Caucasus Viceroyalty (1801–1917)

Russia conquered the Caucasus in the early 19th century, beginning with the annexation of the Georgian Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti and continuing with the Caucasian War and a series of conflicts against the Ottoman and Persian empires.

History

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 Karl Knorring 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 (present-day Tbilisi). Under 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).

Russia utilised a divide and rule strategy in the Caucasus, favouring local Christian groups (or, in the case of the Ossetians, converting them to Christianity) over Muslims. Georgians and Armenians were uniquely recognised as "culturally advanced" due to their Christian faith and often collaborated with the colonial administration in the South Caucasus, while Muslim Azerbaijanis were designated as "culturally backward" and did so less frequently. The Ossetians, who adhered to a melange of beliefs including Christian, Islamic and pagan traditions prior to Russian colonisation, were conscripted into the Imperial Russian Army, separating them from other ethnic groups in the North Caucasus. The Russian government also used Arabic as the official language of colonial administration in the North Caucasus following the defeat of Imam Shamil's Caucasian Imamate; at the time, Arabic was the lingua franca of the region's Muslim population.

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 3 February 1845 to 23 January 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 18 March 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).