Batumi and Adjara as Part of the Kutaisi Governorate

Abstract

The aim of the present paper is to study and analyze the process of military, political and economic establishment of the Russian Empire in Batumi and the Adjara region in general during the existence of the Kutaisi Governorate (Guberniya), and the difficulties that the imperial government faced in pursuing this policy. The imperial government included the Batumi Oblast as part of the Kutaisi Governorate, which was restored in 1883, and divided it into the Batumi and Artvini Okrugs, and the Sukhumi district which was re-formed into the okrug. The position of an Assistant to the Military Governor of Kutaisi was created whose residence was in Batumi. In 1903, Batumi, Artvini and Sukhumi Okrugs were detached from the Kutaisi Governorate. The Batumi and Artvini Okrugs were united and re-formed into the Batumi Oblast which was governed by the Military Governor. The reports of the Governor of Kutaisi and the annual reviews of the Governorate provide the most important information about the main directions of the colonial policy of the Russian imperial government in the Batumi Oblast which contain rich factual material for the study of the new history of western and southwestern Georgia.

The paper shows that the reports of the Governor of Kutaisi and the reviews of the Governorate provide an insight into the process how Russia's military, political, and economic establishment in the region took place, and what difficulties the imperial government faced in pursuing the policy of Russification of the region compared to eastern Georgia based on the documents preserved in the Kutaisi Central Archive, works by 19th-century Russian historians and relevant Georgian-language literature.