Russian policies in the Caucasus in documents from G.V. Rosen ' s archive

Abstract

The article addresses one of the little-studied issues of the Caucasus war (1817-1864) source studies. It focuses on the overview of archival documents, particularly, unpublished documents from the personal provenance fond of the Caucasus Corps Commander G.V. Rosen. These documents show the activities of his office in 1832-37 and reflect other preoccupations of the head of the Russian administration in the region, as well as matters that interested him personally. The article underscores that in addition to his direct military duties, the Caucasus Corps Commander was directly involved in exploration of the region. He studied not just topography, but peoples and ethnic groups that inhabited the Caucasus. He was literally standing at the source of the Caucasus studies in Russia. His reports to the Emperor show his eagerness to force on the upper imperial ranks his knowledge of the region and its people. The author contends that these actions of the Commander can be considered a revision of high-handed methods of the 'conquering' of the Caucasus. The article primarily focuses on the unpublished primary sources that for some reason escaped the attention of the Caucasus Archaeographical Commission. It is important to systematize these documents, which are at the moment spread between four Russian central archives. The documents fall into the following groups: official reports, analytic papers, and personal letters. The author comes to the conclusion that documents of G.V. Rosen show that in 1830s the Russian militaries began to realise that the Empire had much more with which to occupy itself in the Caucasus than manageability of strategic challenges