Prince Vakhtang Orbeliani ( ka, ვახტანგ ორბელიანი) (April 5, 1812 – September 29, 1890) was a

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

Romanticist Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

poet and soldier in the

Imperial Russia The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, 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 th ...

n service, of the noble

House of Orbeliani The House of Orbeliani ( ka, ორბელიანი) was a Georgian noble family (tavadi), which branched off the House of Baratashvili in the 17th century and later produced several lines variously called Orbeliani, Orbelishvili (ორბ� ...

. Vakhtang Orbeliani was born in

Tiflis Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million pe ...

(Tbilisi), then under

n rule, to

Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. Th ...

Vakhtang Orbeliani and Princess Tekle, a beloved daughter of the penultimate Georgian king

Erekle II Heraclius II ( ka, ერეკლე II), also known as Erekle II and The Little Kakhetian ( ka, პატარა კახი ) (7 November 1720 or 7 October 1721 C. ToumanoffHitchins, KeithHeraclius II. ''Encyclopædia Iranica Online edit ...

. He was a brother of

Alexander Orbeliani Count Alexander Orbeliani (Jambakur-Orbeliani) ( ka, ალექსანდრე ორბელიანი ��ამბაკურ-ორბელიანი (May 24, 1802 – December 28, 1869) was a Georgia (country), Georgian Romantic ...

and a cousin of

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 ...

, fellow Romanticist poets. He studied at the Tiflis nobility school and enrolled into the

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 ...

Page Corps The Page Corps (russian: Пажеский корпус; french: Corps des Pages) was a military academy in Imperial Russia, which prepared sons of the nobility and of senior officers for military service. Similarly, the Imperial School of Jurisprud ...

which he did not graduate from and returned to homeland to lead, in 1832, a failed coup attempt against Russian rule in 1832. The conspirators planned to invite the Russian officials in the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historically ...

to a grand ball where they would be given the choice of death or surrender. After the collapse of this plot, Orbeliani was arrested and sentenced to death, but reprieved and exiled to

Kaluga Kaluga ( rus, Калу́га, p=kɐˈɫuɡə), a city and the administrative center of Kaluga Oblast in Russia, stands on the Oka River southwest of Moscow. Population: Kaluga's most famous resident, the space travel pioneer Konstantin Tsiol ...

. The abortive uprising and relatively mild punishment that followed forced many conspirators to see the independent past as irremediably lost and to reconcile themselves with the

Russian autocracy Tsarist autocracy (russian: царское самодержавие, transcr. ''tsarskoye samoderzhaviye''), also called Tsarism, was a form of autocracy (later absolute monarchy) specific to the Grand Duchy of Moscow and its successor states th ...

, transforming their laments for the lost past and the fall of the native dynasty into Romanticist poetry. In 1838, Orbeliani joined the Russian military service and served in the

Nizhny Novgorod Nizhny Novgorod ( ; rus, links=no, Нижний Новгород, a=Ru-Nizhny Novgorod.ogg, p=ˈnʲiʐnʲɪj ˈnovɡərət ), colloquially shortened to Nizhny, from the 13th to the 17th century Novgorod of the Lower Land, formerly known as Gork ...

Dragoon Dragoons were originally a class of mounted infantry, who used horses for mobility, but dismounted to fight on foot. From the early 17th century onward, dragoons were increasingly also employed as conventional cavalry and trained for combat w ...

regiment. Most of his military career was spent in the struggle against the rebellious mountainous tribes 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 ...

. He was placed in command of the Georgian

Grenadier A grenadier ( , ; derived from the word '' grenade'') was originally a specialist soldier who threw hand grenades in battle. The distinct combat function of the grenadier was established in the mid-17th century, when grenadiers were recruited fr ...

Regiment in 1855 and promoted to major general in 1860. Between 1858 and 1863, he carried out various administrative and military duties in the

North Caucasus The North Caucasus, ( ady, Темыр Къафкъас, Temır Qafqas; kbd, Ишхъэрэ Къаукъаз, İṩxhərə Qauqaz; ce, Къилбаседа Кавказ, Q̇ilbaseda Kavkaz; , os, Цӕгат Кавказ, Cægat Kavkaz, inh, ...

, including being commander in the restive districts of

Kabarda Grand Principality of Great Kabarda or East Circassia was a historical country in the North Caucasus corresponding partly to the modern Kabardino-Balkaria. It had better political organization than its neighbors and existed as a political commun ...

and Terek. Later in his career, he served as a member of peasants’ council and worked as an arbitrator. Like his elder brother Alexander’s, his poetry is obsessed with the destruction of the Georgian monarchy at the end of the 18th century, and the poet seeks console in a Christian patience. His best poetry is dominated by the sacred image of Georgian Christianity —

Grapevine cross The grapevine cross (Georgian: ჯვარი ვაზისა, ''Jvari Vazisa''), also known as the Georgian cross or Saint Nino's cross, is a major symbol of the Georgian Orthodox Church and apocryphally dates from the 4th century AD, when ...

of St. Nino.

Rayfield, Donald Patrick Donald Rayfield OBE (born 12 February 1942, Oxford) is an English academic and Emeritus Professor of Russian and Georgian at Queen Mary University of London. He is an author of books about Russian and Georgian literature, and about Josep ...

(2000), '' The Literature of Georgia: A History'', p. 143.

Routledge Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law, and ...

, . Vakhtang Orbeliani is buried in the western corner of

Tbilisi Sioni Cathedral The Sioni Cathedral of the Dormition () is a Georgian Orthodox cathedral in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. Following a medieval Georgian tradition of naming churches after particular places in the Holy Land, the Sioni Cathedral bears the name o ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Orbeliani, Vakhtang 1812 births 1890 deaths Male poets from Georgia (country) Military personnel from Tbilisi Imperial Russian Army generals Georgian generals in the Imperial Russian Army Georgian major generals (Imperial Russia) Nobility of Georgia (country) Writers from Tbilisi Russian military personnel of the Caucasian War 19th-century poets from Georgia (country) 19th-century male writers