Caucasus Viceroyalty (1801–1917)

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Caucasus Viceroyalty
Кавказское наместничество
Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire
1801–1917
Flag of Transcaucasia
Caucasus Viceroyalty 0.png
CapitalTiflis
Area 
• 1916
411,562 km2 (158,905 sq mi)
Population 
• 1916
12,306,373
History
History 
• Established
1801
• Disestablished
1917
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Qajar Iran
Ottoman Empire
Special Transcaucasian Committee

The Caucasus Viceroyalty was Imperial Russia's administrative and political authority in the Caucasus region exercised through the offices of glavnoupravlyayushchiy (Russian: главноуправляющий) (1801–1844, 1882–1902) and namestnik (наместник) (1844–1882, 1904–1917). These two terms are commonly, but imprecisely, translated into English as viceroy, which is frequently used interchangeably with governor general. More accurately, glavnoupravljajuščij is referred to as the High Commissioner of the Caucasus, and namestnik as Viceroy.

Over more than a century of the Russian rule of the Caucasus, the structure of the viceroyalty underwent a number of changes, with the addition or removal of administrative positions and redrawing of provincial divisions.[1]

History[]

Main article: Russian conquest of the Caucasus

The first time Russian authority was established over the peoples of the Caucasus was after the Russian annexation of the Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti (eastern Georgia) in 1801. General  [ru] was the first person to be assigned to govern the Caucasus territory, being officially titled as the Commander-in-Chief in Georgia and Governor-General of Tiflis (Tbilisi). Under of his successors, notably Prince Pavel Tsitsianov, General Aleksey Yermolov, Count Ivan Paskevich, and Prince Mikhail Vorontsov, Russian Transcaucasia expanded to encompass territories acquired in a series of wars with the Ottoman Empire, the Persian Empire, and local North Caucasian peoples. The scope of its jurisdiction eventually came to include what is now Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and the North Caucasus, as well as parts of Northeastern Turkey (today the provinces of Artvin, Ardahan, Kars, and Iğdır).[2]

Headquartered at Tiflis, the viceroys acted as de facto ambassadors to neighboring countries, commanders in chief of the armed forces, and the supreme civil authority, mostly responsible only to the Tsar. From February 3, 1845, to January 23, 1882, the viceregal authority was supervised by the Caucasus Committee as the Caucasus Krai, which consisted of representatives of the State Council and the ministries of Finances, State Domains, Justice, and Interior, as well as of members of special committees. After the 1917 February Revolution, which dispossessed Tsar Nicholas II of the Russian crown, the Viceroyalty of the Caucasus was abolished by the Russian Provisional Government on March 18, 1917, and all authority, except in the zone of the active army, was entrusted to the civil administrative body called the Special Transcaucasian Committee or Ozakom (short for Osobyy Zakavkazskiy Komitet, Особый Закавказский Комитет).

Ethnographic map of Russian Transcaucasia, 1880.

Administrative divisions[]

According to the 1917 Caucasian Calendar, there were 6 governorates, 5 oblasts, 2 special administrative okrugs, and 1 gradonachalstvo within the Caucasus Viceroyalty:

Governorates Oblasts Special Administrative Okrugs Gradonachalstvos
Baku Batum Zakatal Baku
Elisabethpol Dagestan Sukhumi ...
Kutais Kars ... ...
Tiflis Kuban ... ...
Black Sea Terek ... ...
Erivan ... ... ...
Palace of the Caucasus Viceroy in Tiflis, 1860s.

Map Gallery[]

  • Baku Gradonachalstvo

  • Baku Governorate

  • Batum Oblast

  • Dagestan Oblast

  • Elisabethpol Governorate

  • Zakatal Okrug

  • Kars Oblast

  • Kuban Oblast

  • Kutais Governorate

  • Sukhumi Okrug

  • Terek Oblast

  • Tiflis Governorate

  • Black Sea Governorate

  • Erivan Governorate

Demographics[]

Caucasian Calendar of 1917[]

The 1917 Caucasian Calendar which produced statistics of 1916 indicates 12,306,373 residents in the Caucasus Viceroyalty:[3]

Ethno-religious groups in the Caucasus Viceroyalty according to the 1917 Caucasian Calendar[3]
Province Russians Other Europeans Georgians Armenians North Caucasians Kurds Other Asian Nationalities Gypsies Jews TOTAL
Orthodox Sectarian Muslim Yezidi Christian Shia Muslim Sunni Muslim
Baku Grad. 94,094 9,695 7,522 8,974 77,166 11,386 501 191 4,773 152,898 29,930 239 7,650 405,829
23.2% 2.4% 1.9% 2.2% 19.0% 2.8% 0.1% 0.0% 1.2% 37.7% 7.4% 0.1% 1.9% 100.0%
Baku Gov. 40,761 31,874 89 30 42,921 49,775 0 0 161 429,818 262,756 0 17,561 875,746
4.7% 3.6% 0.0% 0.0% 4.9% 5.7% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 49.1% 30.0% 0.0% 2.0% 100.0%
Batum 8,245 300 975 78,839 15,192 656 552 0 2,244 694 14,342 165 607 122,811
6.7% 0.2% 0.8% 64.2% 12.4% 0.5% 0.4% 0.0% 1.8% 0.6% 11.7% 0.1% 0.5% 100.0%
Dagestan 35,846 277 987 179 4,752 545,614 0 0 785 15,615 91,977 0 17,310 713,342
5.0% 0.0% 0.1% 0.0% 0.7% 76.5% 0.0% 0.0% 0.1% 2.2% 12.9% 0.0% 2.4% 100.0%
Elisabethpol 20,765 16,012 7,415 1,030 418,859 11,166 3,802 0 10,866 477,934 305,131 39 2,112 1,275,131
1.6% 1.3% 0.6% 0.1% 32.8% 0.9% 0.3% 0.0% 0.9% 37.5% 23.9% 0.0% 0.2% 100.0%
Zakatal[a] 326 0 23 4,574 2,530 41,780 0 0 16 577 42,779 0 3 92,608
0.4% 0.0% 0.0% 4.9% 2.7% 45.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.6% 46.2% 0.0% 0.0% 100.0%
Kars[4][b] 5,329 13,869 796 4,231 123,170 1,033 54,931 17,749 20,241 19,505 105,071 38,279 101 404,305
1.3% 3.4% 0.2% 1.0% 30.5% 0.3% 13.6% 4.4% 5.0% 4.8% 26.0% 9.5% 0.0% 100.0%
Kuban 2,784,591 34,440 30,765 996 24,571 133,671 45 0 3,660 814 6,436 341 2,353 3,022,683
92.1% 1.1% 1.0% 0.0% 0.8% 4.4% 0.0% 0.0% 0.1% 0.0% 0.2% 0.0% 0.1% 100.0%
Kutais 15,875 10 982 993,412 4,605 32 0 0 1,479 133 144 0 17,796 1,034,468
1.5% 0.0% 0.1% 96.0% 0.4% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 1.7% 100.0%
Sukhumi[c] 25,345 130 6,648 50,383 20,743 399 0 0 103,164 219 2,390 0 250 209,671
12.1% 0.1% 3.2% 24.0% 9.9% 0.2% 0.0% 0.0% 49.2% 0.1% 1.1% 0.0% 0.1% 100.0%
Terek 563,751 29,290 36,300 3,961 30,430 671,203 0 0 358 6,157 28,727 1,886 5,860 1,377,923
40.9% 2.1% 2.6% 0.3% 2.2% 48.7% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.4% 2.1% 0.1% 0.4% 100.0%
Tiflis 132,190 20,619 24,903 642,636 411,747 47,751 5,932 4,697 55,970 38,982 67,517 1,120 19,244 1,473,308
9.0% 1.4% 1.7% 43.6% 27.9% 3.2% 0.4% 0.3% 3.8% 2.6% 4.6% 0.1% 1.3% 100.0%
Black Sea 119,465 456 21,353 6,086 18,059 4,104 0 0 5,339 1,571 68 12 1,793 178,306
67.0% 0.3% 12.0% 3.4% 10.1% 2.3% 0.0% 0.0% 3.0% 0.9% 0.0% 0.0% 1.0% 100.0%
Erivan 9,126 6,977 865 374 669,871 59 36,508 18,296 3,321 364,635 8,947 693 570 1,120,242
0.8% 0.6% 0.1% 0.0% 59.8% 0.0% 3.3% 1.6% 0.3% 32.5% 0.8% 0.1% 0.1% 100.0%
TOTAL 3,856,519 163,949 139,623 1,795,705 1,864,616 1,518,629 102,271 40,933 212,377 1,509,552 966,215 42,774 93,210 12,306,373
31.3% 1.3% 1.1% 14.6% 15.2% 12.3% 0.8% 0.3% 1.7% 12.3% 7.9% 0.3% 0.8% 100.0%

