Georgievsk Treaty of 1783

Georgievsk Treaty of 1783 

a “friendly treaty” between Russia and the Georgian kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti (Eastern Georgia); concluded at Georgievsk (Northern Caucasus) on July 24 (August 4).

The Georgian king Iraklii II recognized Russia as his protector and relinquished any independent foreign policy; he also obligated his troops to serve the Russian empress (art. 7). For her part, Catherine II pledged to preserve the integrity of Iraklii’s possessions. Georgia was given complete internal autonomy. The conditions of the treaty granted rights to the privileged Georgian classes (the gentry, clergy, and merchants) that were equal to those of the corresponding Russian classes.

Of special importance were four separate articles of the treaty. In accordance with them Russia was obliged to defend Georgia in case of war and during peace negotiations to insist upon the return to the Karteli-Kakhetian Kingdom of possessions that had long been theirs but that had been seized by Turkey. The treaty’s principal political importance was that it made Eastern Georgia a protectorate of Russia. The Treaty of Georgievsk severely weakened the positions of Iran and Turkey in Transcaucasia and formally ended their pretensions to Eastern Georgia.

REFERENCES

Polnoe sobranie zakonov, vol. 21. St. Petersburg, 1830, no. 15 835.
Gramoty i drugie istoricheskie dokumenty XVIII stoletiia otnosiashchiesia do Gruzii, vol. 2. St. Petersburg, 1902, issue 2, pp. 32-41.
Markova, O. “Prisoedinenie Gruzii k Rossii v 1801 g.” Istorikmarksist, 1940, no. 3.
Aleksidze, L. “Vzaimo otnosheniia Gruzii s Rossiei v XVI-XVIII vv.” Tr. Tbilisskogo in-ta, 1963, no. 94.

O. P. MARKOVA