Georgia within the Russian Empire
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History of Georgia |
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The country of
Until 1918, Georgia would be part of the Russian Empire. Russian rule offered the Georgians security from external threats, but it was also often heavy-handed and insensitive to locals. By the late 19th century, discontent with the Russian authorities led to a growing national movement. The Russian Imperial period, however, brought unprecedented social and economic change to Georgia, with new social classes emerging: the emancipation of the
Background: Russo-Georgian relations before 1801
By the 15th century, the Christian
But during the second half of the century a third imperial power emerged to the north, namely the Russian state of
Vakhtang's successor, Heraclius II, king of Kartli-Kakheti from 1762 to 1798, turned towards Russia for protection against Ottoman and Persian attacks.[5] The kings of the other major Georgian state, Imereti (in Western Georgia), also contacted Russia, seeking protection against the Ottomans.[6] Russian empress Catherine the Great undertook a series of initiatives to enhance Russian influence in the Caucasus and strengthen the Russian presence on the ground.[7][8] These involved reinforcing the defensive lines that had been established earlier in the century by Peter the Great,[8] moving more Cossacks into the region to serve as border guards,[7] and building new forts.[9]
War broke out between the Russians and Ottomans in 1768, as both empires sought to secure their power in the Caucasus.[9] In 1769–1772, a handful of Russian troops under General Tottleben battled against Turkish invaders in Imereti and Kartli-Kakheti.[10] The course cut by Tottleben and his troops as they moved from north to south over the centre of the Caucasian Mountains laid the groundwork for what would come to be formalised through Russian investment over the next century as the Georgian Military Highway, the major overland route through the mountains.[9] The war between the Russians and Ottomans was concluded in 1774 with the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca.[7]
In 1783, Heraclius II signed the
The Russian annexations
Eastern Georgia
In spite of Russia's failure to honour the terms of the Treaty of Georgievsk, Georgian rulers felt they had nowhere else to turn. The Persians had sacked and burned Tbilisi, leaving 20,000 dead.
After Giorgi's death on 28 December 1800, the kingdom was torn between the claims of two rival heirs,
Now that Russia was able to use Georgia as a bridgehead for further expansion south of the Caucasus, Persia and the Ottoman Empire felt threatened. In 1804,
Western Georgia
Solomon II of Imereti was angry at the Russian annexation of Kartli-Kakheti. He offered a compromise: he would make Imereti a Russian protectorate if the monarchy and autonomy of his neighbour was restored. Russia made no reply. In 1803, the ruler of Mingrelia, a region belonging to Imereti, rebelled against Solomon and acknowledged Russia as his protector instead. When Solomon refused to make Imereti a Russian protectorate too, the Russian general Tsitsianov invaded and on 25 April 1804, Solomon signed a treaty making him a Russian vassal.[29]
However, Solomon was far from submissive. When war broke out between the Ottomans and Russia, Solomon started secret negotiations with the former. In February 1810, a Russian decree proclaimed that Solomon was dethroned and ordered Imeretians to pledge allegiance to the tsar. A large Russian army invaded the country, but many Imeretians fled to the forests to start a resistance movement. Solomon hoped that Russia, distracted by its wars with the Ottomans and Persia, would allow Imereti to become autonomous. The Russians eventually crushed the guerrilla uprising but they could not catch Solomon. However, Russia's peace treaties with Ottoman Turkey (1812) and Persia (1813) put an end to the king's hopes of foreign support (he had also tried to interest Napoleon). Solomon died in exile in Trabzon in 1815.[30]
In 1828–29,
Early years of Russian rule
Integration into the empire
During the first decades of Russian rule, Georgia was placed under military governorship. The land was at the frontline of Russia's war against Turkey and Persia and the commander-in-chief of the Russian army of the region was also the governor. Russia gradually expanded its territory in Transcaucasia at the expense of its rivals, taking large areas of land in the rest of the region, comprising all of modern-day
The Russian government also managed to alienate many Georgian nobles, prompting a group of young aristocrats to
Georgian society
When Russian rule began in the early 19th century Georgia was still ruled by royal families of the various Georgian states, but these were then deposed by the Russians and sent into
Emancipation of the serfs
Serfdom was a problem not just in Georgia but throughout most of the Russian Empire. By the mid-19th century the issue of freeing the serfs had become impossible to ignore any longer if Russia was to be reformed and modernised. In 1861,
Over the years, after they had made sufficient payments to compensate the landlords, this land would become their own private property. In the event, the reforms pleased neither nobles nor the ex-serfs. Though they were now free peasants, the ex-serfs were still subject to the heavy financial burden of paying rent and it usually took decades before they were able to buy the land for themselves. In other words, they were still dependent on the nobles, not legally, but economically. The nobles had accepted the emancipation only with extreme reluctance and, though they had been more favourably treated than landowners in much of the rest of the empire, they had still lost some of their power and income. In the following years, both peasant and noble discontent would come to be expressed in new political movements in Georgia.[39]
Immigration
During the reign of
Cultural and political movements
Incorporation into the Russian Empire changed Georgia's orientation away from the Middle East and towards Europe as members of the intelligentsia began to read about new ideas from the West. At the same time, Georgia shared many social problems with the rest of Russia, and the Russian political movements that emerged in the 19th century looked to also extend their following in Georgia.[42]
Romanticism
