History of Georgia country: Encyclopedia II - History of Georgia country - Georgia under the Russian Empire 1801 - 1918

History of Georgia country - Georgia under the Russian Empire 1801 - 1918

In 1801, the Russian Tsar Alexander I exiled the royal family of Kartl-Kakheti. It was fully absorbed into the Russian Empire by 1804.

In the summer 1805 Russian troups on the river Askerani and near Zagam defeated the Persian army and protected Tbilisi.

From 1803 to 1878, as a result of numerous Russian wars against Turkey and Iran, several formerly Georgian territories were annexed to the Russian Empire. These areas (Batumi, Artvin, Akhaltsikhe, Poti, and Abkhazia) now represent the majority of the territory of Georgia.

Georgian dissatisfaction with Tsarist autocracy and Armenian economic domination led to the development of a national liberation movement in the second half of the 19th century. A large-scale peasant revolt occurred in 1905 which led to political reforms that eased the tensions for a period. During this time, the Marxist Social Democratic Party became the dominant political movement in Georgia, occupying all the Georgian seats in the Russian State Duma established after 1905. Josef Vissarionovich Djugashvili (aka Joseph Stalin), a Georgian Bolshevik, became a leader of the revolutionary (and anti-Menshevik) movement in Georgia.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Georgia under the Russian Empire 1801 - 1918", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki