Peter Butkov about the Request of Erekle II to be Received under the Protection of Russia

Abstract

Petre Butkov started his military service in the Russian Army in the Caucasus. In the 1790s he took part in
various military expeditions. In 1801-1803 P. Butkov was the head of the Chancellery of the Commander-in-Chief
of the Russian troops in Georgia, General K. Knorring. While in this position he had access to many important
documents of military-political significance about the Caucasus. Ater completing his military service, he continued to collect documentary material on this topic. Based on this rich documentary material, P. Butkov compiled the most recent history of the Caucasus of his time. But he died and could not prepared the work
for publication.
Later, the scholar's unfinished manuscripts were handed over by his widow to the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy. Ater several years of hard work, P. Butkov's mentioned work entitled “Materials for the new history
of the Caucasus from 1722 to 1803”, was finally published by a special commission in two volumes in 1869.
This time we present the translation of the part of P. Butkov's work, which, among other issues, mainly
deals with the circumstances of the request of Erekle II to be received under the protection of Russia. This
section is chapters 104-106 of P. Butkov's book. The Georgian translation from Russian is done by David
Merkviladze and Erekle Khutsishvili.