In the 1830s, Romanticism began to influence Georgian literature, which enjoyed a revival thanks to famous poets such as Alexander Chavchavadze, Grigol Orbeliani and, above all, Nikoloz Baratashvili. They began to explore Georgia's past, seeking a lost golden age which they used as an inspiration for their works. One of Baratashvili's best-known poems, Bedi Kartlisa ("Georgia's Fate"), expresses his deep ambivalence about the union with Russia in the phrase "what pleasure does the nightingale receive from honour if it is in a cage?"[43]
Georgia became a theme in Russian literature as well. In 1829, Russia's greatest poet Alexander Pushkin visited the country and his experience is reflected in several of his lyrics. His younger contemporary, Mikhail Lermontov, was exiled to the Caucasus in 1840. The region appears as a land of exotic adventure in Lermontov's famous novel A Hero of Our Time and he also celebrated Georgia's wild, mountainous landscape in the long poem Mtsyri, about a novice monk who escapes from the strictness of religious discipline to find freedom in nature.[44]
Nationalism
In the mid-19th century, Romantic patriotism gave way to a more overtly political national movement in Georgia. This began with a young generation of Georgian students educated at
Socialism
By the 1870s, alongside these conservative and liberal nationalist trends, a third, more radical political force had emerged in Georgia. Its members focused on social problems and tended to ally themselves with movements in the rest of Russia. The first stirrings were seen in the attempt to spread Russian populism to the region, though the populists had little practical effect. Socialism, particularly Marxism, proved far more influential in the long run.[46]
Industrialisation had come to Georgia in the late 19th century, particularly to the towns of Tbilisi,
Later Russian rule
Increasing tensions
In 1881, the reforming Tsar Alexander II was assassinated by Russian populists in Saint Petersburg. His successor Alexander III was much more autocratic and frowned on any expression of national independence as a threat to his empire. In an effort to introduce more central control, he abolished the Caucasus Viceroyalty, reducing Georgia's status to that of any other Russian province. Study of the Georgian language was discouraged and the very name "Georgia" (Russian: Грузия, Georgian: საქართველო) was banned from newspapers. In 1886, a Georgian student killed the rector of the Tbilisi seminary in protest. When the ageing Dimitri Kipiani criticised the head of the Church in Georgia for attacking the seminary students, he was exiled to Stavropol, where he was mysteriously murdered. Many Georgians believed his death was the work of tsarist agents and mounted a huge anti-Russian demonstration at his funeral.[48]
The revolution of 1905
The 1890s and early 1900s were marked by frequent strikes throughout Georgia. The peasants, too, were still discontented, and the Social Democrats won peasants and urban workers over to their cause. At this stage, the Georgian Social Democrats still saw themselves as part of an all-Russian political movement. However, at the Second Congress of the all-Russian Social Democratic Party held in Belgium in 1903, the party split into two irreconcilable groups: the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks. By 1905, the Social Democratic movement in Georgia had overwhelmingly decided in favour of the Mensheviks and their leader Noe Zhordania. One of the few Georgians to opt for the Bolshevik faction was the young Ioseb Jughashvili, better known as Joseph Stalin.[49]
In January 1905, the troubles within the Russian Empire came to a head when the army fired on a crowd of demonstrators in Saint Petersburg, killing at least 96 people. The news provoked a wave of protests and strikes throughout the country in what became known as the
The years between 1906 and the outbreak of World War I were more peaceful in Georgia, which was now under the rule of a relatively liberal Governor of the Caucasus, Count Ilarion Vorontsov-Dashkov. The Mensheviks believed they had gone too far with the violence of late 1905. Unlike the Bolsheviks, they now rejected the idea of armed insurrection. In 1906, the first elections for a national parliament (the Duma) were held in the Russian Empire and the Mensheviks won the seats representing Georgia by a landslide. The Bolsheviks had little support except in the Manganese mine of Chiatura, though they gained publicity with an armed robbery to gain funds in Tbilisi in 1907. After this incident, Stalin and his colleagues moved to Baku, the only real Bolshevik stronghold in Transcaucasia.[51]
World War I and independence
Russia entered World War I against Germany in August 1914. The war aroused little enthusiasm from the people in Georgia, who did not see much to be gained from the conflict, although 200,000 Georgians were mobilised to fight in the army. When Turkey joined the war on Germany's side in November, Georgia found itself on the frontline. Most Georgian politicians remained neutral, though pro-German feeling and the sense that independence was within reach began to grow among the population.[52]
In 1917, as the Russian war effort collapsed, the February Revolution broke out in Saint Petersburg. The new Provisional Government established a branch to rule Transcaucasia called Ozakom (Extraordinary Committee for Transcaucasia). There was tension in Tbilisi since the mainly Russian soldiers in the city favoured the Bolsheviks, but as 1917 went on, the soldiers began to desert and head northwards, leaving Georgia virtually free from the Russian army and in the hands of the Mensheviks, who rejected the October Revolution that brought the Bolsheviks to power in the Russian capital. Transcaucasia was left to fend for itself and, as the Turkish army began to encroach across the border in February 1918, the question of separation from Russia was brought to the fore.[citation needed]
On 22 April 1918, the parliament of Transcaucasia voted for independence, declaring itself to be the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic. It was to last for only a month. The new republic was made up of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, each with their different histories, cultures and aspirations. The Armenians were well aware of the Armenian genocide in Turkey, so for them defence against the invading army was paramount, while the Muslim Azeris were sympathetic to the Turks. The Georgians felt that their interests could best be guaranteed by coming to a deal with the Germans rather than the Turks. On 26 May 1918, Georgia declared its independence and a new state was born, the Democratic Republic of Georgia, which would enjoy a brief period of freedom before the Bolsheviks invaded in 1921.[53]
See also
References
- ISBN 978-0-19-539239-5.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-539239-5.
