Where is Bagration from? Bagratids and Bagrations. Bagration's last - Battle of Borodino

As I promised in one of my previous posts, I am posting a short story about the princely family of Bagration-Mukhrani, which is the oldest branch of the royal Bagration dynasty that ruled in medieval Georgia. The post is my translation of an article from English Wikipedia (with some additions).

Coat of arms of Bagrationi.

Mukhrani House- a Georgian aristocratic family, a branch of the former royal Bagrationi dynasty, which separated in the 16th century and received the Mukhrani region, located in Kartli (central Georgia), as fief. The family is known as Mukhrani - Batoni (princes of Mukhrani, მუხრანბატონი).

The elder branch of the House of Mukhrani, now extinct, produced five kings of Kartli, reigning between 1658 and 1724. Their heirs bore the titles of Princes of Georgia and Princes Bagration in the Republic of Ingushetia. Another branch, which ruled in Mukhrani as tavadi and known among the princely nobility as Bagration - Mukhrani (Bagration - Mukhraneli) exists to this day and since 1957 is considered the Royal House of Georgia as the oldest surviving branch of the Bagrationi dynasty. The current head of the House of David Bagration - Mukhrani has held the title since January 16, 2006.

Story.

Ksani fortress, built by the ancestor of the Mukhrani family, Prince Bagrat, to protect Kartli from the attacks of “Evil George”.

The history of the House of Mukhrani dates back to 1512, when King David X of Kartli was forced to give his younger brother Bagrat the ownership of the Mukhrani region, entrusting him with protecting his kingdom from the invasions of another Georgian ruler, King George II of Kakheti, nicknamed Av-Giorgi (“Evil One”). George").

After some time, the princes of Mukhrani, taking advantage of the weakness of the royal power, turned their fief possession into the semi-independent principality of “satavado” (possession of tavadi). When King Rostom of Kartli died childless, his adopted son Vakhtang Mukhrani inherited the throne as Vakhtang V in 1659, and gave the principality of Mukhrani to his younger brother Constantine I, who is the ancestor of all subsequent Mukhrani princes.

The family pride of the owners of Mukhrani has even become a proverb. “Why are you sitting there like Mukhransky?” - they say in Georgia to arrogant people.

The heirs of Vakhtang V, the senior branch of the Mukhrani, ruled in Kartli until 1724, when an invasion of the Turks forced Vakhtang VI and his court to flee to Russia, without him renouncing his rights to the throne. In exile, the elder Bagrationi-Mukhranskys formed two branches. One - the Georgian princes, descended from the son of Vakhtang VI Bakar, was suppressed in 1892.

Meet Prince Peter Bagration. Also Mukhransky.

Another - descended from Vakhtang's nephew Alexander, the most famous representative is Prince Peter Bagration, Russian general, participant Napoleonic Wars, hero of the Battle of Borodino. This branch ended in the male line in 1920 after the death of the brothers Dmitry and Alexander Bagrationov. The throne of Kartli formally (more precisely, virtually) passed to their distant relatives, the Kakheti Bagrations.

The descendants of Constantine decided to stay in Kartli, and not leave with King Vakhtang for Russia. They retained their possessions in Mukhrani under the Kakheti Bagrations and the titles of Chief of the Palace of Georgia and Supreme Ruler of Upper Kartli.

After the Russian annexation of Georgia in 1801, the princes of Georgia and Mukhrani retained the autonomy of their domains and were recognized as princes of the Russian Empire in 1825 and 1850 respectively.

Bagration-Mukhransky Palace in Tiflis (Tbilisi).

Representatives of this family traditionally played an important role in the Caucasus, being leaders of the nobility of the Tiflis province and holding responsible positions in the office of the governor of the Caucasus.

As mentioned above, the branch of the House of Mukhrani, known in Russia as the Georgian princes, was suppressed.

Bagration-Mukhrani Palace in Mukhrani. Photo from 1930.

The establishment of Soviet power in Georgia forced representatives of the dynasty to leave Russia. In 1957, Prince Irakli Bagration-Mukhrani, who lived in Spain, proclaimed himself the head of the Royal House of Georgia, the title was inherited by his son George, grandson David, who returned to Georgia.

Prince George Bagration-Mukhrani, head of the Georgian Royal House with his family.

In addition, another contender for the Georgian throne is Prince Nugzar, head of the House of Bagrations - Georgian, scions of the Kakheti Bagrations.

Prince Nugzar Petrovich Bagration-Gruzinsky, contender for the throne of the Georgian Kingdom, rival of the Bagration-Mukhranskys.

Intra-dynastic wedding.

Wedding of the Head of the Georgian Royal House David Georgievich Bagration-Mukhrani and Princess Anna Nugzarovna Bagration-Gruzinskaya.

On February 8, 2009, the daughter of Prince Nugzar, Princess Anna, divorced, a teacher by profession, mother of two daughters, married Prince David Bagration - Mukhrani. The wedding attracted many guests (about 3,000 people), including representatives of foreign countries, journalists, and public figures. Significant event fueled discussions within the country on the possibility of restoring the monarchy in the country.

Princess Anna Bagration-Gruzinskaya.

The Primate of the Georgian Orthodox Church Patriarch Ilia II.

Ilia II, His Holiness and Beatitude Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia (Irakli Georgievich Gudushauri-Shiolashvili). One of the most authoritative and respected people in Georgia, an ardent supporter of the restoration of the monarchy in the country.

The wedding reconciled representatives of two monarchist groups - supporters of the House of Bagrationi - Mukhraneli and supporters of the Kakheti branch of the Bagrationi - Bagrationi - Georgian. Both branches go back to one common ancestor - King Constantine II of Georgia (died 1505).

The Mukhranis are an older branch of the royal dynasty, but lost the throne of Kartli in 1724.

The Kakheti Bagrations are younger than the Mukhranis, but they united Kartli and Kakheti in 1762 and ruled the united state until the Russian annexation of Georgia in 1800 - 1801. Bagrations - Georgian - descendants of the last Georgian king George XII.

Born in marriage to Anna and David, the son George Bagration - Bagrationi, is the heir in the male line of both the last king of a united Georgia, Constantine II, and the last Bagration who reigned in Kakheti - George XII.

Several photographs of Tsarevich George:

The baby is only three years old, but he already has such a serious, downright regal look.

We hope and hope that someday, when he matures, he will put on the ancient crown. Davidids, Khosrovids and Pankratids .

In general, vanguyu - Georgia will become the first post-communist country in which the monarchy will be restored.

Princes of Mukhrani (1512 - 1801).

1. Bagrat I (1512-1539)
2. Vakhtang I (1539-1580)
3. Ashot I 1539-1561), co-ruler of Vakhtang I
4. Teimuraz I (1580-1625)
5. Heraclius I (Erecle) (1580-1605)
6. Kaykhosro (1625-1626)
7. David I (1626-1648), son of Teimuraz I of Kakheti
8. Vakhtang II (1648-1658)
9. Constantine I (1658-1667)
10. Teimuraz II (1667-1688)
11. Ashot II (1688-1692)
12. Papua (1692-1696, 1703-1710)
13. Constantine II (1696-1700)
14. Iese (Iesse) I (circa 1700)
15. Irakli (Erekle) II (1717-1719)
16. Levan (1719-1721)
17. Iese (Iesse) II (1719-1724), rival of Levan
18. Mamuka (1730-1735)
19. Constantine III (1735-1756)
20. Simon (1756-1778)
21. Ioane (John) (1778-1801)
22. Constantine IV (1801)

Heads of the Princely House (1801 - 1918)

23. Constantine IV (1801-1842)
24. Ioane (John) (1842-1895)
22. Konstantin (1895-1903)
23. Alexander (1903-1918)

Nominal Heads of the Princely House. Since 1957 - Head of the Georgian Royal House.

24. George (1918-1957)
25. Irakli (1957-1977)
22. Georgy (1977-2008)
23. David (2008 to present)

Notes:
1. Mukhrani (Georgian მუხრანი - “oak grove” from მუხა - oak) is a region in Georgia, bounded by the Kura, Ksani and Aragvi rivers. (Mtskheta Municipality) Part of the historical territory of Kartli. Flat area famous for its vineyards.

]
King of Kartli (from 1490)
King of Kakheti (from 1490)
King of Imereti (from 1490)

King of Kartli-Kakheti (since 1762) Media files on Wikimedia Commons
Bagrationi on Rodovode

Bagrations (Bagrationi, cargo. ბაგრატიონები listen)) - an ancient royal dynasty in Georgia, from which many outstanding statesmen and military leaders of Georgia and Russia came. Historical Georgian writings calculate the chronology of the Bagrationi from the 6th century AD. e. , modern researchers attribute the founding date of the clan to the 8th-9th centuries.

Encyclopedic YouTube

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Modern researchers consider the Bagrationi dynasty to be a junior branch of the ancient Armenian Bagratid dynasty, known from at least the 1st century BC.

e. The strategist of the king of Armenia Tigran II the Great (95-55 BC) and his governor in Syria and Cilicia Bagadat is the earliest known representative of this family.

As noted by K. L. Tumanov, a specialist in the history of the aristocratic families of Transcaucasia, the Bagratids, who were originally dynastic princes of the Sper region in northwestern Armenia (now Ispir in Turkey), had local Armenian-Iranian or perhaps even Urartian origin and were descendants of the Armenian royal dynasty of Ervandids.

From their homeland of Armenia, after an unsuccessful uprising against the Arabs in 772, one of the branches of this house moved to neighboring Georgia, where it achieved power in 786 (or perhaps as early as 780).

The Bagration dynasty is one of the most ancient of the existing dynasties. The Bagrations rose early in the political arena of Transcaucasia, and various legends were created around the family in the Armenian-Georgian environment. The ancient Armenian historical tradition declares them to be the descendants of the Khaikids, the ancient Georgian - the Farnavazids. The same Armenian tradition considers them the descendants of the noble captive Jew Shambat (Smbat), who became the satrap of Armenia under Persian king Artaxerxes I (5th century BC), and later Armenian and Georgian historical traditions connect their origin with the prophet-king David.

Georgian historiography adheres to the legend about the origin of the Bagrations from the ancient Georgian royal family of the Farnavazids, founded legendary first King of Iberia Pharnavaz I. Nikolai Berdzenishvili believes that the dynasty originates from the Speri region, in the east of modern Turkey. The Armenian historical tradition dates the rise of the Armenian branch of the Bagratuni family to the 1st century. BC e. Georgian historical tradition, in particular the 11th century author Sumbat Davitisdze, dates the rise of the Bagration family in the political arena of Georgia to the 6th century.

Legend of biblical origin

In Armenian and Georgian legends, there is also a version that connects the origin of the family with biblical characters. The first mention of the origin of the Bagratuni family from the Jewish king-prophet David is found in the work “History of Armenia” by the Armenian historian and Catholicos Hovhannes Draskhanakertsi (845/850-929) and in the treatise “On the Administration of the Empire” (948-952) by the Byzantine Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus . Georgian philologist and Armenian scholar I. Abuladze notes that Draskhanakertzi’s message about the origin of the family from the prophet is confirmed by more ancient Armenian information.

The legend evolved from an earlier tradition of Jewish origins common among the Armenian Bagratids, mentioned, for example, by the 5th-century Armenian historian Movses Khorenatsi.

In Georgian writing, the first mention of the biblical origin of the Bagrations is recorded in the work of Georgiy Merchule “The Life of Grigory Khandzteli” (951): thus, Grigory Khandzteli, addressing Ashot Kuropalat, calls him “ sovereign, named son of David, prophet and anointed of the Lord» .

The 11th century Georgian historian Sumbat Davitisdze traces the family back to Cleopas, Joseph’s brother. According to Sumbat, one of Cleopas' descendants - Solomon - had seven sons who went from Palestine to Armenia and Akilisena, where they were baptized. Three of the brothers remained in Armenia. One of these brothers was called Bagrat, and he was the ancestor of the Armenian Bagratids. Four arrived in Kartli, one of them was elected eristav of Kartli, and his descendants are the Bagrations of Kartli.

The first Bagrations

According to the legend set out in the work of Prince Vakhushti Bagrationi, under King Mirdat (early 6th century) a certain Guaram (Guram) (d. 532) moved to Georgia, to whom in 508 the king married his sister and granted him the title of eristavi of the Tao region. Guaram's grandson Guaram I received the title of Kuropalat from the Byzantine emperor Justinian, and in 575 - king. Vakhushti reports that it was Guaram I who began to be called Bagrationi - after the name of his father.

The descendants of Guaram I were called eristavt-eristavs (rulers of rulers) and ruled Kartliya. Maintaining an alliance with Byzantium, they also bore the Byzantine titles of kuropalate and antipata (proconsul). The younger Bagrations owned the title mampali - prince of blood. During the period of Arab rule (VII-IX centuries), the rulers of Kartli began to be called supreme princes (erismtavars). Grand Duke Ashot I the Great (787-826) came into conflict with the Arabs and was forced to take refuge in southern Georgia, which was controlled by Byzantium. He restored the fortress of Artanuja and, using the support of the Byzantine emperors, strengthened his power in Kartli.

The great-grandson of Ashot I Adarnese (Arsen) II Kuropalat took the title of king of the Kartvels (Gruzinov) in 888. In turn, the great-grandson of Adarnes II, king of Tao-Klarjeti (Southwestern Georgia), David III Kuropalat, with the support of the Byzantines, liberated many Georgian, as well as part of the Armenian and Albanian lands from the Arabs. For helping the emperors suppress the uprising of Bardas Skleros, he received the Erzurum region and other lands. The Georgian nobility invited the powerful ruler to take the throne of Kartli.

The heir of the childless David III was the king’s nephew (actually the son of his second cousin) Bagrat Bagrationi, who inherited the Kartvelian kingdom from his father, and the Abkhazian kingdom from his mother. In 1008, the heir to the three kingdoms, Bagrat III, took the title of King of Kartli. From this moment on, the Bagrationi dynasty became the royal house of Kartli.

During the reign of this Dynasty, Georgia achieved its power, spreading its sphere of influence far from the borders of the state. Once again, the royal house of Bagration was able to consolidate the warring peoples and territories into a strong, independent state.

Middle Ages

The daughter of George III, Queen Tamara the Great (1184 - ca. 1210/1213), became one of the most powerful rulers of the entire Middle East. Her troops defeated the Atabek of Azerbaijan and the Sultan of Rum, made a campaign in Persia, and took Kars. The vassals of Queen Tamara were the sultans, emirs and rulers of neighboring states; the Empire of Trebizond was under the influence of Georgia. Tamara patronized the arts, architecture and sciences. Poets dedicated odes and poems to her, temples and palaces were built in her honor.

Your Serene Highness Princes Bagration-Imereti;
nobles Bagrationi;
His Serene Highness Princes Bagration (Imereti branch);
princes Bagration-Davydov (Imereti branch; recognized as princely on December 6, 1850).

Of these four branches, the second - the princes Bagration - was included in the number of Russian princely families when Emperor Alexander I approved the seventh part of the “General Russian Armorial” on October 4, 1803. The grandson of Tsar Vakhtang VI - Prince Ivan Vakhushtovich Bagration - served under Catherine II as lieutenant general and commanded the Siberian division, and Vakhtang VI's nephew - Tsarevich Alexander Jesseevich (ancestor of the Bagration princes) - went to Russia in 1757 and served as a lieutenant colonel in the Caucasian division. His grandson, infantry general Prince Pyotr Ivanovich Bagration, immortalized his family on the battlefield.

Description of the coat of arms

The shield is divided into four parts, of which the first one depicts a golden power in a red field. In the second there is a harp in a blue field. In the third, in a blue field, there is a golden sling. In the fourth part, a golden scepter and a saber are placed crosswise in a red field.

There are two lions on the sides of the shield. The shield is covered with a mantle and a cap belonging to the princely dignity. The coat of arms of the family of Princes Bagrationi (Georgian princes) is included in Part 7 of the General Arms of Arms of the Noble Families of the All-Russian Empire, page 2.

Bagrations in the Russian Empire and during the USSR

His son, Prince Georgy Alexandrovich Bagration-Mukhransky (1884-1957) was married to Elena Sigismundovna Zlotnitskaya (1886-1979), whose ancient family was rooted in the Polish gentry. Her mother, born Princess Eristova, was the great-granddaughter of the Georgian king Irakli II. From this marriage in 1914, Princess Leonida was born, the mother of the Head of the Russian Imperial House (according to the Kirillov branch) - Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna and the son Fyodor Georgievich Bagration-Mukhransky, who returned to Georgia, and not finding support there among the Georgian aristocrats returned to Russia, Kizlyar, later taking a fictitious surname Garibashvili became a hermit and remained to live in Kochubey.

During the revolution, power in Georgia passed into the hands of the Georgian Mensheviks. The situation in Tiflis was turbulent, and the Bagration-Mukhransky family decided to rent out part of their large house to the French consul, hoping that this would ensure the safety of the house. " Safety was, however, relative, - recalls Grand Duchess Leonida Georgievna. When shooting started in the city, bullets began to fly into our rooms like bees. My sister and I were seated under the sofas, and from there I heard adults talking about going abroad…” When the Anglo-French troops were withdrawn from Georgia, it became clear that the Mensheviks would not hold out for long. In 1921, the French consul, with great difficulty, put the Bagration-Mukhransky family on a train to Batumi, from where they traveled by steamship to Constantinople. There were no means of living, and the exiles decided to move to Germany, where, as the emigrants said, life was cheaper. Having sold the jewelry they had taken with them, the princely family moved to Berlin.

The emigrant lot was so unenviable that the Bagration-Mukhranskys decided to return to their homeland - now in Soviet Georgia. Oddly enough, the Bolshevik authorities returned their house to the family of the Georgian heir to the throne. However, arrests soon began. The prince was also arrested, but the peasants, his former subjects, did not testify against Georgy Alexandrovich. " Not a single person said anything bad about him, everyone said that he was like a father to them"- the Cheka investigators were perplexed.

After arrests and endless searches, the Bagration-Mukhranskys decided to emigrate again. The Bagration-Mukhranskys were helped to leave Soviet Russia a second time by the intercession of Maxim Gorky, who was once patronized by the Bagration-Mukhranskys. After leaving Georgia, the Bagrations settled first in Nice, then in Paris. Soon, representatives of the princely family dispersed throughout Europe: to Spain, Italy, Poland, Germany, providing assistance and integrating into the life of the emigration, among which Prince George played a prominent role.

The Bagrations never forgot about their royal status, and in 1942, a congress of representatives of Georgian emigrant organizations in Rome officially recognized Prince George as the legitimate king of a united Georgia. Grand Duchess Leonida Georgievna writes in her memoirs:

“In our family we often talked about this, that if the Bagrations had retained the title to which they had all the rights, this would not mean that Georgia would not have entered the Russian Empire, on the contrary, if this historical surname, who reigned for so many centuries, retained her royal dignity, this would only have a positive meaning.”

Bagrations at present

From 1977 to 2008, the head of the Georgian Royal House of Bagration was Prince George (Jorge) Iraklievich Bagration-Mukhrani. He was born in Rome, where his family lived during World War II. His father was Prince Irakli Georgievich Bagration-Mukhranisky (March 21, 1909 - November 30, 1977), and his mother was the Italian Countess Marie Antoinette Paschini dei Conti di Costafiorita (d. February 22, 1944 during childbirth). Since 1957 - Head of the Georgian Royal House in exile.

Prince George Iraklievich lived his entire life in Spain, where he became a famous racing driver, was married to the Spanish aristocrat Marie de las Mercedes Zornosa y Ponce de Leon, and in his second marriage to Nuria Lopez. From these two marriages he has four children - Prince Irakli (b. 1972), Prince David (b. 1976), Prince Hugo (Guram, b. 1985) and Princess Marie Antoinette (b. 1969), who live in Spain and in Georgia. Their Georgian citizenship was returned to them.

George was supported by many Georgian monarchists as a candidate for the Georgian throne. In 2004, he received Georgian citizenship. Since 2006, he lived in his historical homeland, where he was overtaken by a serious illness. He died on January 16, 2008 and was buried in the tomb of the Georgian Kings - Svetitskhoveli Cathedral (city of Mtskheta). He was succeeded by his second son, Prince David Georgievich Bagration-Mukhrani.

Little is known about the life of the last branch of the Bagrations who remained in Russia during Soviet times. Fyodor Georgievich Bagration-Mukhransky settled in the village of Kochubey, Republic of Dagestan, in a place of compact residence of his compatriots. During his visit to Georgia, he married the daughter of the Pontic military leader Ypsilanti. Due to tense relations with Soviet power The Bagration-Mukhransky family changed their surname to Garibashvili, and after that they were able to stay and live in Kochubey. The Bagration-Mukhrani family has remained there to this day. [ ]

About the work of Sumbat Davitis-Tsse

HISTORY AND NARRATION ABOUT THE BAGRATONIANS, KINGS OF GEORGIAN

The 11th century in the history of Georgia is a time rich in very important events.

