Imperial Policies and Perspectives Towards Georgia, 1760-1819 (St. Antony's Series)

220 Pages·2000·2.7 MB·English

by  Nikolas K. Gvosdev

Imperial Policies and
Perspectives towards
Georgia, 1760–1819
Nikolas K. Gvosdev
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St Antony’s Series
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Imperial Policies and
Perspectives towards
Georgia, 1760–1819
Nikolas K. Gvosdev
in association with
ST ANTONY’S COLLEGE, OXFORD
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First published in Great Britain 2000 by
MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London
Companies and representatives throughout the world
Acatalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 0–333–74843–3
First published in the United States of America 2000 by
ST. MARTIN’S PRESS, INC.,
Scholarly and Reference Division,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010
ISBN 0–312–22990–9
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gvosdev, Nikolas K., 1969–
Imperial policies and perspectives towards Georgia, 1760–1819 / Nikolas K.
Gvosdev.
p. cm. — (St Antony’s series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0–312–22990–9
1. Russia—Foreign relations—Georgia (Republic) 2. Georgia (Republic)–
–Foreign relations—Russia. 3. Russia—Foreign relations—1689–1801.
4. Russia—Foreign relations—1801–1825. 5. Georgia (Republic)—Foreign
relations—To 1801. 6. Potemkin, Grigorii Aleksandrovich, kniaz’, 1739–1791.
7. Tsitstianov, Pavel Dmitrievich, kniaz’, 1754–1806. I. Title. II. Series.
DK68.7.G28 G88 2000
327.4704758—dc21
99–048655
©Nikolas K. Gvosdev 2000
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made
without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written
permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act
1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright
Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P0LP.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to
criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained
forest sources.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wiltshire
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To my parents and grandparents
for their inspiration and support
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Contents
List of Maps viii
Foreword ix
A Note on Terms, Transliterations and Dates xi
List of Abbreviations xiv
Acknowledgements xv
Introduction xvi
1 Setting the Stage 1
Medieval Georgia 1
Contacts between Russia and Georgia 5
Direction of Russian Foreign Policy in the
Eighteenth Century 9
2 The Embassy of Teimuraz II 14
3 Russia and Georgia during the Turkish War (1768–74) 26
4 The Treaty of Georgievsk (1783) and its Aftermath 46
5 Georgia Abandoned (1787–97) 63
6 The Incorporation of Eastern Georgia into
the Russian Empire (1798–1801) 77
7 Tsitsianov and the Consolidation of Imperial Power
in Georgia (1802–6) 99
8 Solidifying the Russian Presence in Georgia (1806–12) 117
9 Final Consolidation (1812–19) 135
Concluding Thoughts 141
Notes 143
Bibliography 171
Index 184
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List of Maps
1. Russia’s southward expansion in the eighteenth century xx
2. The Georgian lands in the eighteenth century xxi
viii
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Foreword
When I first became interested in this topic – how the Georgian lands
were incorporated into the Russian Empire at the close of the eight-
eenth century – I still subscribed to many of the truisms I had been
taught about the nature of Russian imperial expansion. I accepted that
the ‘most striking feature of Russian history’ was the ‘prodigious
growth’ of the Empire in all directions along the Eurasian plain, a con-
tinuous probing in the search for new territories. I believed that Mos-
cow’s definition of itself as ‘the Third Rome’, the sole defender and
protector of world Orthodoxy, if not sincerely believed by all members
of the ruling elite, was still a useful ideology for the Empire to cloak
other motives for expansion.1 The many books on Russian history
which I had read, including a number of specialized surveys dealing
with the policies and personalities of the Russian Empire of the eight-
eenth century, did nothing to challenge these beliefs. Most of these
texts never mentioned Georgia at all, and the few that did usually
devoted only a few lines (out of hundreds of pages), almost as an aside,
to mention that Russia extended a protectorate over and then annexed
the ancient Orthodox kingdom of Georgia, as if this was a perfectly nat-
ural and inexorable event in the course of Russia’s development.
One day I happened to locate a request from a frontier commander in
the Caucasus mountains asking for instructions from St. Petersburg
with regard to an Georgian Orthodox bishop seeking entry into the
Russian Empire. I knew from my studies that the Russian government
often hosted foreign Orthodox prelates, especially from the Balkans and
the Middle East, in order to facilitate relations with potential allies who
might be in a position to undermine the Ottoman Turks. To my sur-
prise, the response from the College of International Affairs reminded
the frontier officer of standing policy: that all Orthodox clerics of what-
ever rank were denied permission to cross the frontier unless they had
clearance. Shocked by the implications of what I was reading, I quickly
retranslated the paragraph to make sure that I had not misunderstood.
Ihad not.
1Victor S. Mamatey, Soviet Russian Imperialism (New York: Van Nostrand Rein-
hold, 1964), p. 23.
ix