- ^ Suny, page 49
- ^ Suny pp.47-54
- ^ Suny pp.57-58
- ^ Assatiani and Bendianachvili, pages 220 and 222. Alexander V sent a special embassy to Russia in 1738 and Solomon I sent one in 1768.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-539239-5.
- ^ a b Gammer, Moshe (September 2013). "Empire and Mountains: The Case of Russia and the Caucasus". Social Evolution & History. 12: 121.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-539239-5.
- ^ Rayfield, page 242
- ^ Rayfield, page 250
- ^ Rayfield, page 255
- ^ Kazemzadeh 1991, pp. 328–330.
- ^ Suny pp.58-59
- ^ Rayfield (2012), page 256: "That day Tbilisi burned; those who had not fled were slaughtered or enslaved (the merchants had three days earlier loaded their wares onto ox-carts and left). Fifty years' work building schools, libraries, a printing press, military and civic institutions was undone in three days; churches and palaces were desecrated and demolished; 20,000 bodies littered the streets; survivors died of epidemics and hunger."
- ^ Rayfield, page 256
- ^ Rayfield, page 258
- ^ Gvosdev (2000), p. 85
- ^ Avalov (1906), p. 186
- ^ Gvosdev (2000), p. 86
- ^ Lang (1957), p. 249
- ^ Lang (1957), p. 251
- ^ Lang (1957), p. 247
- ^ Rayfield, page 259
- ^ Lang (1957), p. 252
- ^ Assatiani and Bendianachvili, pages 253-4
- ^ Suny, page 64
- , Retrieved 23 April 2024
- ^ Assatiani and Bendianachvili, pages 247-248
- ^ Assatiani and Bendianachvili, pages 250-252
- ^ Suny, page 64
- ^ Allen F. Chew. "An Atlas of Russian History: Eleven Centuries of Changing Borders", Yale University Press, 1970, p. 74
- ISBN 1598849484
- ^ Suny pp.84-85
- ^ Suny pp.70-73
- ^ Suny pp. 70-73
- ^ Suny p.73 ff.
- ^ This section: Suny, Chapter 4
- ^ This whole section: Suny, Chapter 5: "Emancipation and the End of Seigneurial Georgia"
- ^ Coene, Frederik, 'The Caucasus - An Introduction', (2011).
- ^ Sunny p.122
- ^ Suny p.124 ff.
- ^ Suny p.125 ff.
- ^ Suny p. 137
- ^ Suny p.131 ff.
- ^ Entire section on cultural and political movements: Suny Chapters 6 and 7
- ^ Suny pp.140-41
- ^ Suny pp.155-64
- ^ Suny pp.167-170
- ^ Suny pp.171-78
- ^ Suny pp.178-80
- ^ Entire "Later Russian rule" section: Suny Chapters 7 and 8
Sources
- ISBN 0-253-20915-3.
- D.M. Lang: A Modern History of Georgia (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1962)
- ISBN 978-3-515-12057-9
- Anchabadze, George: History of Georgia: A Short Sketch, Tbilisi, 2005, ISBN 99928-71-59-8
- Avalov, Zurab: Prisoedinenie Gruzii k Rossii, Montvid, S.-Peterburg 1906
- Gvosdev, Nikolas K.: Imperial policies and perspectives towards Georgia: 1760-1819, Macmillan, Basingstoke 2000, ISBN 0-312-22990-9
- Fisher, William Bayne; Avery, P.; Hambly, G. R. G; Melville, C. (1991). The Cambridge History of Iran. Vol. 7. Cambridge: ISBN 0521200954.
- Kazemzadeh, Firuz (1991). "Iranian relations with Russia and the Soviet Union, to 1921". In Avery, Peter; Hambly, Gavin; Melville, Charles (eds.). The Cambridge History of Iran (Vol. 7). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521200950.
- Donald Rayfield, Edge of Empires: A History of Georgia (Reaktion Books, 2012)
- Nodar Assatiani and Alexandre Bendianachvili, Histoire de la Géorgie (Harmattan, 1997)