High commissioners and viceroys of the Caucasus[]

Notes[]

  1. ^ The Zakatal Okrug was detached from the Tiflis Governorate in 1905 to be administered as a special separate administrative okrug.
  2. ^ The Caucasian Calendar for 1917 did not receive the Olti Okrug data for 1916, therefore, the latest available data is used from the 1915 Calendar for the year 1914.
  3. ^ The Sukhum Okrug was detached from the Kutais Governorate in 1903 to be administered as a special separate administrative okrug.

References[]

  1. ^ (in Armenian) Hambaryan, Azat S. (1981). "Հայաստանի սոցիալ-տնտեսական և քաղաքական դրությունը 1870-1900 թթ." [Armenia's social-economic and political situation, 1870–1900] in Hay Zhoghovrdi Patmut'yun [History of the Armenian People], ed. Tsatur Aghayan et al. Yerevan: Armenian Academy of Sciences, vol. 6, pp. 15–17.
  2. ^ Tsutsiev, Arthur (2014). Atlas of the Ethno-Political History of the Caucasus. Translated by Nora Seligman Favorov. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 37. ISBN 9780300153088.
  3. ^ a b Кавказский календарь .... на 1917 год (in Russian). Tiflis: Office of the Viceroy of the Caucasus. 1917. pp. 349–378.
  4. ^ Кавказский календарь .... на 1915 год (in Russian). pp. 303–304.

Further reading[]

  • Atkin, Muriel (1980). Russia and Iran, 1780–1828. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 978-0816609246.
  • Baddeley, John F. (1908). The Russian Conquest of the Caucasus. London: Longmans, Green and Co.
  • Breyfogle, Nicholas (2005). Heretics and Colonizers: Forging Russia's Empire in the South Caucasus. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0801442421.
  • Haxthausen, Baron August von (2016) [1854-55]. Transcaucasia and the Tribes of the Caucasus. Translated by John Edward Taylor. Introduction by Pietro A. Shakarian. Foreword by Dominic Lieven. London: Gomidas Institute. ISBN 978-1909382312.
  • Jersild, Austin (2003). Orientalism and Empire: North Caucasus Mountain Peoples and the Georgian Frontier, 1845-1917. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press. ISBN 978-0773523296.
  • King, Charles (2008). The Ghost of Freedom: A History of the Caucasus. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195177756.
  • Layton, Susan (1995). Russian Literature and Empire: Conquest of the Caucasus from Pushkin to Tolstoy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521444439.
  • Tsutsiev, Arthur (2014). Atlas of the Ethno-Political History of the Caucasus. Translated by Nora Seligman Favorov. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0300153088.

See also[]

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