On January 30 (January 18, old style), 1801, the manifesto of Emperor Paul I on the annexation of Georgia to Russia was promulgated in Russia.
This step protected the Georgians from the aggressive actions of the Ottoman Empire and Persia, and later other territories with a Georgian population were included in the Russian Empire.
History of Georgian statehood
The history of Georgian statehood has been difficult for centuries.
Given the important geopolitical position of Transcaucasia, Georgian lands were attacked by neighboring powers.
They were subordinated to the Pontic kingdom and the Roman Empire, and then served as an arena for the Iranian-Byzantine wars and Arab expansion.
At the end of the 10th - beginning of the 11th centuries, the eastern and western Georgian lands became a single state.
Its first ruler was King Bagrat III.
Until the beginning of the 13th century, Georgia was flourishing.
It overcame the invasion of the Seljuk Turks, spread its influence over large territories in the Black Sea region and established extensive international ties, including with the Old Russian state.
In the XIII-XIV centuries, a huge damage to Georgia was caused by the Mongol conquest and the invasion of Timur.
Political and economic difficulties, coupled with the growth of ambitions on the part of the feudal nobility, led to the gradual disintegration of the country into several independent kingdoms and principalities.
The situation became even more complicated in the 16th century.
First, the Ottomans invaded Imereti and plundered Kutaisi, and later the Persians captured Kartli.
Georgia has once again become an arena for rivalry between foreign invaders.
At the end of the 16th century, the Ottoman Empire subdued most of the Transcaucasia, but at the beginning of the 17th century, the Turks were ousted by the Persians, who captured about 200 thousand inhabitants of Eastern Georgia.
“The Persians and Turks made constant raids into the Georgian lands, tried to capture them.
All this was accompanied by massacres and the devastation of cities, therefore it led to the flight of the local population, "Vitaly Zakharov, professor of the Moscow State Pedagogical University, Doctor of Historical Sciences, said in an interview with RT.
According to experts, the position of the Georgian people, who adopted Christianity in the 4th-6th centuries, was complicated by the fact that they found themselves in a confessional environment alien to themselves.
Major Christian powers that could have asked for help were far enough away.
Capture of Tiflis by Aga Mohammed Khan
© Wikimedia commons
"The first close contacts with Russia arose in Kartli and Kakheti in the era of Peter I. With his Persian campaign, he indicated an interest in developing the eastern vector of Russian foreign policy," Vadim Mukhanov, senior researcher at the Center for Caucasus and Regional Security at MGIMO, said in a conversation with RT.
According to the expert, Peter's actions in the Caucasus did not solve all the problems of the Georgian lands, but strengthened the ties between Russia and the Transcaucasus.
After the invasion of the Turks in Georgia in 1723 and the fall of Tbilisi, the king of the Kartli state Vakhtang VI, together with his entourage, moved to Russia.
In the second half of the 18th century, King Heraclius II created a unified kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti, which included most of modern Eastern Georgia.
However, as Vitaly Zakharov noted, the situation in the Georgian lands remained difficult.
They were under strong pressure from the Turks, Persians and neighboring mountain tribes.
The economic situation in the country was extremely difficult.
Accession to Russia
“In Russia, they could not calmly watch how the neighbors were massacring the Georgian population.
In 1783, the Georgievsky treatise was concluded, according to which Russia established its protectorate over Kartli-Kakheti.
The Georgian state retained complete internal independence, but was subordinate to St. Petersburg in matters of foreign policy, "Mikhail Myagkov, scientific director of the Russian Military Historical Society, explained in a commentary to RT.
As historians note, St. Petersburg initially looked at Kartli-Kakheti as an ally that, with relatively little support, could turn into a “Caucasian barrier” for Ottoman and Persian aspirations.
However, these calculations did not justify themselves.
In 1784-1786, the Georgian lands were devastated as a result of the Ottoman and mountain raids, and in 1795 the Persians staged a pogrom in Eastern Georgia.
At the same time, the Kartli-Kakhetian kingdom itself was engulfed in internal contradictions.
Official St. Petersburg tried to convince Irakli II to carry out reforms aimed at strengthening state power and bringing order to the country, but the tsar refused to do this, citing his age and state of health.