At the end of the 10th and beginning of the 11th centuries. ends long historical process unification of Georgian lands and creation of the Georgian feudal state “Sakartvelo” (Georgia). In the 80s of the 10th century, the two largest Georgian political units united into one state - the kingdom of Egris-Aphazeti and the Kartli Erismtavarate (all of Western Georgia and the central part of Georgia, from the Aragvi River to the beginning of the Borjomi Gorge) and most of the Kartvelian kingdom (Southern Georgia). Western Georgia). At the beginning of the 11th century, it was joined by the rest of the Kartvelian kingdom (without the southern part of Tao), as well as Kakheti and Hereti. The association, created at the end of the 10th and beginning of the 11th centuries, is a new stage in the history of Georgian feudal statehood. This unification led to the elimination of the political independence of a number of early feudal kingdoms and principalities and marked the establishment of a new (unified) political system on a scale throughout Georgia. It meant the creation of a feudal state like a centralized medieval monarchy. The process of final liquidation of the independence of individual kingdoms and principalities and changes in the apparatus of political administration are already taking place within the framework of the new state. Further development single state followed the line of centralization of management in both civil and military spheres. The unification, of course, could not lead to the complete elimination of internal contradictions, but if before the unification independent political units opposed each other, now contradictions arise between individual political groupings and parties within a single state. With the formation of a unified feudal monarchy, favorable conditions are created for further socio-economic and cultural growth. Georgian historiography achieved great success in the 11th century. In the 11th century, “The History of the Kings” by Leonti Mroveli, “The History of Vakhtang Gorgasal” by Juansher, “Matiane Kartlis” (“Chronicle of Kartli”) by an anonymous author, biographies of the founders of the Georgian Lavra on Athos, “History and Narrative of the Bagrations” by Sumbat Davitis-dze and etc. In these historical works, along with biographies of kings and descriptions of them government activities The social and cultural life of the country is covered. Historians respond to vital questions; their works reflect intra-class and class struggle. They express the interests of certain political groups. IN political life In the 11th century, the main goals were the liberation of the country from foreign invaders and the centralization of state power. The main attention of historians was directed precisely to these problems, which explains their praise of those statesmen who led the fight against external enemies and sought centralization government controlled . Historians do not hide their hatred for external enemies, as well as for those feudal lords who fought against the central monarchy. Their works are imbued with a deep patriotic feeling. Georgian historians of the 11th century were widely educated thinkers, their works were carried out at a high ideological level. They tried to comprehend events from the point of view of their causality and sequence, sought to substantiate certain phenomena, to prove the reliability of the events described. When compiling their works, they used both the works of their predecessors and documentary data, information from foreign authors, monuments of material culture, and in a number of cases they carried out external criticism of sources. At the same time, Georgian historians of the 11th century were typical representatives of their era and therefore they were not alien to providentialism and dualism - characteristic features of the historical thinking of the Middle Ages. It is also characteristic that they pass over in silence the facts of intense class struggle. Thus, despite their broad education, correct understanding and assessment of many specific historical phenomena, Georgian historians of the 11th century were entirely influenced by the dominant medieval ideology. The historical work of the 11th century Georgian author Sumbat, about the royal family of Bagrationi, the Russian translation of which we offer the reader, has not reached us in the form of an independent work. It is included in the chronicle “Kartlis Tskhovreba” (“History of Georgia”), which covers the history of Georgia from ancient times to the 18th century. The “Kartlis Tskhovreba” compilation, apparently first compiled in the 11th century (according to some authors, in the 8th century), was then supplemented and edited 1. Since the “Kartlis Tskhovreba” was compiled mainly with the sanction of the central government, for inclusion in It selected those historical works that ideologically supported and substantiated the policies and activities of the Georgian kings. This explains the fact that “Kartlis Tskhovreba” generally supports the idea of the unity of the Georgian state, the idea of the struggle against foreign invaders, and brings to the fore those statesmen who fought for the strengthening of the Georgian state, for the centralization of power. This explains both the pronounced patriotic character and the obvious feudal orientation of Kartlis Tskhovreba. The first cycle of “Kartlis Tskhovreba” (the so-called “Ancient Kartlis Tskhovreba”) was completed in the 14th century. After the 14th century, due to the general difficult situation in Georgia, the vault was not replenished. Only at the beginning of the 18th century did King Vakhtang VI (1703-1724) pay due attention to this and formed a special commission of “learned men” (headed by the historian Beri Egnatashvili), which he instructed to fill this gap. The commission compiled a history of Georgia of the 14th-17th centuries, which was included in the cycle of “New Kartlis Tskhovreba”. But the work on “Kartlis Tskhovreba” did not end there. A commission led by Vakhtang VI edited the entire collection. The editorial work was manifested both in the introduction of a number of amendments and in some additions and changes 2. In particular, the commission made very significant changes to Sumbat’s essay (more on this below). Today, science has at its disposal several manuscripts of the pre-Vakhtangov edition (the list of Queen Anna (XV century), the list of Queen Mariam (XVII centuries), the list of 1967, the list of Machabeli of 1736, etc.) and several manuscripts of the post-Vakhtangov period. The ancient part of “Kartlis Tskhovreba” presents 10 historical works: 1. “The History of Kings” (from ancient times to the 5th century) by Leonti Mroveli. 2. “The History of Vakhtang Gorgasal” (V-VIII centuries) by Juansher. 3. “The Martyrdom of Archila” (8th century) by Leonti Mroveli. 4. “Matian of Kartlis” (VIII-XI centuries) by an anonymous author. 5. “The History of the King of Kings David” by an anonymous author. 6. “History and narration about the Bagrations” (from ancient times to the 11th century) Sumbata Davitis-dze. 7. “Chronicle of the times of Lasha Giorgi” (2nd half of the 12th century - beginning of the 13th century) by an anonymous author. 8. “History and praise of the crowned people” (the so-called first historian of Queen Tamar). 9. “The History of Queen Tamar” by Basili Ezosmodzgvari (the so-called second historian of Queen Tamar). 10. “Chronicle” of the era of Mongol rule by an anonymous historian. But not all of these works are included in all available lists of “Kartlis Tskhovreba”. For example: “The History and Narrative of the Bagrations” by Sumbat is included in the Mariam list, in the copy of the “Mtskheta” list (1697) and in the Machabeli list. The work is included in “Kartlis Tskhovreba” following the story of King David the Builder. The History of David the King of Kings ends with the death of David in 1125. In Anna's list, the history of King David is followed by the so-called “Chronicle of the Times of Lasha Giorgi,” a work that begins with the reign of Demeter I (1125-1156), the son of David the Builder. The list of Mariam, after the story of David the Builder, includes the story of the Bagrationi family. This is the first time that the chronological sequence in the “Kartlis Tskhovreba” vault is broken. Perhaps, to correct this discrepancy, when editing “Kartlis Tskhovreba” by the Vakhtang commission, Sumbat’s work was not included as a separate and independent work, but information from his “History” was selectively, in accordance with the chronological sequence, included in the appropriate places in “Ancient Kartlis Tskhovreba” . This explains the fact that in the lists of “Kartlis Tskhovreba” of the post-Vakhtangov period, “History” of Sumbat as a separate work is not present, it is almost completely dismembered and placed in parts in different places. The historical work “The History and Narrative of the Bagratonians, our Georgian kings, from where they came to this country, and since when they have owned the Georgian kingdom,” as is clear from the title, aims to clarify the origin and genealogy of the Bagrationi family, to determine the time and conditions for their acquisition of power in Kartli and outline the history of their reign. In the introductory part of the “History” it is indicated that the author is Sumbat Davitis-dze 3. Neither Sumbat’s work nor other historical sources contain information about the author himself. It is believed that he belonged to the Bagrationi family 4 and died in the early 30s of the 11th century 5. As noted, there should be no doubt that the “Kartlis Tskhovreba” collection is an exponent of the ideology of official historiography and when compiling the collection, works from a pronounced tendency to support the policies of the central government. The inclusion of Sumbat’s work in “Kartlis Tskhovreba” is fully justified, but it can be assumed that this work was written on the initiative of the state government. At the beginning of the 11th century, when representatives of the Bagrationi clan became kings of the united Georgian kingdom and prospects for the reunification of all Georgian lands really emerged, an ideological basis was also needed to support the royal family and justify their aspirations. It is precisely this ideological justification and justification for the rise of the Bagrationi clan over other Georgian royal families that have claims to primacy that is the work of Sumbat. The work begins with a presentation of the Bagrationi genealogy, which connects the origin of the family with Cleopas, the brother of Joseph, the father of Jesus Christ. As is known, with the formation of class society in many countries, legends arose about the “superhuman”, “divine” origin of the persons at the head of the state. At a certain stage of development, a “theory” about the divine origin of the Bagrationi family was created in Georgia. The Bagrationi rose early in the political arena of Transcaucasia and various legends were created around the family in the Georgian-Armenian environment. The Armenian historical tradition connects the rise of the Armenian branch of the Bagratuni family with the 1st century. BC e. 6. One of the oldest legends that have come down to us about the rise of this family was preserved by the 7th century historian Sebeos. According to Sebeos, the Bagratunis are descendants of the Armenian eponym Hayka 7. Armenian historiography also linked the origin of the Bagratuni family with the Jewish ethnos. Thus, Movses Khorenatsi declares the Bagratids to be the descendants of the noble Jewish captive Shambat 8. Georgian historiography considers the theory of the origin of the Bagrationi family from David the Prophet to be a local Georgian tradition. The oldest record of this tradition is the “Life of Grigol Handzteli” by Giorgi Mercule and the work of Konstantin Porfirorodny “De administrando imperio”. The source of Constantine Porphyrogenitus is considered to be an unknown Georgian written source or oral tradition 9. It can be assumed that Armenian historiography was also familiar with the legend about the origin of the Bagrations from the Prophet David. The oldest literary fixation of this legend in Armenian literature should be preserved in the work of the Armenian historian of the early 10th century, John Draskhanakertsi 10. In Georgian writing, the earliest message about the divine origin of the Bagrations was recorded in the middle of the 10th century in the “Life of Grigol Khandzteli” by Giorgi Merchule. Grigol Khandzteli, addressing Ashot Kurapalat, calls him “the sovereign, named son of David, prophet and anointed of the Lord.” This is how Grigol Khandzteli addressed Ashot Bagrationi in the 20s of the 9th century, but this was recorded in the middle of the 10th century (Giorgi Merchule’s work was written in 950). In this regard, the question arises about the time of creation of the legend of the divine origin of the Bagrationi family, namely: this formula already existed at the beginning of the 9th century, or did the author in the middle of the 10th century put into the mouth of Grigol Khandzteli words that gained recognition relatively later? There are different assumptions regarding the dating of the appearance of the theory about the divine origin of the Bagrationi family. According to Marquart, the theory of the divine origin of the Bagrations was created at the end of the 9th and beginning of the 10th centuries. 11. According to K. Kekelidze and P. Ingorokva, at the beginning of the 9th century, during the reign of Ashot Bagrationi 12. The creation of this legend is also associated with the 9th century by S. Janashia 13. E. Takaishvili considers the second half to be the time when the legend was created VIII century. According to E. Takaishvili, the legend underwent a gradual change, was revised and by the 11th century took the form in which it is presented in the historical work of Sumbat 14. In the second half of the 8th century, Eastern Georgia was under the yoke of Arab rule and the Georgian people fought against the conquerors. At the head of this struggle were the Eris-Mtavars of Kartli, for which they were subjected to repression by the caliphic authorities. From the end of the 8th and beginning of the 9th centuries, the gradual expulsion of the conquerors from Georgia began. On the verge of the 8th-9th centuries, the process of creating new kingdoms and principalities began in Georgia, and a struggle was being waged for the unification of the country. The creation of the Kartvelian, or Tao-Klarjet, principality led by the Bagrationi clan dates back to this time. The principality achieved great power during the reign of the founder of the 15th dynasty. Ashot united most of historical Southwestern Georgia under his rule, actively fought with the Arabs, and successfully fought for the central part of Georgia - Shida Kartli. From the empire, Ashot Bagrationi received the title “kurapalata” and even claimed the title of “king”. At this time, the Principality of Kartvel was the strongest political unit in Georgia and played a leading role in the struggle for its unification. Apparently, this legend was created at this time. 16. After the death of Ashot, unfavorable external and internal political conditions were created for the principality. In the second half of the 9th and the first half of the 10th century, the kingdom of Egris-Aphazeti captured hegemony in the struggle for the unification of Georgia. So, the end of the 9th century - the beginning of the 19th century. This is not the right time to create legends glorifying the Bagrationi family. As already noted, since the beginning of the 9th century in Georgia there has been a struggle for the unification of the country. Several large political units compete with each other. The princely families leading this struggle resort to various political and diplomatic maneuvers. The House of Bagrationi, together with political elevation, is trying to justify its legitimate rights theoretically. Ashot Bagratnoni had to fight both with other Georgian political units and with his own internal opponents. As a result of the conflict with the Arabs, Ashot Bagrationi settled in Southwestern Georgia, although Shavshet-Klarjeti is historically the domain of the Bagrationi family, but in this situation Ashot turned out to be a person who came from outside. The Arabs are fighting against him; He does