On the Issue of Georgievsk Treaty’s Evaluation

Abstract

Representatives of the Russian Empire and the Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti signed a treaty at the fortress of Georgievsk in 1783. The issue of the treaty has not lost its urgency to this day.

Russian colonial rule has been representing The Treaty of Georgievsk, as the wish of King Erekle to establish a “permanent union” with “coreligionist Russia” for the ideological aim.

After the collapse of the Russian Empire, during the First Republic of Georgia, there was an opportunity to express a free opinion on the history of Russian-Georgian political relations. However, the issue had not been researched deep enough.

In the first stage of the Soviet period, the entry of the Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti under Russian protection was called “the least evil” act, which “saved the Georgian people from physical destruction”. In the second phase of communist rule, the Treaty of Georgievsk was declared an unconditional “progressive event” by Soviet propaganda.

Some “soviet” historians sincerely and firmly shared the provisions given in the form of directives by Soviet propaganda. The second part probably did not fully agree with these “scientific dogmas”, but still considered itself obliged to follow the ideological instructions of the Communist Party. There were rare exceptions when some scholars in their research focused on the many negative aspects of the treatise. However, their conclusions corresponded to the propagandistic framework.

Even after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the restoration of Georgia's independence, the propaganda stereotypes about the Treaty of Georgievsk remained in people's minds.

Recently, an interesting trend has emerged: the previous idea of friendship with the “savior” of Georgia, Russia, and the “brotherly” Russian people has been replaced by the idea of a “wise and foresighted” King Erekle. Thus, some Georgian scholars breathed new life into the Soviet theory of “lesser evil”.

Nor can we share the view that under the geopolitical system of Amasya, the Georgian authorities had no other way and their orientation towards Russia was the only solution for them to dismantle the existing geopolitical system, which again reflects the “least evil” theory.

Recently, in some circles in Russia, there has been an attempt to revive old theories in a new way. Others in Russia are trying to justify the annexation of the Georgian Kingdom by Russia, arguing that Russian vassal King Erekle himself had violated some terms of the treaty. But it is not confirmed even by the Russian historical documents.

In our study, based only on the analysis of the original sources and historical facts, we tried to look at the event from different perspectives.