The Akhalkalaki uezd[b] was a county (uezd) of the Tiflis Governorate of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire, and then of Democratic Republic of Georgia, with its administrative centre in Akhalkalak (present-day Akhalkalaki).[1] The county bordered the Gori uezd to the north, the Borchaly uezd to the east, the Alexandropol uezd of the Erivan Governorate and the Kars and Ardahan okrugs of the Kars Oblast to the south, and the Akhaltsikhe uezd to the west. The area of the county roughly corresponded to the contemporary Samtskhe–Javakheti region of Georgia.
Akhalkalaki uezd Ахалкалакский уезд | |
|---|---|
 Coat of arms | |
 Location in the Tiflis Governorate | |
| Country | Russian Empire |
| Viceroyalty | Caucasus |
| Governorate | Tiflis |
| Established | 1874 |
| Abolished | 1930 |
| Capital | Akhalkalak (present-day Akhalkalaki) |
| Area | |
| • Total | 2,739.32 km2 (1,057.66 sq mi) |
| Population (1916) | |
| • Total | 107,173 |
| • Density | 39/km2 (100/sq mi) |
| • Urban | 6.58% |
| • Rural | 93.42% |
History
The territory of the Akhalkalaki uezd, then part of the Akhaltsikhe uezd, entered into the Kutais Governorate of the Russian Empire following the Russo-Turkish War of 1828. By 1874, the Akhkalaki uezd was detached from the hitherto larger Akhaltsikhe uezd, becoming a constituent county of the Tiflis Governorate.[1]
Following the Russian Revolution, the Akhalkalaki uezd was incorporated into the short-lived Democratic Republic of Georgia, however, it was strongly disputed by the Democratic Republic of Armenia which also claimed the county on the grounds of history and ethnography.[1]
As a result of the Ottoman occupation of the uezd, of the initial 80,000 Armenians in 1918, 30,000 died whilst the surviving 40,000 still in the district were affected by famine and concubinage.[2]
Lord Curzon during the Paris Peace Conference discussions on the fate of the independent Transcaucasian republics assessed the ethnographic situation in the southwestern uezds of the Tiflis Governorate:[3]
On the grounds of nationality, therefore, these districts ought to belong to Armenia, but they command the heart of Georgia strategically, and on the whole it would seem equitable to assign them to Georgia, and give their Armenian inhabitants the option of emigration into the wide territories assigned to the Armenians towards the south-west.
Administrative divisions
The subcounties (uchastoks) of the Akhalkalaki uezd in 1913 were as follows:[4]
| Name | 1912 population | Area |
|---|---|---|
| Baraletskiy uchastok (Баралетский участок) | 51,061 | 895 square versts (1,019 km2; 393 sq mi) |
| Bogdanovskiy uchastok (Богдановский участок) | 41,331 | 1,512 square versts (1,721 km2; 664 sq mi) |
Demographics
Russian Empire Census
According to the Russian Empire Census, the Akhalkalaki uezd had a population of 72,709 on 28 January [O.S. 15 January] 1897, including 37,903 men and 34,806 women. The majority of the population indicated Armenian to be their mother tongue, with significant Tatar,[c] Georgian, and Russian speaking minorities.[7]
| Language | Native speakers | % |
|---|---|---|
| Armenian | 52,539 | 72.26 |
| Tatar[c] | 6,572 | 9.04 |
| Georgian | 6,448 | 8.87 |
| Russian | 5,155 | 7.09 |
| Kurdish | 810 | 1.11 |
| Turkish | 296 | 0.41 |
| Ukrainian | 286 | 0.39 |
| Jewish | 211 | 0.29 |
| Polish | 145 | 0.20 |
| Lithuanian | 87 | 0.12 |
| Greek | 75 | 0.10 |
| German | 40 | 0.06 |
| Belarusian | 12 | 0.02 |
| Avar-Andean | 6 | 0.01 |
| Ossetian | 4 | 0.01 |
| Chechen | 3 | 0.00 |
| Mingrelian | 3 | 0.00 |
| Persian | 3 | 0.00 |
| Romanian | 3 | 0.00 |
| Other | 11 | 0.02 |
| TOTAL | 72,709 | 100.00 |
Kavkazskiy kalendar
According to the 1917 publication of Kavkazskiy kalendar, the Akhalkalaki uezd had a population of 107,173 on 14 January [O.S. 1 January] 1916, including 56,140 men and 51,033 women, 106,307 of whom were the permanent population, and 866 were temporary residents:[8]
| Nationality | Urban | Rural | TOTAL | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | |
| Armenians | 6,151 | 87.19 | 76,624 | 76.53 | 82,775 | 77.23 |
| Georgians | 265 | 3.76 | 10,039 | 10.03 | 10,304 | 9.61 |
| Russians | 429 | 6.08 | 7,113 | 7.10 | 7,542 | 7.04 |
| Sunni Muslims[d] | 0 | 0.00 | 5,431 | 5.42 | 5,431 | 5.07 |
| Kurds | 0 | 0.00 | 904 | 0.90 | 904 | 0.84 |
| Jews | 204 | 2.89 | 0 | 0.00 | 204 | 0.19 |
| Other Europeans | 6 | 0.09 | 7 | 0.01 | 13 | 0.01 |
| TOTAL | 7,055 | 100.00 | 100,118 | 100.00 | 107,173 | 100.00 |
See also
Notes
References
Bibliography
- Bournoutian, George A. (2018). Armenia and Imperial Decline: The Yerevan Province, 1900–1914. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-351-06260-2. OCLC 1037283914.
- Hovannisian, Richard G. (1971). The Republic of Armenia: The First Year, 1918–1919. Vol. 1. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520019843.
- Кавказский календарь на 1913 год [Caucasian calendar for 1913] (in Russian) (68th ed.). Tiflis: Tipografiya kantselyarii Ye.I.V. na Kavkaze, kazenny dom. 1913. Archived from the original on 19 April 2022.
- Кавказский календарь на 1917 год [Caucasian calendar for 1917] (in Russian) (72nd ed.). Tiflis: Tipografiya kantselyarii Ye.I.V. na Kavkaze, kazenny dom. 1917. Archived from the original on 4 November 2021.
- Tsutsiev, Arthur (2014). Atlas of the Ethno-Political History of the Caucasus (PDF). Translated by Nora Seligman Favorov. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300153088. Archived (PDF) from the original on 17 June 2023.