not have any solid support within the country, and Byzantium supports him from external forces. In such conditions, it is quite understandable that Ashot has to overcome strong obstacles to assert and strengthen his power. Ashot had to create a large fiefdom for himself, and he is creating it. Ashot Bagrationi buys part of the land, seizes part, appropriates uninhabited lands, wastelands, and acquires peasants. All this - the creation of fiefdoms, the acquisition and subjugation of the peasants sitting on these lands - occurs at the expense of the local population, which causes an increase in social protests and an intensification of the class struggle. Thus, while Ashot Bagrationi competes with other Georgian kings and princes for primacy in the struggle for the unification of Georgia, he has to overcome great obstacles within the country to strengthen his position. In this difficult situation, Ashot Bagrationi had to justify his advantages over other Georgian rulers, as well as his right to dominate local population. He achieves all this mainly by force, but at the same time great importance had an ideological justification for the rights of the Bagrationi clan to supreme power. To determine the time of creation of the legend about the origin of the Bagrationi family, it is of no small importance that the Armenian historian of the 7th century Sebeos calls Hayk as the ancestor of Bagratuni. By this time, the Armenian Bagratunm had already received reason to connect their origin with the eponym of the Armenians. At the beginning of the 10th century, John Draskhanakertsi writes about Bagratuni’s ancestors: “They say that he was a descendant of David.” Apparently, Draskhanakertsi had a written or oral basis for this statement. Draskhanakertsi’s message that the Bagratunis were “crown-layers” is confirmed by more ancient Armenian information 17. As already noted, the Bagrationis came to the fore early in the political arena of Transcaucasia. In Georgian historiography, there is an assumption about the origin of Bagrationi from the ancient Georgian royal family of Parnavazids 18. According to K. Tumanov, Bagrationi are the descendants of the ancient Armenian royal family of Ervandids 19. Georgian historical tradition, in particular Sumbat, dates the rise of the family in the political arena of Georgia to the 6th century. Thus, the political rise of the Bagrations caused the creation of legends around their origin. The ancient Armenian historical tradition declares them to be the descendants of the Khaikids, the ancient Georgian - the Parnavazids. The same Armenian tradition considers them to be the descendants of the noble captive Jew Shambat, and later Armenian and Georgian historical traditions associate their origin with the prophet-king David. Draskhanakertsi is a link connecting two traditions about the origin of Shambat and David. Thus, in Georgian and Armenian reality there were different versions about the origin of the Bagrationi family. The most pretentious of the existing versions connects the origin of the family with the divine principle. The appropriate time for creating this version, apparently, was the reign of Ashot I Kurapalat. If we take into account Draskhanakertsi’s message, we can assume that this version of the legend was developed in a common Georgian-Armenian environment. At the end of the 8th and beginning of the 9th centuries, in the conditions of intense struggle with the Arabs, both the Georgian Bagrationi and the Armenian Bagratuni strengthened and rose. During this period, both branches pursue a common goal: the expulsion of the Arabs. Under these conditions, the formation of the Kartvelian (Tao-Klarjet) principality of the Georgian Bagrationis and the Shirak principality of the Armenian Bagratunis took place. A new stage in the history of the clan begins and a new version of the legend about its origin is created, a version that better substantiates the right of primacy of this clan in Transcaucasia. As already noted, the following. the link connecting the old and new versions of the legend is preserved by Draskhanakertsi. If the legend about the divine origin of the family was created only in the Georgian environment and about the Georgian branch itself, then it is doubtful that Draskhanakertsi transferred it to the Armenian Bagratuni. At the end of the 9th - beginning of the 10th centuries. the interests of the Georgian Bagrations and the Armenian Bagratunis were in sharp conflict. The historian of the Bagratuni family, who created his work at this time, praising the activities of the Bagratunis with the aim of glorifying them, cites a legend about their origin from David. He would hardly have turned to this legend if this version had not spread among the Armenians. Therefore, this consideration of Draskhanakertzi should have had a basis in the Armenian tradition. Further processing of the legend takes place on Georgian soil itself. The situation created in subsequent Armenia did not give rise to further idealization of Bagratuni. This legend takes on special significance after the Bagrationis become kings of the united Georgian state. It is in this regard that a special historical work by Sumbat is being created, which outlines the history of the family and gives its genealogy. To compile his historical essay, Sumbat uses various historical sources. The source for the introductory part of Sumbat's History is the Georgian translation of the Bible. Sumbat cites the genealogy of the Bagrations from Adam to King David according to the “Gospel” from Luke (3.32-38), and from King David to the husband of the Mother of God Mary - according to Matthew (1.1-16), with the only difference that in contrast from the “Gospel” he introduces into the narrative the brother of Mary’s husband Cleopas. The source regarding Cleopas, Joseph's brother, for Sumbat is the “Ecclesiastical History” of Eusebius of Caesarea 20. Then comes the line of descendants of Cleopas. One of Cleopas' descendants, Solomon, had seven sons. These seven sons of Solomon set off from Palestine and arrived in Armenia, in Akilisena, located in the upper reaches of the Euphrates River, to the unknown queen Rakael, who baptized them. Three of the brothers remained in Armenia. One of these brothers was called Bagrat, and he was the ancestor of the Armenian Bagratids. Four arrived in. Kartli, one of them was elected eristav of Kartli and his descendants are Bagrationi Kartli. One of the main sources of the “History” of Sumbat is the chronicle of the “Conversion of Kartli”. As E. Takaishvili notes, this chronicle is used by Sumbat from Guaram (VI century) kurapalata to Ashot I kurapalata 21. There is an assumption that one of the sources of Sumbat’s “History” may be “Matian Kartlis”, a work by an anonymous historian of the 11th century 22. But we think that a more reasonable assumption is that it is not “Matiane Kartlis” that is the source for Sumbat’s “History”, but, on the contrary, the author of “Matiane Kartlis” used the work of Sumbat 23. Sumbat Davitis-dze apparently had at his disposal a family chronicle of the Bagrationi family, which he used when compiling that part of his work in which the history of the rulers of Tao-Klarjeti was conveyed 24. How and the author of the anonymous work “Matian of Kartlis”, Sumbat also had to use the information of Kedrin-Skylitsa 25. Sumbat also used numerous inscriptions 26. Sumbat’s work is a very condensed historical work, which mainly provides biographical information about representatives of the Bagratiani family (birth , death, assumption of a title or position, offspring). The first time the principle of such a brief narrative is violated is when it comes to the founder of the principality, Ashot I. After Ashot, the author talks at length about the first kings of united Georgia (Bagrat III, Giorgi I and Bagrat IV). Sumbat also reports information about the construction activities of representatives of the clan (for example, the construction of the Jvari temple by the Eristavs of Kartli, the construction work of Ashot I) and other figures (for example, the construction of Sioni in Tbilisi, the Tbet monastery). The author pays special attention to the struggle within the representatives of the clan and the relationship with Byzantium. A huge advantage of the “History” of Sum.bat is the abundance of chronological data. In medieval Georgian historical sources there is generally little indication of the dates of the events described, but our author is a notable exception in this regard. True, in the first part of Sumbat’s “History” there are no direct chronological data. The first date is given in connection with the death of Ashot I kurapalat, then information about Ashot’s sons is given without dates, and from the time of Ashot I’s grandson, Ashot II (died in 867), basic chronological indications are given about almost all of his successors. Apparently, the family chronicle, which Sumbat used and which was replete with chronological data about the life of representatives of the family, began with the founder of the principality, Ashot I. The first date (date of death of Ashot I) is given according to two chronological systems - from the creation of the world and the Georgian coronicon, then, without exception , all dates are given according to the Georgian coronicon, which is based on the 5604-year era from the creation of the world and the 532-year cycle. The events dated by the author take place in the XIII cycle, i.e. from 780. As already noted, Sumbat's presentation style is very concise. He briefly, in a few words, reports on the life, activities and death of representatives of the ruling house, indicating only some important, from his point of view, facts. The author's main goal - to provide a complete, continuous genealogy of the Bagrations - was carried out impeccably. The beginning of the rule of the Bagrations in Kartli, indicated by Sumbat (mid-6th century), is confirmed by data from a number of other historians 27. Source study of Sumbat’s “History” and comparison of Sumbat’s information with the data of other Georgian historians, with epigraphic data, information from Armenian, Arab, Byzantine and other historical sources, gives grounds to consider Sumbat’s work a very valuable historical work and indicates the reliability of the historian’s main messages 28. Although this circumstance does not exclude Sumbat’s clearly expressed bias. Sumbat, as already noted, very sparingly and concisely sets out historical events , but together with general purposefulness, he very carefully selects facts to include in his “History”. According to the concept of Sumbat, life in Shavsheti and Klarjeti is resumed with the establishment of Ashot Bagrationi there. The historian characterizes the situation in the region immediately before the arrival of Ashot Bagrationi in the following words: “Khevi Shavshetsky, with the exception of a few villages, was not inhabited then, for it was devastated during the rule of the Persians, when the deaf from Baghdad destroyed all the fortresses and passed through Shavsheti and through Gadoni. And after this, widespread diarrhea exterminated (the population of) Shavsheti, Klarjeti and only a few of the inhabitants remained in some places 29. There is no doubt about the very difficult situation of this part of Georgia as a result of the Arab invasion and epidemics. Another source, “The Life of Grigol Khandzteli” by Giorgi Merchule, paints approximately the same picture, pointing to the small population and the devastation of the region. But if Merchule considers the restoration of life in this region mainly to be the merit of Grigol Khandzteli and monastic colonization, then Sumbat puts the merits of Ashot Bagrationi to the fore. It should be assumed that when describing the state of the region, both authors exaggerate a little, and the restoration took place both as a result of the activities of Ashot Kurapalat, and as a result of monastic colonization and the activities of Grigol Khandzteli. There are almost no generalizing theoretical positions in Sumbat's History, but his point of view is clearly felt in the selection of facts and a few spare phrases. He does not hide his negative attitude towards those feudal lords whose activities are directed against the policy of centralization and strengthening of the state. Describing the time of domination of the Aznaurs in Kartli, Sumbat writes: “But when the descendants of Gorgasal lost their kingdom, from those times before them, the Aznaurs dominated Kartli, and the end of the power of the Aznaurs of Kartli came due to their evil deeds.” 30. Sumbat’s attitude towards the noble nobility is clearly felt and in other cases 31. Like all Georgian medieval historians, Sumbat is in the grip of providentialism. Talking about the events associated with the return of Prince Bagrat (the future Bagrat IV, King of Georgia) and the intentions of Emperor Constantine VIII, Sumbat writes: “Oh, the great and amazing mercy of God! How the righteous man escaped from the hands of the enemy who wanted to capture him.” 32. The author explains the victory of the small Georgian army over the comparatively superior forces of the enemy with the mercy and help of God and the holy apostles, 33, and on the occasion of the death of Emperor Constantine he writes: “The wrath of the lightning-fast reckless King Constantine overtook him, like unfaithful Julian, for disfavor with our king Bagrat, for the devastation of his country" 34. The “History” of Sumbat was first published by E. S. Takaishvili in 1890 according to Mariam’s list as an independent historical work(see “Three Historical Chronicles” - pp. 41-79), by him in 1906 for the second time as part of “Kartlis Tskhovreba” according to Miriam’s list; the footnotes indicate discrepancies in Vakhtangov's edition 35. In 1949, E. S. Takaishvili published the “History” of Sumbat separately with an extensive introduction, comments and a genealogical table of the Bagrationi family. As E. S. Takaishvili notes, he checked the text of the “History” of Sumbat of the Mariam list with the Machabeli list and gave some minor discrepancies in footnotes 36. The “History” of Sumbat was included in Volume I of “Kartlis Tskhovreba”, ed. S. G. Kaukhchishvili (Tbilisi, 1955, pp. 372-386). The text is published according to all the main manuscripts, and discrepancies are given in footnotes. As already noted, in the lists of “Kartlis Tskhovreba”, edited by the commission of King Vakhtang VI, information from the “History” of Sumbat is included in the text scatteredly, in accordance with the chronological data of the event, in this way they are presented as in the editions of Vakhtangov’s “Kartlis Tskhovreba” (ed. . Brosse, St. Petersburg, 1849; Z. Chichinadze, Tiflis, 1893), and in the French translation by M. F. Brosse (St. Petersburg, 1849). A small excerpt from Sumbat’s “History” was translated into Armenian by L. M. Melikset-Bek (see ***, 1934, pp. 136-138). The translation of the full text of Sumbat’s “History” into Russian with notes was carried out by E. S. Takaishvili (Sources of Georgian chronicles. II. Life and news of the Bagratids..., which was inscribed by Sumbat, son of David, SMOMPC, issue 28, Tiflis, 1900 , pp. 117-182). We used this translation and extensive notes by E. S. Takaishvili. Brosset’s French translation was also used, taking into account the editorial changes of the Vakhtang commission. Our translation was made from the publication of S. G. Kaukhchishvili. The translation is based on the list of Mariam (following the example and principle of the publication by E. Takaishvili). When preference is given to readings from other manuscripts accepted in the 1955 edition, or to the text restored by S. G. Kaukhchishvili, such passages are inserted in square brackets. Our additions to the text are given in parentheses. In translation, we tried to adhere to the principle of rendering Georgian proper names and geographical names in the Georgian form, for example, Kartli, Apkhazeti, Javakheti, Klarjeti, etc., as well as Mariam, not Maria, Ioane, not John or Ivan, etc. . The pages of the latest edition of “Kartlis Tskhovreba” (vol. I, Tbilisi, 1955) are indicated in the translation margins. The text is reproduced from the publication: Sumbat Davitis-dze. Tbilisi. Metsniereba. 1979 © text - Lordkipanidze M.D. 1979 © network version - Thietmar. 2003 © design - Voitekhovich A. 2001 © Metsniereba. 1979

