Austin Jersild. Orientalism and Empire: North Caucasus Mountain Peoples and the Georgian Frontier, 1845-1917. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2002.

Chapter 2

Conquest and Exile

In this year of 1864 a deed has been accomplished almost without precedent in history: not one of the mountaineer inhabitants remains on their former places of residence, and measures are being taken to cleanse the region in order to prepare it for the new Russian population.

Main Staff of Caucasus Army, 1864

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After most of Abkhazia’s indigenous Abkhazians were expelled to Ottoman lands firstly at the end of the Russian-Caucasian War (1864) and then following the Russo-Turkish War (1877-78), their vacated lands immediately started to attract colonisation from such diverse incomers as: Mingrelians, Armenians, Greeks, Estonians, Bulgarians, Germans and Modavians — leading Georgian activists at the time (such as the educationalist Iakob Gogebashvili) argued that the Abkhazians’ immediate neighbours in Western Georgia’s province of Mingrelia would most easily cope with the prevailing natural conditions, making them the ideal colonisers. However, the initial, rather desultory process of migration was to reach its apogee during the years of the Stalinist-Beriaite repression of the Abkhazians, namely 1937-53. In accordance with a decree of the Communist Party’s Central Committee of 27 May 1939, land was set aside and domiciles specially constructed to house the collective farmers and their families transported into Abkhazia from various regions of Western Georgia (principally Mingrelia).

Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, Tomus XXXII (1), pp. 83-111 (1978)

"Archbishop Johannes de Galonifontibus and his activity are well known to historians. However, historical literature was always preoccupied with the information his works offer concerning ecclesiastical history, the history of religious orders and missions. Primary attention was focused on his «Libellus de notitia orbis» — completed in 1404 — in which he summed up the experience of his long service in the Orient. The manuscript — despite its laconism, textual corruption and the hard explicability of its Latin in some places — is areal treasure-house of the history, ethnography and folklore of the Caucasian and Transcaucasian peoples.

In February 1947, the Abkhazian scholars Georgij Dzidzaria, Konstantin Shakryl, and Bagrat Shinkuba wrote a letter to the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks which spoke about numerous violations of the rights of the Abkhazian people.

Aivar Jürgenson | Tuna 3 / 2017

This article examines the Estonian August Martin’s activity in Abkhazian domestic politics, including his time as a member of parliament in 1919–1921. This period was important in Abkhazia’s domestic political developments. Abkhazia’s national independence, which had been lost in 1864, was restored in 1918. The highest authority in Abkhazia starting in November of 1917 was the Abkhazian People’s Council — the first Abkhazian parliament in history.