Garsewan Chavchavadze
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Prince Garsewan Chavchavadze ( Georgian გარსევან ჭავჭავაძე ; * July 20, 1775 in Kartlien-Kakheti, † April 7, 1811 in Saint Petersburg , Russia ) was a Georgian politician and diplomat. From 1784 to 1801 he was ambassador to Russia .
Life
He came from a royal family of third rank who lived in the Kingdom of Kakheti in eastern Georgia. For several years he served as adjutant general to King Irakli II of Kartlien-Kakheti. He later became Governor General of Kazakhstan Province.
In 1783 he negotiated the Georgian-Russian negotiations on the Georgievsk Treaty , which placed the Kingdom of Kartlien-Kakheti under Russian protection. In 1784 he became Georgian ambassador to the Russian court in Saint Petersburg. Tsarina Catherine II became the godmother of his son, who was born in St. Petersburg and later became a poet and general, Alexander Chavchavadze .
When Persia invaded Georgia in 1795 and devastated the country, he urged Russia to intervene militarily, as provided for in the treaty that had been concluded. But the Russian government reacted too slowly. The tsarist troops came too late. The battle of Krtsanisi was already lost. While Georgia's political elite turned away from Russia in disappointment, it continued to support the alliance with its northern neighbor. In 1799 he supported the proposal of the Georgian King Giorgi XII. on Georgia's accession to Russia on the condition that the Georgian royal family would retain the crown forever and that the country would have a certain local autonomy in the Russian legal system.
The accession negotiations in Saint Petersburg were still ongoing when Giorgi XII. 1800 died, the Russian Tsar in 1801, the annexation decreed Georgia and the Bagratids - Dynasty dethroned. Chavchavadze was appalled by this. He wrote to his family in Tbilisi that the Russians “didn't have one of Giorgi XII. Conditions met. They abolished our kingdom ... No country has ever been humiliated like Georgia ”. In September 1801 he presented the Russian Vice Chancellor, Prince Alexander Kurakin , with a formal protest note against the annexation of Georgia.
After the end of his ambassadorial activity in the same year, he returned to Georgia and campaigned in vain for the preservation of a minimum of regional autonomy. Because he repeatedly opposed Russian rule in the following years, he was deported to Russia in 1805. He was forbidden to return to his homeland. Chavchavadze lived in Saint Petersburg and was buried in the cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Monastery .
literature
- David M. Lang: The last years of the Georgian Monarchy: 1658-1832 . Columbia University Press, New York 1957
- Ronald Grigor Suny: The Making of the Georgian Nation . Bloomington / Indianapolis 1994, ISBN 0-253-35579-6
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Chavchavadze, Garsewan |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | გარსევან ჭავჭავაძე (Abkhazian) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Georgian politician and diplomat |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 20, 1775 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Kartlien-Kakheti, Georgia |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 7, 1811 |
| Place of death | Saint Petersburg , Russia |