The Bagratids, who were originally dynastic princes of the region of Sper in northwestern Armenia (now Ispir in Turkey), were of local Armenian-Iranian or perhaps even Urartian origin and were descendants of the Armenian royal Yervandid dynasty.

From their homeland of Armenia, after an unsuccessful uprising against the Arabs in 772, one of the branches of this house moved to neighboring Georgia, where it achieved power in 786 (or perhaps as early as 780).

The Bagration dynasty is one of the oldest existing dynasties. The Bagrations rose early in the political arena of Transcaucasia, and various legends were created around the family in the Armenian-Georgian environment. The ancient Armenian historical tradition declares them to be the descendants of the Khaikids, the ancient Georgian - the Farnavazids. The same Armenian tradition considers them to be the descendants of the noble captive Jew Shambat (Smbat), who became the satrap of Armenia under the Persian king Artaxerxes I (5th century BC), and later Armenian and Georgian historical traditions connect their origins with the prophet-king David.

Georgian historiography adheres to the legend about the origin of the Bagrations from the ancient Georgian royal family of the Pharnavazids, founded by the legendary first king of Iberia, Pharnavaz I. Nikolai Berdzenishvili believes that the dynasty originates from the Speri region, in the east of modern Turkey. The Armenian historical tradition dates the rise of the Armenian branch of the Bagratuni family to the 1st century. BC e. Georgian historical tradition, in particular the 11th century author Sumbat Davitisdze, dates the rise of the Bagration family in the political arena of Georgia to the 6th century.

Legend of biblical origin

In Armenian and Georgian legends, there is also a version linking the origin of the family with biblical characters. The first mention of the origin of the Bagratuni family from the Jewish king-prophet David is found in the work “History of Armenia” by the Armenian historian and Catholicos Hovhannes Draskhanakertsi (845/850-929) and in the treatise “On the Administration of the Empire” (948-952) by the Byzantine Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus. Georgian philologist and Armenian scholar I. Abuladze notes that Draskhanakertzi’s message about the origin of the family from the prophet is confirmed by more ancient Armenian information.

The legend evolved from an earlier tradition of Jewish origin common among the Armenian Bagratids, which is mentioned, for example, by the 5th century Armenian historian Movses Khorenatsi.

In Georgian writing, the first mention of the biblical origin of the Bagrations is recorded in the work of Georgy Merchule “The Life of Grigory Khandzteli” (951): thus, Grigory Khandzteli, addressing Ashot Kuropalat, calls him “ sovereign, named son of David, prophet and anointed of the Lord» .

The first Bagrations

According to the legend set out in the work of Prince Vakhushti Bagrationi, under King Mirdat (early 6th century), a certain Guaram (Guram) (d. 532) moved to Georgia, to whom in 508 the king married his sister and granted him the title of eristavi of the Tao region. Guaram's grandson Guaram I received the title of Kuropalate from the Byzantine Emperor Justinian, and in 575 - king. Vakhushti reports that it was Guaram I who began to be called Bagrationi - after the name of his father.

The great-grandson of Ashot I Adarnese (Arsen) II Kuropalat in 888 took the title of king of the Kartvels (Gruzinov). In turn, the great-grandson of Adarnes II, king of Tao-Klarjeti (Southwestern Georgia), David III Kuropalate, with the support of the Byzantines, liberated many Georgian, as well as part of the Armenian and Albanian lands from the Arabs. For helping the emperors suppress the uprising of Bardas Skleros, he received the Erzurum region and other lands. The Georgian nobility invited the powerful ruler to take the throne of Kartli.

The heir of the childless David III was the king's nephew (actually the son of his second cousin) Bagrat Bagrationi, who inherited the Kartvelian kingdom from his father, and the Abkhazian kingdom from his mother. In 1008, the heir to the three kingdoms, Bagrat III, took the title of King of Kartli. From this moment on, the Bagrationi dynasty became the royal house of Kartli.

Middle Ages

Your Serene Highness Princes Bagration-Imereti;
nobles Bagrationi;
His Serene Highness Princes Bagration (Imereti branch);
princes Bagration-Davydov (Imereti branch; recognized as princely on December 6, 1850).

Of these four branches, the second - the Bagration princes - was included in the number of Russian princely families when Emperor Alexander I approved the seventh part of the “General Russian Armorial” on October 4, 1803. The grandson of Tsar Vakhtang VI - Prince Ivan Vakhushtovich Bagration - served under Catherine II as a lieutenant general and commanded the Siberian division, and the nephew of Vakhtang VI - Tsarevich Alexander Jesseevich (the ancestor of the Bagration princes) - went to Russia in 1757 and served as a lieutenant colonel in the Caucasian division. His grandson, infantry general Prince Pyotr Ivanovich Bagration, immortalized his family on the battlefield.

Description of the coat of arms

Bagrations in the Russian Empire and during the USSR

The last representative of the senior line of the Georgian (Kartli) Royal House - a direct descendant of King Vakhtang V Shakhnavaz - died at the end of the 19th century. From that time until now, the senior line in the Bagrationi house are the descendants of the brother of Tsar Vakhtang V - Tsarevich Constantine, who took possession of the Mukhrani inheritance. This dynasty is called Bagration-Mukhrani. Representatives of this family traditionally played an important role in the Caucasus, being leaders of the nobility of the Tiflis province and holding responsible positions in the office of the governor of the Caucasus. Prince Georgy Konstantinovich Bagration-Mukhransky worked hard to streamline the judicial system in the Caucasus, and in 1871 he was appointed Secretary of State.

TO end of the 19th century century, the Bagration-Mukhransky family was headed by Major General of His Majesty's retinue, Prince Alexander Iraklievich (1853-1918), who commanded the Life Guards cavalry regiment. After the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II, he retired with the rank of lieutenant general. His further fate is tragic: on the night of October 19, 1918, Prince Alexander Iraklievich Bagration-Mukhransky was shot in Pyatigorsk during the mass executions of hostage officers organized by the Bolsheviks. His widow, Princess Maria Dmitrievna, née Golovacheva (1855-1932), was able to emigrate, where she died in Nice.

His son, Prince Georgy Alexandrovich Bagration-Mukhransky (1884-1957) was married to Elena Sigismundovna Zlotnitskaya (1886-1979), whose ancient family was rooted in the Polish gentry. Her mother, born Princess Eristova, was the great-granddaughter of the Georgian king Irakli II. From this marriage in 1914, Princess Leonida, the mother of the Head of the Russian Imperial House (according to the Kirill branch) - Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna, and a son, Fyodor Georgievich Bagration-Mukhrani, was born, who returned to Georgia, and not finding support there among the Georgian aristocrats, returned to Russia, Kizlyar, later taking a fictitious surname Garibashvili became a hermit and remained to live in Kochubey.

The emigrant lot was so unenviable that the Bagration-Mukhranskys decided to return to their homeland - now to Soviet Georgia. Oddly enough, the Bolshevik authorities returned their house to the family of the Georgian heir to the throne. However, arrests soon began. The prince was also arrested, but the peasants, his former subjects, did not testify against Georgy Alexandrovich. " Not a single person said anything bad about him, everyone said that he was like a father to them"- the Cheka investigators were perplexed.

Bagrations at present

From 1977 to 2008, the head of the Georgian Royal House of Bagration was Prince Georgiy (Jorge) Iraklievich Bagration-Mukhrani. He was born in Rome, where his family lived during World War II. His father was Prince Irakli Georgievich Bagration-Mukhranisky (March 21, 1909 - November 30, 1977), and his mother was the Italian Countess Marie Antoinette Paschini dei Conti di Costafiorita (d. February 22, 1944 during childbirth). Since 1957 - Head of the Georgian Royal House in exile.

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Notes

Toumanoff, C. Iberia on the Eve of Bagratid Rule, p. 22, cited in: Suny (1994), p. 349
Rapp, Stephen H. (2003), , p. 337
Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Article: "Bagratids", page 244.
Original text(English)

BAGRATIDS, Armenian feudal family that gave royal dynasties to Armenia, Georgia, and Caucasian Albania.
...
Secondary branches of the Bagratid house settled in Iberia and Tayk"/Tao early in the 9th C.
Toumanoff, Cyril , , in The Cambridge Medieval History, Cambridge, 1966, vol. IV, p. 609:
Original text(English)

The Bagratids at first (after 772) lost all their domains, save Syspiritis, whither Smbat VII"s son Ashot IV fled after the disaster. But the silver mines he possessed there enabled him to purchase from the tottering Kamsarakans the principalities of Arsharunik" and Siracene. He wrested some Mamikonid territory from the Arab amir Jahhaf the "Qaysid" and, directly from the Mamikonids, Taraun and southern Tayk". Other successes awaited his dynasty. His cousin Adarnase, son of Smbat VII"s younger brother Vasak, removed to Iberia after 772. There he acquired the lands of Erushet"i and Artani (Ardahan), and, at the turn of the century, inherited the state of the Guaramids, comprising Cholarzene, Javakhet"i, and northern Tayk", or Tao, taken earlier from the Mamikonids. With the extermination of many Iberian princes in 786, this younger Bagratid branch became the leading house of Iberia.
"The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times, Volume I", Richard G. Hovannisian, ed. (New York, 1997). Part 10 “Armenia during the Seljuk and Mongol Periods” (pp. 241-271), by Robert Bedrosian. Chapter "":
Original text(English)

Furthermore, the dynasty of the Georgian Bagratids, itself of Armenian descent, definitely very favored certain Armenian nobles long since established within Georgia and within that country's ruling structure.
George Bournoutian “A Concise History of the Armenian People” page 110:
Original text(English)

The period between the decline of the Seljuks and the arrival of the Mongols was a time of revival for the Armenians. The main impetus was the emergence of Georgia and its Bagratuni dynasty, which was of Armenian descent, as the preeminent power in Transcaucasia and eastern Anatolia.
Bagratids- article from the Great Soviet Encyclopedia.
Soviet historical encyclopedia. Article: .
Encyclopedia Iranica, article:
Cyril Toumanoff "On the Relationship between the Founder of the Empire of Trebizond and the Georgian Queen Thamar", Speculum, Vol. 15, No. 3 (Jul., 1940), pp. 299-312, page 299:
Original text(English)

David, like other biblical names, viz., Solomon, Jesse, Thamar, was favored by the Bagratids because of their claim to be descended from King David of Israel. This claim dates from at least the tenth century when we first find it mentioned in the History of John Catholicus (cap. 8) - among the Armenian authors - and in Constantine Porphyrogenitus" De Administrando Imperio (cap. 45) among the Byzantines. It reached its fullest development in the Georgian branch of the Bagratids in the following century, influencing not only the names and titles, but the very historical Weltanschauung of the dynasty, and found its expression in Sumbat's History of the Bagratids (cf. infra) . This legend must have evolved out of the earlier tradition of Hebrew origin prevalent among the Armenian Bagratids, and found, e.g., in Moses of Khorene (Khorenatsi), i, 22; ii, 3; ii, 8-9. In reality the Bagratids, who made their appearance in history as dynastic princes of Sper (N. W. Armenia), are of local, Armeno-Iranian or, perhaps, even Urartian origin, and are known to have traced, at a still earlier period, their origin - like most of the great Armenian dynasts - to the eponymous founder of the Armenians, Hayk; cf. the anonymous fourth-fifth century Primary History of Armenia
Toumanoff C., prince. Les dynasties de la Caucasie chrétienne de l'Antiquité jusqu'au XIXe siècle; Tables généalogiques et chronologiques. - Rome, 1990.
Toumanoff C., prince. Les Maisons Princières Géorgiennes de l'Empire de Russie. - Rome, 1983.
Cyril Toumanoff "On the Relationship between the Founder of the Empire of Trebizond and the Georgian Queen Thamar", Speculum, Vol. 15, No. 3 (Jul., 1940), pp. 299-312, page 303:
Original text(English)

Thamar, as we know from them, was the daughter of King George III of Abasgia and Georgia and the last in the main line of the illustrious Bagratid dynasty, which had branched out to Georgia from its country of provenance, Armenia, in the eighth century , and began to reign there in 786, or perhaps as early as 780.
"Georgia and European countries: Essays on the history of relations of the 13th-19th centuries" In 3 volumes, Volume 2 p. 827
N. Berdzenishvili “Questions in the history of Georgia: Historical geography: Volume 1” p. 129
Lordkipanidze M.D. “History and narration about the Bagrations” Tbilisi 1979 p. 14
I. Abuladze “Information of Ioann Draskhanakertsi about Georgia”, Tbilisi, 1937, p. 3
Lordkipanidze M.D. “History and narration about the Bagrations” Tbilisi 1979 p. 14(69)
Lordkipanidze M.D. “History and narration about the Bagrations” Tbilisi 1979 p. 19
Noble families Russian Empire. Volume 3. Princes. - pp. 28-29.

