Legal Aspects of the Accession of the Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti into the Russian Empire: "Supplication Points” of George XII, Two Imperial Manifestos of January 18 and September 12, 1801

The purpose of the study. The purpose of this article is to reconstruct the process of the incorporation of the Kartli-Kakhetian kingdom into the Russian Empire, which took place against the background of the deaths of two leading actors, George XII and Paul I. This not only complicated the accession, but also violated the correct legal sequence of the most important political and legal actions. Conclusions. The process of the incorporation of the Kartli-Kakhetian kingdom was started from the point of Russian-Georgian relations when the Georgievsky treatise of 1783 actually ceased to be effective. In 1795, this was clearly demonstrated by the Iranian army, which, with the full connivance of the government of the Russian Empire, occupied and destroyed Georgia. George XII in September 1799 initiated the conclusion of a new comprehensive agreement with the government of Paul I, which almost completely deprived Georgia of its state sovereignty and made it part of Russia. The subsequent accession was carried out in clear violation of legal and diplomatic procedures. In particular, the most important point for the Georgians, the preservation, albeit at a nominal level, the institution of monarchy, was completely ignored. Paul I signed the manifesto on Georgia's accession to Russia without the consent of George on the final version of the "mutual act" or an agreement on accession. Based on the reports of the State Council, Alexander I changed his initially negative attitude towards the full incorporation of Georgia. With the publication of the manifesto on September 12, 1801, he clearly believed that by annexing Georgia to the empire, he was saving it from extinction. Both manifestos on Georgia's accession reflected the practice of imperial, unilateral action, despite the entire long history of negotiations and the desire to join the Russian Empire repeatedly expressed by the Georgian side. The Georgians had to come to terms with the fact that their statehood was abolished and Georgia became part of the Russian Empire as an ordinary province.

the kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti, the Russian Empire, the Treaty of Georgievsk, "supplication points" of George XII, rescript, manifesto, incorporation, Gruzinskaya oblast, abolition of the royal Bagrationy dynasty