Background
Georgiy Kazbek was born on November 3,1840. He was born into the noble family of a Russian army officer in the village of Stepan-Tsminda. He had two brothers - Dimitri and Gabriel - and the sister Elisabed.
Georgiy Kazbek was born on November 3,1840. He was born into the noble family of a Russian army officer in the village of Stepan-Tsminda. He had two brothers - Dimitri and Gabriel - and the sister Elisabed.
In 1859 graduated from the Voronezh Mikhailovsky Cadet Corps. Giorgi Kazbegi graduated from the General Staff Academy St.Petersburg in 1870 and was dispatched, in the rank of major, to the Caucasian Grenadiers Division.
During his service in the Caucasus, he befriended the leading Georgian intellectuals of that time. In 1873 he accompanied the popular Georgian poet Akaki Tsereteli in his journey to the mountainous western Georgian provinces of Racha and Lechkhumi. In the meantime, he progressed through military ranks, becoming lieutenant-colonel in 1874.
In 1874, Kazbegi spent three months on a reconnaissance mission to the historical southwestern Georgian districts around Batum, which were under the sway of the Ottoman Empire at that time. He left a valuable account of his travels to these hitherto little explored lands, accompanied by sketches of medieval Georgian churches and monasteries.
During the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878), Kazbegi served in the special Kobuleti detachment, receiving a concussion at the action of Achkvistavi. For his conduct, Kazbegi was promoted to colonel. He was then, successively, in command of the 153rd Derbent Infantry Regiment (1878-1879) and the 79th Kurin Infantry Regiment (1879-1882).
Retired to reserves in 1882, he spent the next three years traveling in Europe and America. In 1885 he returned to active service, being attached to the Caucaisan staff. He was appointed Chief of Staff of the Warsaw Fortress and promoted to major-general on October 29, 1892.
Kazbegi then served as a quartermaster general of the Warsaw Military District from March 27, 1897 to July 3, 1899 and a commandant of the Ivangorod Fortress from July 3, 1899 to June 23, 1902. He was promoted to lieutenant-general on January 1, 1901 and served as a commandant of Warsaw Fortress from June 23, 1902 until January 25, 1905, when he was placed in charge of the Vladivostok Fortress. He served in this capacity during the Russian Revolution of 1905.
On March 7, 1906, he was dismissed from the active military service for his lenient treatment of the mutineers.
Remaining at disposal of Commander-in-Chief of the Far East, Kazbegi was attached to the Russian Chief of Staff until September 25, 1907, when he received the rank of general of infantry and was allowed to retire with a pension and a privilege of wearing a uniform.
Kazbegi then returned to his native Georgia, where he was elected, from 1908 to 1918, a chairman of the Society for the Spreading of Literacy Among Georgians, a leading Georgian cultural institution of that time. During the years of Georgia's short-lived independence from 1918 to 1921, Kazbegi was an Honorary President of that Society. The Soviet Russian invasion in 1921 forced the seasoned general into exile to Constantinople, where he died in obscurity the same year.
Military statistical description of the Terek region
(Part 1-2.)
1888Military history of the Georgian grenadier regiment in connection with the history of the Caucasian war
1865Military statistical and strategic essay of the Lazistan Sanjak
1876Kurintsi in Chechnya and Dagestan: Essay on the history of the 79th Infantry of the Kura ... Regiment
1885Giorgi Kazbegi was married to Elisabed (died 1919), daughter of Prince Alexander Maghalashvili. They had four children: Elene, Niko, Constantine and Alexander. He outlived his wife and all three of his sons. Alexander, a Russian army colonel during World War I, was killed at Łódź in 1914. Constantine, a military engineer, was murdered in St. Petersburg in 1915. Niko, a Russian cavalry rotamaster, died in the Carpathian Mountains in 1917.