Literature

Baddeley, JF, Gammer M (INT) (2003), The Russian Conquest of the Caucasus, Routledge (UK), ISBN 0-7007-0634-8 (First published in 1908; 1999 edition, reprinted in 2003)
Lang, D. M. (1957) The Last Years of the Georgian Monarchy: 1658-1832, New York: Columbia University Press.
Rapp, S. H. (2003) Studies In Medieval Georgian Historiography: Early Texts And Eurasian Contexts, Peeters Bvba ISBN 90-429-1318-5.
Suny, R. G. The making of the Georgian nation / R. G. Suny. - 2nd ed. -: Indiana University Press, 1994. - 418 p. - ISBN 0-253-20915-3.
A. Khakhanov. "Histoire de la Georgie", Paris, 1900 (in French)
A. Manvelichvili. "Histoire de la Georgie", Paris, 1951 (in French)
A. Manvelishvili. "Russia and Georgia. 1801-1951", Vol. I, Paris, 1951 (in Georgian)
K. Salia. "History of the Georgian Nation", Paris, 1983
Kartlis Tskhovreba, vol. I-IV, Tbilisi, 1955-1973 (in Georgian)
P. Ingorokva. Giorgi Merchule (a monograph), Tbilisi, 1954 (in Georgian)
E. Takaishvili. "Georgian chronology and the beginning of the Bagratid rule in Georgia." - Georgica, London, v. I, 1935
Sumbat Davitis dze. “Chronicle of the Bagration’s of Tao-Klarjeti”, with the investigation of Ekvtime Takaishvili, Tbilisi, 1949 (in Georgian)
"Das Leben Kartlis", ubers. und herausgegeben von Gertrud Patch, Leipzig, 1985 (in German)
V. Guchua, N. Shoshiashvili. “Bagration’s.” - Encyclopedia “Sakartvelo”, vol. I, Tbilisi, 1997, pp. 318-319 (in Georgian)
Noble families of the Russian Empire. Volume 3. Princes / Ed. S. V. Dumina. - M.: Linkominvest, 1996. - 278 p. - 10,000 copies.

An excerpt characterizing the Bagrations

Tushin's battery was forgotten, and only at the very end of the matter, continuing to hear the cannonade in the center, Prince Bagration sent there the officer on duty and then Prince Andrei to order the battery to retreat as quickly as possible. The cover that stood near Tushin's guns left, on someone's orders, in the middle of the case; but the battery continued to fire and was not taken by the French only because the enemy could not imagine the audacity of firing four unprotected cannons. On the contrary, based on the energetic action of this battery, he assumed that the main forces of the Russians were concentrated here, in the center, and twice tried to attack this point and both times was driven away by grape shots from four cannons standing alone on this eminence.
Soon after the departure of Prince Bagration, Tushin managed to light Shengraben.
- Look, they're confused! It's burning! Look, there's smoke! Clever! Important! Smoke this, smoke that! – the servant spoke, perking up.
All guns fired in the direction of the fire without orders. As if urging them on, the soldiers shouted to each shot: “Dexterously! That's it! Look, you... It’s important!” The fire, carried by the wind, spread quickly. The French columns that had marched for the village retreated, but, as if in punishment for this failure, the enemy placed ten guns to the right of the village and began firing at Tushin with them.
Because of the childish joy excited by the fire, and the excitement of successful shooting at the French, our artillerymen noticed this battery only when two cannonballs, followed by four more, struck between the guns and one knocked down two horses, and the other tore off the leg of the box leader. The revival, once established, however, did not weaken, but only changed the mood. The horses were replaced by others from the spare carriage, the wounded were removed, and four guns were turned against the ten-gun battery. The officer, Tushin's comrade, was killed at the beginning of the case, and within an hour, out of forty servants, seventeen dropped out, but the artillerymen were still cheerful and animated. Twice they noticed that the French appeared below, close to them, and then they hit them with grapeshot.
The little man, with weak, awkward movements, constantly demanded another pipe from the orderly for this, as he said, and, scattering fire from it, ran forward and looked at the French from under his small hand.
- Crash it, guys! - he said and he himself grabbed the guns by the wheels and unscrewed the screws.
In the smoke, deafened by continuous shots that made him flinch every time, Tushin, without letting go of his nose warmer, ran from one gun to another, now taking aim, now counting the charges, now ordering the change and re-harnessing of dead and wounded horses, and shouted in his weak, thin voice, in a hesitant voice. His face became more and more animated. Only when people were killed or wounded did he wince and, turning away from the dead man, shout angrily at the people, as always, who were slow to raise the wounded man or the body. The soldiers, for the most part handsome fellows (as always in a battery company, two heads taller than their officer and twice as wide as him), all, like children in a difficult situation, looked at their commander, and the expression that was on his face remained unchanged reflected on their faces.
As a result of this terrible hum, noise, need for attention and activity, Tushin did not experience the slightest unpleasant feeling of fear, and the thought that he could be killed or painfully wounded did not occur to him. On the contrary, he became more and more cheerful. It seemed to him that a very long time ago, almost yesterday, there was that minute when he saw the enemy and fired the first shot, and that the patch of field on which he stood was a long-familiar, familiar place to him. Despite the fact that he remembered everything, understood everything, did everything that the best officer in his position could do, he was in a state similar to feverish delirium or the state of a drunken person.
Because of the deafening sounds of their guns from all sides, because of the whistle and blows of the enemy’s shells, because of the sight of the sweaty, flushed servants hurrying around the guns, because of the sight of the blood of people and horses, because of the sight of the enemy’s smoke on the other side (after which everyone once a cannonball flew in and hit the ground, a person, a weapon or a horse), because of the sight of these objects, his own fantastic world was established in his head, which was his pleasure at that moment. The enemy cannons in his imagination were not cannons, but pipes, from which an invisible smoker released smoke in rare puffs.
“Look, he puffed again,” Tushin said in a whisper to himself, while a puff of smoke jumped out of the mountain and was blown to the left by the wind in a stripe, “now wait for the ball and send it back.”
-What do you order, your honor? - asked the fireworksman, who stood close to him and heard him muttering something.
“Nothing, a grenade...” he answered.
“Come on, our Matvevna,” he said to himself. Matvevna imagined in his imagination a large, extreme, antique cast cannon. The French appeared to him like ants near their guns. The handsome and drunkard number two of the second gun in his world was his uncle; Tushin looked at him more often than others and rejoiced at his every move. The sound of the gunfire, which either died down or intensified again under the mountain, seemed to him like someone’s breathing. He listened to the fading and flaring up of these sounds.
“Look, I’m breathing again, I’m breathing,” he said to himself.
He himself imagined himself to be of enormous stature, a powerful man who threw cannonballs at the French with both hands.
- Well, Matvevna, mother, don’t give it away! - he said, moving away from the gun, when an alien, unfamiliar voice was heard above his head:
- Captain Tushin! Captain!
Tushin looked around in fear. It was the staff officer who kicked him out of Grunt. He shouted to him in a breathless voice:
- What, are you crazy? You were ordered to retreat twice, and you...
“Well, why did they give me this?...” Tushin thought to himself, looking at the boss with fear.
“I... nothing...” he said, putting two fingers to the visor. - I…
But the colonel did not say everything he wanted. A cannonball flying close caused him to dive and bend over on his horse. He fell silent and was just about to say something else when another core stopped him. He turned his horse and galloped away.
- Retreat! Everyone retreat! – he shouted from afar. The soldiers laughed. A minute later the adjutant arrived with the same order.
It was Prince Andrei. The first thing he saw, riding out into the space occupied by Tushin’s guns, was an unharnessed horse with a broken leg, neighing near the harnessed horses. Blood flowed from her leg like from a key. Between the limbers lay several dead. One cannonball after another flew over him as he approached, and he felt a nervous shiver run down his spine. But the very thought that he was afraid raised him up again. “I cannot be afraid,” he thought and slowly dismounted from his horse between the guns. He conveyed the order and did not leave the battery. He decided that he would remove the guns from the position with him and withdraw them. Together with Tushin, walking over the bodies and under terrible fire from the French, he began cleaning up the guns.
“And then the authorities came just now, so they were tearing up,” the fireworksman said to Prince Andrei, “not like your honor.”
Prince Andrei did not say anything to Tushin. They were both so busy that it seemed they didn’t even see each other. When, having put the surviving two of the four guns on the limbers, they moved down the mountain (one broken cannon and the unicorn were left), Prince Andrei drove up to Tushin.
“Well, goodbye,” said Prince Andrei, extending his hand to Tushin.
“Goodbye, my dear,” said Tushin, “dear soul!” “goodbye, my dear,” said Tushin with tears that, for some unknown reason, suddenly appeared in his eyes.

