Ivane Abkhazi ( ka, ივანე აფხაზი) or Ivan Nikolayevich Abkhazov (russian: Иван Николаевич Абхазов) (1764 or 1786 – 1831) was a nobleman from
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
, who served in the
Imperial Russian
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. The ...
military and rose to the rank of major-general during the
Caucasus War
The Caucasian War (russian: Кавказская война; ''Kavkazskaya vojna'') or Caucasus War was a 19th century military conflict between the Russian Empire and various peoples of the North Caucasus who resisted subjugation during the R ...
.
Abkhazi, born of a
princely family
A royal family is the immediate family of kings/queens, emirs/emiras, sultans/ sultanas, or raja/rani and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the family of an emperor or empress, and the term papa ...
from
Kakheti
Kakheti ( ka, კახეთი ''K’akheti''; ) is a region (mkhare) formed in the 1990s in eastern Georgia from the historical province of Kakheti and the small, mountainous province of Tusheti. Telavi is its capital. The region comprises eigh ...
, was one of the first Georgian noblemen who joined the Russian military on the
Tsar
Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East Slavs, East and South Slavs, South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''Caesar (title), caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" i ...
's annexation of
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
in 1800. He rose in seniority during the
war with Iran (1804–13), being an aide to General
Pyotr Kotlyarevsky
Pyotr Stepanovich Kotlyarevsky (23 June 1782 – 2 November 1852) was a Russian military hero of the early 19th century.
Biography
He was born in the village of Olkhovatka near Kharkiv into a cleric's family. Kotlyarevsky was brought up in an i ...
. He was promoted to major in 1812, colonel in 1821, and major-general in 1826. He was instrumental in defeating the rebel prince
Aslan-Bey in
Abkhazia
Abkhazia, ka, აფხაზეთი, tr, , xmf, აბჟუა, abzhua, or ( or ), officially the Republic of Abkhazia, is a partially recognised state in the South Caucasus, recognised by most countries as part of Georgia, which vi ...
in the 1820s. During the
second war with Iran (1826–28) Abkhazi was chief of staff of General
Nikita Pankratiev's corps and then a military administrator of the
South Caucasia
The South Caucasus, also known as Transcaucasia or the Transcaucasus, is a geographical region on the border of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, straddling the southern Caucasus Mountains. The South Caucasus roughly corresponds to modern Arme ...
n Muslim provinces. In 1830, he commanded a punitive force which forced the
Ingush and
Ossetian highlanders into submission. His service had been awarded by the
Order of St. George
The Order of Saint George (russian: Орден Святого Георгия, Orden Svyatogo Georgiya) is the highest military decoration of the Russian Federation. Originally established on 26 November 1769 Julian (7 December 1769 Gregorian) a ...
, 4th Rank (1813). Count
Ivan Paskevich
Count Ivan Fyodorovich Paskevich-Erevansky, Serene Prince of Warsaw (russian: Ива́н Фёдорович Паске́вич-Эриванский, светлейший князь Варшавский, tr. ; – ) was an Imperial Russian mi ...
, his former superior in the Caucasus, summoned Abkhazi to service in
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
on his transfer to
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
, but Abkhazi died on his way to a new appointment.
Early life
Prince Abkhazi was born of the Georgian noble family, whose ancestor had fled Abkhazia to the
Kingdom of Kakheti
The Second Kingdom of Kakheti ( ka, კახეთის სამეფო, tr; also spelled Kaxet'i or Kakhetia) was a late medieval/ early modern monarchy in eastern Georgia, centered at the province of Kakheti, with its capital first at Grem ...
in eastern Georgia in the 17th century. His early life and career unfolded against the backdrop of a sequence of dramatic events in Georgia, from the
Iranian invasion in 1795 through the death of the last kings of Georgia,
Heraclius II and
George XII
George XII ( ka, გიორგი XII, ''Giorgi XII''), sometimes known as George XIII (November 10, 1746 – December 28, 1800), of the House of Bagrationi, was the second and last King of the Kingdom of Kartl-Kakheti in eastern Georgia from ...
in 1798 and 1800, respectively, and the ensuing dynastic crisis, all of which led to the arrival of the
Russian rule by early 1801.
Being one of the first in Georgia to have joined the Imperial service,
Prince Abkhazi remained a Russian loyalist even when many of his aristocratic compatriots became involved in secret societies plotting a coup for an independent Georgia. One of them, Prince
Grigol Orbeliani
Prince Grigol Orbeliani or Jambakur-Orbeliani ( ka, გრიგოლ ორბელიანი; ჯამბაკურ-ორბელიანი) (2 October 1804 – 21 March 1883) was a Georgia (country), Georgian Romanticist poet an ...
, a poet and Russian army officer, recalled an August 1831 dialogue with General Abkhazi, who maintained his conviction that the Russian withdrawal would have been a disaster for Georgia as, after the thirty years of a foreign rule, the country would have had a great difficulty in building a modern regular army to defend its independence against the neighbors in Asia.
