Political Pamphlet: A Protest Against the Centenary Celebration: (An Echo from Oblivion – Mikheil Kheltuplishvili)

Abstract

In 1901, a political pamphlet titled “The Incorporation of Georgia into the Russian Empire” was published in Kutaisi in the Russian language – as a sharp protest against the pompous celebration of what was called the “uni­on” of Georgia with Russia – in reality, the centenary of its occupation.

For the first time, and with considerable depth, the pamphlet exami­ned both the Treaty of Georgievsk concluded during the reign of King Erekle II, and the Articles of Petition submitted by King George XII, boldly asserting that neither the first nor the second document envisaged the com­plete abolition of Georgian statehood or Georgia’s incorporation into the Russian Empire as a territorial unit or southern province – actions through which Russia would even go so far as to abolish the autocephaly of the Geor­gian Church.

By that time, the author – scholar, politician, and chairman of the Lea­gue for the Freedom of Georgia, Mikheil Kheltuplishvili – had already pas­sed away. Later, Ivane Javakhishvili would highly value his work and rein­force its legal assessments with additional arguments, yet the name of Mikheil Kheltuplishvili would gradually fade into obscurity.

Now, its Georgian version has been published, translated by Miranda Tkeshelashvili, with an extensive biographical essay and commentary by Dodo Chumburidze – in a sense, bringing Mikheil Kheltuplishvili closer to Solomon Dodashvili, thereby fully illuminating the personal virtues and scholarly-political contributions of the young scholar who passed away at the age of twenty-six.