Outbreak of Plague Pandemic in Georgia During the First half of the 19th Century

Abstract

During the reign of the King Giorgi XII the “Black Death” outbreak had occurred on several occasions in Georgia, however the Royal house had nor possessed enough power to set up quarantine places. Due to the fact that the spread of the epidemic had occurred from Turkey, the Georgian royal house had set the bounds on trades in Akhaltsikhe. It is worth noting that these measures had become successful for some time. Due to the many disease cases, the Russian government had set up a special quarantine near the “Blue” monastery in Tbilisi, for the population diseased with the plague. In 1802, there had been a new outbreak in Georgia, in Javakheti. Apart from Javakheti, many cases had taken place in the villages on Kartl-Kakheti, as this is attested from the correspondences of General Lazarev to Tsitsianoff. The first case of the plague had taken place near Tbilisi, in village on December 23, 1802. The information about the outbreak of the epidemy had been passed  to the Civil Governon General Sergey Tuchkov and Tsitsianoff, however, the later did not belive in the proided infromation. However, finally, Tsitsianoff had been convinced that the disease had in fact been the plague and therefore had decreed to close down Tbilisi and not let anyone beyond the city. Due to the fact spread of the disease, on January 13, 1803 Tsitsianof had requested Petersburg to provide necessary medical personnel and medicine to counter the epidemic threats. As according to the governmental decree, a special quarantine had been set up in Dusheti on August 1803. According to the sources from General Tuchkov, the population had been prohibited to leave the capital city. As according to the letter to Tsitsianoff, which had been based on the information provided by Executive Expedition members 1570 people had died of the epidemic in Georgia during 1803-1804.

The new wave of the “Black Plague” had been spread throughout the Caucasus from Turkey, among which was the case, when the epidemic outbreak had spread in the villages near Akhaltsikhe. The wide spread of the outbreak had occurred in Georgia in 1811 too. In 1812 plague had once more occurred in Georgia, which is attested in the “Chronicles of Abashidze” (“Imeretian Chronicles”), and according to which, the pandemic had resulted in large number of deaths. On May 1812 new cases of plague had been identified in Tbilisi, however, the local government had not informed the center. In Summer 1812, the epidemy had spread in the workers suburb, near the military hospital: 43 diseased and 36 patients with sytoms had been identified. Among the infected, 30 had died, whereas the rest had undergone the mandatory 10-day quarantine. In the end of September 1813, the disease had spread again. Stepane Mizandari had shown significant  care towards the diseased ones, during the endemic outbreak in Tbilisi, whereas as of the governmental decree he had been appointed to the quarterly supervisor and the quarantine commissioner positions. In the beginning of the nineteenth century, the waves of epidemic outbreak had put the population in terrible situation. The western part of Georgia had suffered significantly, due to the difficult social situation and the deaths as result of the epidemic outbreaks. This had not been coincidental, as the epidemic spread had started from Turkey and the ports on the Black Sea coastline, from the diseased travelers, which had assisted in fast-spreading of the disease.