Early career
Abkhazi began his career in the 17th
Jäger Regiment of the
Imperial Russian Army
The Imperial Russian Army (russian: Ру́сская импера́торская а́рмия, tr. ) was the armed land force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the early 1850s, the Russian Ar ...
in 1800. That year, in November, he took part in the battle on the
Iori, in which a combined Russo–Georgian army defeated the
Dagestan
Dagestan ( ; rus, Дагеста́н, , dəɡʲɪˈstan, links=yes), officially the Republic of Dagestan (russian: Респу́блика Дагеста́н, Respúblika Dagestán, links=no), is a republic of Russia situated in the North C ...
i chieftain Omar Khan of
Avary and his Georgian ally,
Prince Royal Alexander. During the Russo–Iranian war of 1804–13, Abkhazi was aide-de-camp to General Kotlyarevsky, who brought the protracted war to a victorious end by defeating the numerically superior Iranian army at
Aslanduz in October 1812. This was followed, in January 1813, by
storming of the
Caspian Caspian can refer to:
*The Caspian Sea
*The Caspian Depression, surrounding the northern part of the Caspian Sea
*The Caspians, the ancient people living near the Caspian Sea
*Caspian languages, collection of languages and dialects of Caspian peopl ...
fortress of
Lenkoran
Lankaran ( az, Lənkəran, ) is a city in Azerbaijan, on the coast of the Caspian Sea, near the southern border with Iran. As of 2021, the city had a population of 89,300. It is next to, but independent of, Lankaran District. The city forms a dis ...
, where Major Abkhazi commanded one of the attacking columns and was decorated with the Order of St. George for his conduct.
Abkhazian expedition and second war with Iran
After the war with Iran, Abkhazi continued his service in the Caucasus and, in November 1821, at the head of the 44th Jäger Regiment, fought under Prince
Pyotr Gorchakov
Prince Pyotr Dmitrievich Gorchakov (russian: Пётр Дми́триевич Горчако́в; 24 June 17906 March 1868) was an Imperial Russian Army general from the Gorchakov family of Russian nobility.
Life
He was an elder brother of Mikh ...
in Abkhazia. He successfully overran the Abkhaz defenses at the
Kodori, thereby paving way to Gorchakov's mission to install the Russian protege,
Dmitry Shervashidze, as prince of Abkhazia; Dmitry's rebellious relative, Aslan-Bey, had to take flight to
Circassia
Circassia (; also known as Cherkessia in some sources; ady, Адыгэ Хэку, Адыгей, lit=, translit=Adıgə Xəku, Adıgey; ; ota, چرکسستان, Çerkezistan; ) was a country and a historical region in the along the northeast ...
. On the outbreak of the second war with Iran in 1826, Abkhazi was made chief of staff of General Pankratiev's corps. In 1827, General Paskevich,
commander-in-chief in the Caucasus, appointed Abkhazi a military administrator in the former
South Caucasian khanates—
Karabakh
Karabakh ( az, Qarabağ ; hy, Ղարաբաղ, Ġarabaġ ) is a geographic region in present-day southwestern Azerbaijan and eastern Armenia, extending from the highlands of the Lesser Caucasus down to the lowlands between the rivers Kura (Caspia ...
,
Shaki, and
Shirvan
Shirvan (from fa, شروان, translit=Shirvān; az, Şirvan; Tat: ''Şirvan''), also spelled as Sharvān, Shirwan, Shervan, Sherwan and Šervān, is a historical Iranian region in the eastern Caucasus, known by this name in both pre-Islam ...
. The Imperial Russian military historian
Vasily Potto
Vasily Aleksandrovich Potto (russian: Василий Александрович Потто; 1 January 1836 – 29 November 1911) was a Russian lieutenant-general (1907) and military historian, known for his landmark works on the history of the Ca ...
reported that during his tenure Abkhazi, already known for his military prowess, showed great administrative skills. He was able to secure the loyalty of the local Muslim population, thereby preventing a large-scale anti-Russian insurrection in the region,
and, further, negotiated the return from Iran of the former khan of Karabakh,
Mehdi Quli, who would spend the rest of his life in private retirement in his former khanate. In 1829, Abkhazi provided security to the Iranian prince
Khosrow Mirza, returning through Karabakh from his mission to
St. Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
to offer apologies for the murder of the Russian diplomat
Aleksander Griboyedov
Alexander Sergeyevich Griboyedov (russian: Александр Сергеевич Грибоедов, ''Aleksandr Sergeevich Griboedov'' or ''Sergeevich Griboyedov''; 15 January 179511 February 1829), formerly romanized as Alexander Sergueevich Gri ...
in
Tehran
Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...
.
North Ossetian campaign
In June 1830, Prince Abkhazi, already a major-general by that time, returned to a field command at the head of an expeditionary force marshaled by Paskevich to eliminate the threat from the
North Caucasian mountaineers to the vital
Georgian Military Road
The Georgian Military Road or Georgian Military Highway (, 'sakartvelos samkhedro gza'' , os, Арвыкомы фæндаг 'Arvykomy fændag'' is the historic name for a major route through the Caucasus from Georgia to Russia. Alternative r ...
. In a campaign that lasted from 8 July to 6 August 1830, Abkhazi defeated the resistance of Ingush clans and brought the
North Ossetia
North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.
Etymology
The word ''north'' is ...
ns into submission; the recalcitrant
settlements were burned down. As the historian Potto related, so great an impression did Abkhazi's campaign make, that the people of Ossetia were much in the habit of considering his times as an era from which to count. Field Marshal Paskevich, leaving the Caucasus, invited Abkhazi to follow him in Poland, but the general died of
cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...
before reaching his destination.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abkhazi, Ivane
1764 births
1786 births
1831 deaths
Nobility of Georgia (country)
Imperial Russian major generals
Georgian generals in the Imperial Russian Army
Georgian major generals (Imperial Russia)
People of the Russo-Persian Wars
Russian military personnel of the Caucasian War
Deaths from cholera
House of Shervashidze