Abkhazia within the Russian empire[1]  

     For a long time, Russia considered the region of Caucuses as a ground to attack the Ottoman Empire.  During a short period of time Russia took away sovereignty from the small kingdoms and included their land into its own empire.  That turned the whole area into a colony with military headquarters in charge and it was named, for simplicity, –“Georgia”.  Longer than others, Abkhazia kept its partial sovereignty.  

   The Russian empire had quite a difficult situation in the Caucuses, under pressure from Turkish empire. Russia’s fighting machine suffered from Abkhaz disobedience and some formal independence.  Abkhaz insurgency against Russia pushed Russians to suppress the local population. This period became known as “makhadjirra”[2]. The total number of those who left Abkhazia due to Russian suppression during that period was around 180 thousand.  Russia drastically needed to change the situ by reforming its governing system in Caucuses, which involved Abkhazia.    

   In 1864 in order to provide a “territorial peace-keeping mission”, Abkhaz kingdom was abolished and a new type of Russian rule was introduced with a formation of the Sokhum military department of the Russian Empire. This coincided with the end of the Caucasian War and the defeat of Turkey in the Russian-Turkey war.     

    Later the Sukhum military department was transformed into a Sukhum military region including the Kutaiss province and until 1917 the area was under the control of the governor, answerable to the Russian Emperor. The colonial inter-politics of the Russian empire, directed at the unruly peoples, instigated some mass migration of foreign people into Abkhazia, which led to a demographical shift. After the end of the war in Caucases there was a vast migration of Mengrel peasants into Abkhazia. In 1864 Abkhaz’s autonomy was abolished. The tragedy of deportation of Abkhaz people into Turkey (makhadjirra) as a result of Abkhaz uprising in 1866 and 1877 led to the drastic decline in Abkhaz population, which was being replaced by coming Mengrels.