The wind died down, black clouds hung low over the battlefield, merging on the horizon with gunpowder smoke. It was getting dark, and the glow of fires was all the more clearly visible in two places. The cannonade became weaker, but the crackling of guns behind and to the right was heard even more often and closer. As soon as Tushin with his guns, driving around and running over the wounded, came out from under fire and went down into the ravine, he was met by his superiors and adjutants, including a staff officer and Zherkov, who was sent twice and never reached Tushin’s battery. All of them, interrupting one another, gave and passed on orders on how and where to go, and made reproaches and comments to him. Tushin did not give orders and silently, afraid to speak, because at every word he was ready, without knowing why, to cry, he rode behind on his artillery nag. Although the wounded were ordered to be abandoned, many of them trailed behind the troops and asked to be deployed to the guns. The same dashing infantry officer who jumped out of Tushin’s hut before the battle was, with a bullet in his stomach, laid on Matvevna’s carriage. Under the mountain, a pale hussar cadet, supporting the other with one hand, approached Tushin and asked to sit down.
“Captain, for God’s sake, I’m shell-shocked in the arm,” he said timidly. - For God's sake, I can't go. For God's sake!
It was obvious that this cadet had more than once asked to sit somewhere and was refused everywhere. He asked in a hesitant and pitiful voice.
- Order him to be imprisoned, for God's sake.
“Plant, plant,” said Tushin. “Put down your overcoat, uncle,” he turned to his beloved soldier. -Where is the wounded officer?
“They put it in, it’s over,” someone answered.
- Plant it. Sit down, honey, sit down. Lay down your overcoat, Antonov.
The cadet was in Rostov. He held the other with one hand, was pale, and his lower jaw was shaking with feverish trembling. They put him on Matvevna, on the very gun from which they laid the dead officer. There was blood on the overcoat, which stained Rostov's leggings and hands.
- What, are you wounded, darling? - said Tushin, approaching the gun on which Rostov was sitting.
- No, shell-shocked.
- Why is there blood on the bed? – Tushin asked.
“It was the officer, your honor, who bled,” answered the artillery soldier, wiping the blood with the sleeve of his overcoat and as if apologizing for the uncleanness in which the gun was located.
Forcibly, with the help of infantry, they took the guns up the mountain, and having reached the village of Guntersdorf, they stopped. It had already become so dark that ten steps away it was impossible to distinguish the uniforms of the soldiers, and the firefight began to subside. Suddenly, screams and gunfire were heard again close to the right side. The shots were already sparkling in the darkness. This was the last French attack, which was answered by soldiers holed up in the houses of the village. Again everyone rushed out of the village, but Tushin’s guns could not move, and the artillerymen, Tushin and the cadet, silently looked at each other, awaiting their fate. The firefight began to subside, and soldiers, animated by conversation, poured out of the side street.
- Is it okay, Petrov? - one asked.
“Brother, it’s too hot.” Now they won’t interfere,” said another.
- Can't see anything. How they fried it in theirs! Not in sight; darkness, brothers. Would you like to get drunk?
The French were repulsed for the last time. And again, in complete darkness, Tushin’s guns, surrounded as if by a frame by buzzing infantry, moved somewhere forward.
In the darkness, it was as if an invisible, gloomy river was flowing, all in one direction, humming with whispers, talking and the sounds of hooves and wheels. In the general din, behind all the other sounds, the moans and voices of the wounded in the darkness of the night were clearest of all. Their groans seemed to fill all the darkness that surrounded the troops. Their groans and the darkness of this night were one and the same. After a while, there was a commotion in the moving crowd. Someone rode with his retinue on a white horse and said something as they passed. What did you say? Where to now? Stand, or what? Thank you, or what? - greedy questions were heard from all sides, and the entire moving mass began to push on itself (apparently, the front ones had stopped), and rumors spread that they were ordered to stop. Everyone stopped as they were walking, in the middle of the dirt road.
The lights lit up and the conversation became louder. Captain Tushin, having given orders to the company, sent one of the soldiers to look for a dressing station or a doctor for the cadet and sat down by the fire laid out on the road by the soldiers. Rostov also dragged himself to the fire. A feverish trembling from pain, cold and dampness shook his entire body. Sleep was overwhelming him, but he could not sleep because of the excruciating pain in his arm, which was aching and could not find a position. He now closed his eyes, now glanced at the fire, which seemed to him hotly red, now at the stooped, weak figure of Tushin, sitting cross-legged next to him. Tushin’s big, kind and intelligent eyes looked at him with sympathy and compassion. He saw that Tushin wanted with all his soul and could not help him.
From all sides the footsteps and chatter of those passing, passing and infantry stationed around were heard. The sounds of voices, footsteps and horse hooves rearranging in the mud, the near and distant crackling of firewood merged into one oscillating roar.
Now, as before, the invisible river no longer flowed in the darkness, but as if after a storm, the gloomy sea lay down and trembled. Rostov mindlessly watched and listened to what was happening in front of him and around him. The infantry soldier walked up to the fire, squatted down, stuck his hands into the fire and turned his face away.
- Is it okay, your honor? - he said, turning questioningly to Tushin. “He got away from the company, your honor; I don’t know where. Trouble!
Together with the soldier, an infantry officer with a bandaged cheek approached the fire and, turning to Tushin, asked him to order the tiny gun to be moved in order to transport the cart. Behind the company commander, two soldiers ran to the fire. They swore and fought desperately, pulling out some kind of boot from each other.
- Why, you picked it up! Look, he’s clever,” one shouted in a hoarse voice.
Then a thin, pale soldier approached, his neck tied with a bloody wrap, and in an angry voice demanded water from the artillerymen.
- Well, should I die like a dog? - he said.
Tushin ordered to give him water. Then a cheerful soldier ran up, asking for a light in the infantry.
- A hot fire to the infantry! Stay happily, fellow countrymen, thank you for the light, we will give it back with interest,” he said, carrying the reddening firebrand somewhere into the darkness.
Behind this soldier, four soldiers, carrying something heavy on their overcoats, walked past the fire. One of them tripped.
“Look, devils, they put firewood on the road,” he grumbled.
- It’s over, so why wear it? - said one of them.
- Well, you!
And they disappeared into the darkness with their burden.
- What? hurts? – Tushin asked Rostov in a whisper.
- Hurts.
- Your honor, to the general. They’re standing here in the hut,” said the fireworksman, approaching Tushin.
- Now, my dear.
Tushin stood up and, buttoning his overcoat and straightening himself, walked away from the fire...
Not far from the artillery fire, in the hut prepared for him, Prince Bagration sat at dinner, talking with some of the unit commanders who had gathered with him. There was an old man with half-closed eyes, greedily gnawing a mutton bone, and a twenty-two-year-old impeccable general, flushed from a glass of vodka and dinner, and a staff officer with a name ring, and Zherkov, anxiously looking around at everyone, and Prince Andrei, pale, with pursed lips and feverishly shiny eyes.
In the hut there stood a taken French banner leaning in the corner, and the auditor with a naive face felt the fabric of the banner and, perplexed, shook his head, perhaps because he was really interested in the appearance of the banner, and perhaps because it was hard for him hungry to look at dinner for which he did not have enough utensils. In the next hut there was a French colonel captured by the dragoons. Our officers crowded around him, looking at him. Prince Bagration thanked individual commanders and asked about the details of the case and losses. The regimental commander, who introduced himself near Braunau, reported to the prince that as soon as the matter began, he retreated from the forest, gathered woodcutters and, letting them pass by him, with two battalions struck with bayonets and overthrew the French.
- As I saw, Your Excellency, that the first battalion was upset, I stood on the road and thought: “I’ll let these through and meet them with battle fire”; I did so.
The regimental commander wanted to do this so much, he regretted so much that he did not have time to do this, that it seemed to him that all this had actually happened. Perhaps it actually happened? Was it possible to make out in this confusion what was and what was not?
“And I must note, your Excellency,” he continued, recalling Dolokhov’s conversation with Kutuzov and his last meeting with the demoted man, “that the private, demoted Dolokhov, captured a French officer before my eyes and especially distinguished himself.”
“Here I saw, your Excellency, an attack by the Pavlogradians,” Zherkov intervened, looking around uneasily, who had not seen the hussars at all that day, but had only heard about them from an infantry officer. - They crushed two squares, your Excellency.
At Zherkov’s words, some smiled, as always expecting a joke from him; but, noticing that what he was saying also tended towards the glory of our weapons and the present day, they took on a serious expression, although many knew very well that what Zherkov said was a lie, based on nothing. Prince Bagration turned to the old colonel.
– Thank you all, gentlemen, all units acted heroically: infantry, cavalry and artillery. How are two guns left in the center? – he asked, looking for someone with his eyes. (Prince Bagration did not ask about the guns on the left flank; he already knew that all the guns had been abandoned there at the very beginning of the matter.) “I think I asked you,” he turned to the officer on duty at the headquarters.
“One was hit,” answered the officer on duty, “and the other, I can’t understand; I myself was there all the time and gave orders and just drove away... It was hot, really,” he added modestly.
Someone said that Captain Tushin was standing here near the village, and that they had already sent for him.
“Yes, there you were,” said Prince Bagration, turning to Prince Andrei.
“Well, we didn’t move in together for a bit,” said the officer on duty, smiling pleasantly at Bolkonsky.
“I did not have the pleasure of seeing you,” said Prince Andrei coldly and abruptly.
Everyone was silent. Tushin appeared on the threshold, timidly making his way from behind the generals. Walking around the generals in a cramped hut, embarrassed, as always, at the sight of his superiors, Tushin did not notice the flagpole and stumbled over it. Several voices laughed.
– How was the weapon abandoned? – Bagration asked, frowning not so much at the captain as at those laughing, among whom Zherkov’s voice was heard loudest.
Tushin now only, at the sight of the formidable authorities, imagined in all horror his guilt and shame in the fact that he, having remained alive, had lost two guns. He was so excited that until that moment he did not have time to think about it. The officers' laughter confused him even more. He stood in front of Bagration with a trembling lower jaw and barely said:
– I don’t know... Your Excellency... there were no people, Your Excellency.
- You could have taken it from cover!
Tushin did not say that there was no cover, although this was the absolute truth. He was afraid to let down another boss by this and silently, with fixed eyes, looked straight into Bagration’s face, like a confused student looks into the eyes of an examiner.
The silence was quite long. Prince Bagration, apparently not wanting to be strict, had nothing to say; the rest did not dare to intervene in the conversation. Prince Andrey looked at Tushin from under his brows, and his fingers moved nervously.
“Your Excellency,” Prince Andrei interrupted the silence with his sharp voice, “you deigned to send me to Captain Tushin’s battery.” I was there and found two thirds of the men and horses killed, two guns mangled, and no cover.
Prince Bagration and Tushin now looked equally stubbornly at Bolkonsky, who was speaking restrainedly and excitedly.
“And if, Your Excellency, allow me to express my opinion,” he continued, “then we owe the success of the day most of all to the action of this battery and the heroic fortitude of Captain Tushin and his company,” said Prince Andrei and, without waiting for an answer, he immediately stood up and walked away from the table.
Prince Bagration looked at Tushin and, apparently not wanting to show distrust of Bolkonsky’s harsh judgment and, at the same time, feeling unable to fully believe him, bowed his head and told Tushin that he could go. Prince Andrei followed him out.
“Thank you, I helped you out, my dear,” Tushin told him.
Prince Andrei looked at Tushin and, without saying anything, walked away from him. Prince Andrei was sad and hard. It was all so strange, so unlike what he had hoped for.

"Who are they? Why are they? What do they need? And when will all this end? thought Rostov, looking at the changing shadows in front of him. The pain in my arm became more and more excruciating. Sleep was falling irresistibly, red circles were jumping in my eyes, and the impression of these voices and these faces and the feeling of loneliness merged with a feeling of pain. It was they, these soldiers, wounded and unwounded, - it was they who pressed, and weighed down, and turned out the veins, and burned the meat in his broken arm and shoulder. To get rid of them, he closed his eyes.
He forgot himself for one minute, but in this short period of oblivion he saw countless objects in his dreams: he saw his mother and her big white hand, he saw Sonya’s thin shoulders, Natasha’s eyes and laughter, and Denisov with his voice and mustache, and Telyanin , and his whole story with Telyanin and Bogdanich. This whole story was one and the same thing: this soldier with a sharp voice, and this whole story and this soldier so painfully, relentlessly held, pressed and all pulled his hand in one direction. He tried to move away from them, but they did not let go of his shoulder, not even a hair, not even for a second. It wouldn’t hurt, it would be healthy if they didn’t pull on it; but it was impossible to get rid of them.
He opened his eyes and looked up. The black canopy of night hung an arshin above the light of the coals. Powders of falling snow flew in this light. Tushin did not return, the doctor did not come. He was alone, only some soldier was now sitting naked on the other side of the fire and warming his thin yellow body.
“Nobody needs me! - thought Rostov. - There is no one to help or feel sorry for. But I was once at home, strong, cheerful, loved.” “He sighed and involuntarily groaned with a sigh.
- Oh, what hurts? - asked the soldier, shaking his shirt over the fire, and, without waiting for an answer, he grunted and added: - You never know how many people have been spoiled in a day - passion!
Rostov did not listen to the soldier. He looked at the snowflakes fluttering over the fire and remembered the Russian winter with a warm, bright house, a fluffy fur coat, fast sleighs, a healthy body and with all the love and care of his family. “And why did I come here!” he thought.
The next day, the French did not resume the attack, and the rest of Bagration’s detachment joined Kutuzov’s army.

Prince Vasily did not think about his plans. He even less thought of doing evil to people in order to gain benefit. He was only a secular man who succeeded in the world and made a habit out of this success. He constantly, depending on the circumstances, depending on his rapprochement with people, drew up various plans and considerations, of which he himself was not well aware, but which constituted the entire interest of his life. Not one or two such plans and considerations were in his mind, but dozens, of which some were just beginning to appear to him, others were achieved, and others were destroyed. He did not say to himself, for example: “This man is now in power, I must gain his trust and friendship and through him arrange for the issuance of a one-time allowance,” or he did not say to himself: “Pierre is rich, I must lure him to marry his daughter and borrow the 40 thousand I need”; but a man in strength met him, and at that very moment instinct told him that this man could be useful, and Prince Vasily became close to him and at the first opportunity, without preparation, by instinct, flattered, became familiar, talked about what what was needed.
Pierre was under his arm in Moscow, and Prince Vasily arranged for him to be appointed a chamber cadet, which was then equivalent to the rank of state councilor, and insisted that the young man go with him to St. Petersburg and stay in his house. As if absent-mindedly and at the same time with an undoubted confidence that this should be so, Prince Vasily did everything that was necessary in order to marry Pierre to his daughter. If Prince Vasily had thought about his plans ahead, he could not have had such naturalness in his manners and such simplicity and familiarity in his relations with all the people placed above and below himself. Something constantly attracted him to people stronger or richer than himself, and he was gifted with the rare art of catching exactly the moment when it was necessary and possible to take advantage of people.
Pierre, having unexpectedly become a rich man and Count Bezukhy, after recent loneliness and carelessness, felt so surrounded and busy that he only managed to be left alone with himself in bed. He had to sign papers, deal with government offices, the meaning of which he had no clear idea of, ask the chief manager about something, go to an estate near Moscow and receive many people who previously did not want to know about his existence, but now would offended and upset if he didn’t want to see them. All these various persons - businessmen, relatives, acquaintances - were all equally well disposed towards the young heir; all of them, obviously and undoubtedly, were convinced of the high merits of Pierre. He constantly heard the words: “With your extraordinary kindness,” or “with your wonderful heart,” or “you yourself are so pure, Count...” or “if only he were as smart as you,” etc., so he He sincerely began to believe in his extraordinary kindness and his extraordinary mind, especially since it always seemed to him, deep down in his soul, that he was really very kind and very smart. Even people who had previously been angry and obviously hostile became tender and loving towards him. Such an angry eldest of the princesses, with a long waist, with hair smoothed like a doll’s, came to Pierre’s room after the funeral. Lowering her eyes and constantly flushing, she told him that she was very sorry for the misunderstandings that had happened between them and that now she felt she had no right to ask for anything, except permission, after the blow that had befallen her, to stay for a few weeks in the house that she loved so much and where made so many sacrifices. She couldn't help but cry at these words. Touched that this statue-like princess could change so much, Pierre took her hand and asked for an apology, without knowing why. From that day on, the princess began to knit a striped scarf for Pierre and completely changed towards him.
– Do it for her, mon cher; “All the same, she suffered a lot from the dead man,” Prince Vasily told him, letting him sign some kind of paper in favor of the princess.
Prince Vasily decided that this bone, a bill of 30 thousand, had to be thrown to the poor princess so that it would not occur to her to talk about Prince Vasily’s participation in the mosaic portfolio business. Pierre signed the bill, and from then on the princess became even kinder. The younger sisters also became affectionate towards him, especially the youngest, pretty, with a mole, often embarrassed Pierre with her smiles and embarrassment at the sight of him.
It seemed so natural to Pierre that everyone loved him, so it would seem unnatural if someone did not love him, that he could not help but believe in the sincerity of the people around him. Moreover, he did not have time to ask himself about the sincerity or insincerity of these people. He constantly had no time, he constantly felt in a state of meek and cheerful intoxication. He felt like the center of some important general movement; felt that something was constantly expected of him; that if he didn’t do this, he would upset many and deprive them of what they expected, but if he did this and that, everything would be fine - and he did what was required of him, but something good remained ahead.

