Peter Butkov on the Conclusion of the Georgievsk Treaty

Abstract

The work of Peter Butkov (1775-1857), a former officer of the Russian army, a scholar passionate about the history of the Caucasus and the Middle East, "Materials for the history of the Caucasus in 1722-1803", contains many interesting episodes from the history of Georgia. After the author's death, his work was published in two volumes in 1869 by a special commission created in the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy.

In the previous issue of "Georgian Source-Studies", we published a translation of a part of Peter Butkov's work, which talks about Erekle II's request to receive Russian protection. The present part of the translation is a continuation of the previous publication. Here are the details of the decision to accept the Kartli-Kakheti kingdom under the protection of the Russian imperial court (actually turning this Georgian kingdom into a vassal of the empire) and the signing of a proper political agreement (Georgievsk Treaty). The text of the said treaty is also provided article by article. The reader will also find other issues related to the mentioned topic.

The Georgian translation of the text was made by Davit Merkviladze and Erekle Khutsishvili and represents chapters 107-109 of Butkov's work. Some of the comments attached to the text belong to the first publishers of the work, and some to the translators.