King of Imereti Solomon I and the Project of Resettlement Kabardians to Georgia

Abstract

This article presents unknown fragments of political and diplomatic relations between Georgians and Kabardians in the 70-80s of the XVIII century. It reviews the project of Erekle II King of Kartli-Kakheti to resettle Kabardians to Georgia. As it was observed not only Erekle II King of Kartli-Kakheti, but also Solomon I King of Imereti participated in the project. Accordingly, it is confirmed that the project to resettle Kabardians to Georgia belonged not only to Erekle II King of Kartli-Kakheti, but also to Solomon I King of Imereti.282  Education and science of today: intersectoral issues and development of sciences . Purpose of the StudyThe purpose of the current study is to find out effective measures taken by the Georgian kings to strengthen relations with Kabardians, who had the greatest influence in the western part of the North Caucasus and define to what extent the Unified Georgian political spectrum was involved in the events. Tasks of the StudyThe task of the current study is to define: 1. Whether the project to resettle Kabardians to Georgia was on the one hand completely Georgianbelonging to the Kingdoms of Imereti and Kartli-Kakheti and on the other hand the coincidence of Georgian and Adyghe political interests.2. The reasons the Russian Empire opposed the referred project and levers used by St. Petersburg to disrupt the project. Novelty of the StudyThe current study is the first precedent in historiography reviewing the activities of the King of Imereti Solomon I in connection with the project of Kabardian resettlement to Georgia. It forms the grounds to assume that Solomon I is the initiator and co-author of this project together with Erekle the King of Kartli-Kakheti.It is demonstrated for the first time in historiography that four years after the failed project of 1778, when trying to implement the project again in 1782, Erekle used not his own diplomatic resources for sending to Kabardino but the diplomatic resources of Imereti Royal Court.The present study is a part of our scientific monograph, which is devoted to the Russian-Austrian plan for the transformation of Europe in the 70-90s of the centurythe Greek project. Excerpts from our research have been published in various scientific publications in Oxford [50;59;63], Cambridge [47;52;56], Washington[62],