At the end of the 18th century, Persia increased diplomatic pressure on Kartli-Kakheti, trying to subjugate the kingdom.
The Russian authorities had to think about a new format for relations with their Georgian allies.
However, St. Petersburg was distracted from Caucasian affairs by problems in Europe.
In 1798, Heraclius II died without concluding a new treaty with Russia.
Tsar George XII ascended the throne.
The new ruler at first took a wait and see attitude in relations with the Russian Empire.
However, increased pressure from Persia forced him to continue the negotiations begun by his predecessor.
At the same time, in order to get help from St. Petersburg, he hinted that otherwise he would be forced to establish ties with Persia and Turkey.
In 1799, between Russia and Kartli-Kakheti, the provisions of the Georgievsky Treaty began to fully operate again.
King of Georgia George XII
© Wikimedia commons
In 1800, Persia and the Muslim political associations of the Caucasus launched the process of forming a coalition against Kartli-Kakheti.
"And there is nothing to hope for Georgia, they have two guns for ten people, and the others are armed with burnt dogwood sticks, and to that must also be added that there is an internal disorder here, that everyone is rebelling, everything is fleeing the city, but now our guards are not allowed." - wrote in August 1800 the Russian military leader Major General Ivan Lazarev.
Russian troops managed to defend Kartli-Kakheti, but the representatives of the local elite realized that for the sake of permanent security guarantees, the format of relations should be changed.
A whole series of new threats arose before Russia at that time, and assistance to the Transcaucasian ally faded into the background.
“The situation in Georgia at the end of the 18th century was extremely difficult.
A few more campaigns from aggressive neighbors - and she could simply die out, ”said Vitaly Zakharov.
The Jaeger Regiment entered Tiflis on November 26, 1799
© Wikimedia commons
In 1800, the authorities of Kartli-Kakheti offered official St. Petersburg “once and for all to accept citizenship of the All-Russian Empire, pledging to sacredly fulfill everything that is performed by Russian subjects, without renouncing any laws and orders, as much as the power of that kingdom will allow, with the recognition of the All-Russian Emperor for his natural Sovereign and Autocrat ”.
Moreover, Tsar George XII refused to independently dispose of state revenues, transferring them to the Russian crown.
In December 1800, Emperor Paul I agreed to accept the proposals of Tsar George, but did not immediately announce his decision publicly.
On December 28, the seriously ill ruler of Kartli-Kakheti died.
Prince David declared his rights to the throne.
Against the background of these events, on January 30, 1801, the manifesto of Paul I was promulgated, which spoke of the agreement to satisfy the request of the late George XII for the entry of the Georgian state into Russia.
Paul I
© Wikimedia commons
According to historians, the process of the actual entry of Kartli-Kakheti into the Russian Empire slowed down due to the death in March 1801 as a result of the conspiracy of Emperor Paul I. In April, plenipotentiaries from Georgia arrived at the new Russian Tsar Alexander I, asking to confirm the decision of their predecessor.
Alexander hesitated, doubting the advisability of such a step.
But the commission sent to Kartli-Kakheti from St. Petersburg decided that the Georgian state alone would not be able to maintain its sovereignty.
Only after that, on September 12, 1801, Alexander I issued a manifesto “On the establishment of a new government in Georgia”.
After that, Georgia began to develop dynamically.
Over time, other Georgian lands became part of the empire.
If at the beginning of the XIX century the population of Georgia after enemy raids and epidemics was only about 400 thousand people, then in 1897 it reached 2.1 million. In the 1860s - 1870s serfdom was abolished in the Georgian lands.
Large enterprises and roads were built in Georgia, coal and manganese mining began.
New economic relations contributed to the growth of national consciousness and the labor movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
“The entry of Georgia into Russia was completely voluntary.
The Georgian population received all the rights that other people living in Russia had, and the local elite was incorporated into the Russian one.
From a moral point of view, Russia protected the weak, who was persecuted.
If not for this decision of the Russian authorities, the fate of the Georgian people in the 19th century could have turned out to be very sad, ”summed up Mikhail Myagkov.