeared only in the 1870s. The serfs became free peasants and were able to move freely, marry of their choice, and take part in political activities. The landowners retained the right to all their land, but only part of it remained in their full ownership, while the former serfs who had lived on it for centuries received the right to rent. After paying a sufficient amount as rent to compensate for the loss of land to the owners, they received the land as their property.

The reform was met with disbelief by both landowners and peasants, who had to buy back the land, which was to take decades. Although the conditions created by the reform for landowners were better than for landlords in Russia, they were still dissatisfied with the reform, as they lost part of their income. In subsequent years, dissatisfaction with the reform influenced the creation of political movements in Georgia.

Immigration

Cultural and political currents

Incorporation into the Russian Empire changed the political and cultural orientation of Georgia: if it had previously followed the Middle East, it now turned towards Europe. Accordingly, Georgia became open to new European ideas. At the same time, many social problems in Georgia were the same as in Russia, and the political movements that emerged in Russia in the 19th century found followers in Georgia as well.

Romanticism

In the 1830s, Georgian literature was seriously influenced by romanticism. The largest Georgian poets - Alexander Chavchavadze, Grigol Orbeliani and in particular Nikoloz Baratashvili - were representatives of this trend. A recurring theme in their work was the appeal to the historical past in search of a golden age. Baratashvili's (only) poem, "The Fate of Georgia" ("Bedi Kartlis") expresses his ambiguous feelings towards the union with Russia. It contains a line Naked freedom like a nightingale Still sweeter than a golden cage(translated by Boris Pasternak).

Georgia was also a frequent theme in the works of Russian romanticism. In 1829, Pushkin visited Georgia; Georgian motifs are clearly seen in a number of his works. Most of Lermontov's works contain Caucasian themes.

Nationalism

Socialism

By the 1870s, a third, more radical political force had emerged in Georgia. Its members paid attention to social problems and identified themselves with similar movements in the rest of Russia. The first was Russian populism, but it did not gain sufficient popularity in Georgia. Socialism, especially Marxism, has been much more successful.

At the end of the 19th century, Georgia, especially the cities of Tbilisi, Batumi and Kutaisi, experienced industrialization. Large factories sprang up, were laid railways and with them came the working class. In the 1890s, members of the third generation of Georgian intellectuals, "Mesame-dasi", who considered themselves social democrats, turned their attention to him. The most famous of them are Noy Zhordania and Philip Makharadze, who got acquainted with Marxism in Russia. After 1905 they were the leading force in Georgian politics. They believed that the tsarist regime should be replaced by a democratic one, which in the future would lead to the construction of a socialist society.

The last years of Russian rule

Growing tension

In 1881, after the assassination of Alexander II, his successor Alexander III began to pursue a much tougher policy. In particular, he viewed any ideas of national independence as a threat to the existence of the empire. To strengthen centralization, he abolished the Caucasian governorship, relegating Georgia to the status of an ordinary Russian province. The study of the Georgian language was not welcomed, and even the name "Georgia" was forbidden to be used in the press. In 1886, a Georgian seminarian killed the rector of the Tbilisi Seminary in protest. When the already old Dmitry Kipiani decided to criticize the head of the Georgian church for attacks on seminarians, he was exiled to Stavropol, where he was killed under mysterious circumstances. Many Georgians believed that his death was the work of the Okhrana. Kipiani's funeral turned into a big anti-Russian demonstration.

At the same time, ethnic tensions between Georgians and Armenians grew. After the abolition of serfdom, the economic situation of the Georgian nobility worsened. Many, unable to adapt to the new economic order, sold their lands and entered the civil service or moved to the cities. The winners were the Armenians, who bought a significant part of the land. In cities, especially in