War hero Prince Bagration Pyotr Ivanovich. Originally from Dagestan, the city of Kizlyar. Descends from the line of the Israeli kings Solomon and David. Descendant of Ashot I the Great (Bagratid). Napoleon said about him: “Russia has no good generals, except for one Bagration.”

Israel and Judah were often subjected to devastating invasions in the 7th–6th centuries BC by the troops of the Assyrian Empire and the Babylonian Kingdom. After the defeat of the Assyrian Empire in 612 BC. e. During the reign of Paruir Skojordi, a coalition of states that included Armenia took the place of Assyria by Babylon, under the control of Nebuchadnezzar. The next Babylonian invasion of Israel and Judea ended with the defeat of these Jewish states and the captivity of high dignitaries and representatives of the royal dynasty, including Prince Shambat (Hebrew Saturday). The son of Paruyr Skayordi, the Armenian prince Grachea (Armenian: Fire-Eyed) redeemed Shambat and his servants from Babylonian captivity, paying Nebuchadnezzar a significant sum. All other rulers of the Jewish royal dynasty were destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, and the Jewish people were resettled from their historical one to other parts of the Babylonian kingdom. Gracea married his daughter to his noble protégé. Thus began the dynasty of the Armenian Bagratid princes, and the name Smbat appeared among the Armenian names.
In the service of Armenia, their new homeland, the Bagratids made a dizzying career. They first become tagadirs (crown-bearers of the Armenian kings), receive large estates and possessions. The Armenian kings then appoint them as hereditary aspets (commanders of the Armenian cavalry). They take part in all the wars that Armenia wages, covering themselves with glory, strengthening themselves economically and politically. In the same eras when Armenia came under foreign influence, they (the Bagratids), remaining Armenian princes, held major positions in Byzantium, the Persian Sassanid Empire, and the Arab Caliphate.
For the first time, the Bagratids reach major political heights when one of the representatives of this dynasty, Sahak Bagratuni, becomes marzpan (ruler of a very large part of Armenia, subordinate to the Iranian empire). He takes part in the uprising against the Persians in 480, and dies on the battlefield in a battle against the Persians on the banks of the Phasis River (Rioni River - now this river is located in Georgia).
His correspondence with the father of Armenian historiography Movses Khorenatsi (Moses of Khorensky) is interesting, where in one of his letters he asks to derive his ancestry from the ancient Armenian kings. The Bagratids begin to think about the royal throne. Movses Khorenatsi answered him, “Don’t believe anyone who tells you that you come from the family of Hayk. You come from the Israeli kings Solomon and David.” (Hayk is the ancient ancestor of the Armenians, the first king of Armenia). And further...
Movses Khorenatsi makes him understand that in order to take the Armenian throne, it is not at all necessary to be an Armenian by origin. Indeed, the Mamikonians are Chinese, the Arunids are Assyrians, the Kamsarokyans are Parthians, the Amatunis are Canaanites, these are some very noble families of the Armenian Naharar (boyar) families that played a significant role in the history of Armenia.
In the middle of the 9th century, a situation arose when the Bagratids finally received a real chance to gain the Armenian royal crown. They led the fight Armenian people against the Arab invaders, in particular, this struggle is highlighted in the epic David of Sassoun. The Caliphate's troops were repeatedly defeated under the leadership of the Bagratids, and in 885 Ashot I the Great was elected king of Greater Armenia at a congress of the Armenian nobility, senior religious figures and peasantry. This is the concept historical period included mainly the possession of one of the large administrative-territorial units of the Arab Caliphate, which was part of Armenia. These territories were captured by the Arabs in the 7th – 8th centuries AD. e. and included most of Greater Armenia, Caucasian Albania and Eastern Georgia (Iveria). Ashot I the Great (Bagratid) was solemnly crowned, but not only with the crown that was prepared for him by Armenian jewelers and presented to him by the Armenian nobility. Recognizing his power, crowns were sent as a gift by the Byzantine emperor and the Arab caliph, specially made for this occasion. Representatives of other powers, thus, recognized his authority over the territories subordinate to him.
Further, due to feudal fragmentation, Bagratids, their descendants began to reign and reign in different parts Armenian state. Thus, in addition to the Armenian Bagratids, the conditionally Georgian and conditionally Albanian Bagratids appeared (Agvank - Caucasian Albania, from Kura to Derbent, on the coast of the Caspian Sea, which included the northern part of the present Azerbaijan Republic and the south of Dagestan).
Officially, history includes the Armenian Bagratids and the Georgian Bagratids, although they are the same family. The reason for the division of this dynasty also has a religious aspect, since from the moment of the adoption of Christianity until 607, the Georgian church was part of the Armenian church. The Armenian Catholicos had the title of Patriarch, and the Georgian Catholicos had the title of Metropolitan. In 607, Georgian religious leaders, as has happened more than once in history, defected to a wealthier patron - Byzantium. The ancestors of Pyotr Ivanovich Bagration, fleeing persecution by the Turks and Persians in the 17th century, moved to Russia. Started new story and new career rise this unique dynasty.

And here is what they write about Pyotr Ivanovich Bagration on Wikipedia:

Pyotr Ivanovich Bagration 1765 - September 12, 1812) - Russian infantry general, prince, hero Patriotic War 1812. Descendant of the Georgian royal house of Bagration. Tsarevich Alexander (Isaak-beg) Jessevich, the natural son of the Kartlian king Jesse, left for Russia in 1759 due to disagreements with the ruling Georgian family and served as a lieutenant colonel in the Caucasian division. His son Ivan Bagration moved after him. Peter was born in July 1765 in Georgia. Pyotr Bagration spent his childhood years in his parents' house in Kizlyar. Military service Pyotr Bagration began in 1782 as a private in the Astrakhan infantry regiment, stationed in the vicinity of Kizlyar. He gained his first combat experience in 1783 during a military expedition to the territory of Chechnya. In an unsuccessful foray of a Russian detachment under the command of Pieri against the rebel highlanders of Sheikh Mansur in 1785, Colonel Pieri's adjutant, non-commissioned officer Bagration, was captured near the village of Aldy, but then ransomed by the tsarist government. He took part in the Russian-Turkish War of 1787-92 and the Polish Campaign of 1794. He distinguished himself on December 17, 1788 during the storming of Ochakov. In the Italian and Swiss campaigns of A.V. Suvorov in 1799, General Bagration commanded the vanguard of the allied army, especially distinguished himself in the battles on the Adda and Trebbia rivers, at Novi and Saint Gotthard. This campaign glorified Bagration as an excellent general, whose characteristic was complete composure in the most difficult situations. An active participant in the war against Napoleon in 1805-1807. In the campaign of 1805, when Kutuzov's army made a strategic march from Braunau to Olmutz, Bagration led its rearguard. His troops conducted a number of successful battles, ensuring the systematic retreat of the main forces. They became especially famous in the battle of Schöngraben. In the Battle of Austerlitz, Bagration commanded the troops of the right wing of the allied army, which staunchly repelled the onslaught of the French, and then formed a rearguard and covered the retreat of the main forces. In the campaigns of 1806-07 Bagration, commanding the rearguard Russian army, distinguished himself in the battles of Preussisch-Eylau and Friedland in Prussia. Napoleon formed an opinion about Bagration as the best general in the Russian army. In the Russian-Swedish war of 1808-09 he commanded a division, then a corps. He led the Åland expedition of 1809, during which his troops, having crossed the ice of the Gulf of Bothnia, occupied the Åland Islands and reached the shores of Sweden. During the Russian-Turkish War of 1806-12, he was commander-in-chief of the Moldavian Army (July 1809 - March 1810), and led the fighting on the left bank of the Danube. Bagration's troops captured the fortresses of Machin, Girsovo, Kyustendzha, defeated a 12,000-strong corps of selected Turkish troops at Rassavet, and inflicted a major defeat on the enemy near Tataritsa. Since August 1811, Bagration has been the commander-in-chief of the Podolsk Army, renamed in March 1812 into the 2nd Western Army. Anticipating the possibility of Napoleon's invasion of Russia, he put forward a plan that provided for advance preparation to repel aggression. At the beginning of the Patriotic War of 1812, the 2nd Western Army was located near Grodno and found itself cut off from the main 1st Army by the advancing French corps. Bagration had to retreat with rearguard battles to Bobruisk and Mogilev, where, after the battle near Saltanovka, he crossed the Dnieper and on August 3 united with the 1st Western Army of Barclay de Tolly near Smolensk. Bagration advocated involving broad sections of the people in the fight against the French and was one of the initiators of the partisan movement. At Borodino, Bagration's army, forming the left wing of the battle formation of the Russian troops, repelled all attacks of Napoleon's army. According to the tradition of that time, decisive battles were always prepared as if for a show - people changed into clean linen, shaved thoroughly, put on ceremonial uniforms, orders, white gloves, sultans on shakos, etc. Exactly as he is depicted in the portrait - with a blue St. Andrew's ribbon, with three stars of the orders of Andrei, George and Vladimir and many order crosses - were seen by Bagration's regiments in the Battle of Borodino, the last in his military life. A cannonball fragment crushed the general's tibia in his left leg. The prince refused the amputation proposed by the doctors. The commander was transported to the estate of his friend, Lieutenant General Prince B.A. Golitsyn, who also participated in the Battle of Borodino, in the village of Sima, Vladimir province. On September 25, 1812, Pyotr Ivanovich Bagration died of gangrene, 18 days after being wounded.

Used Books.
1. Movses Khorenatsi. History of Armenia.
2. Movses Kalantakvatsi. History of the country of Aluang.
3. Sergey Glinka. Essays on the history of Armenia.
4. Kirakos Gandzaketsi. History of Armenia.
5. Wikipedia.

Other sons of the Armenian people also participated in the company of 1812. About this in the article here.

Where is Bagration from? Bagratids and Bagrations. Bagration's last - Battle of Borodino

Encyclopedic YouTube

From their homeland of Armenia, after an unsuccessful uprising against the Arabs in 772, one of the branches of this house moved to neighboring Georgia, where it achieved power in 786 (or perhaps as early as 780).

Legend of biblical origin

The first Bagrations

Middle Ages

Description of the coat of arms

Bagrations in the Russian Empire and during the USSR

Bagrations at present

From their homeland of Armenia, after an unsuccessful uprising against the Arabs in 772, one of the branches of this house moved to neighboring Georgia, where it achieved power in 786 (or perhaps as early as 780).

Legend of biblical origin

The first Bagrations

Middle Ages

Description of the coat of arms

Bagrations in the Russian Empire and during the USSR

Bagrations at present

see also

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An excerpt characterizing the Bagrations