Ermolov Alexei

Ermolov, Alexei [24 May (4 June) 1777, Moscow – 11 (23) April 1861, Moscow], was the Governor-General of the Caucasus from 1816 to 1827. A Russian military and statesman, he held the rank of General of Infantry (1818) and later General of Artillery (1837).

He began his military service in 1791 and participated in the war against Poland (1794), the Persian campaign (1796), the war against France (1805–07), and the Russian Patriotic War of 1812. During the foreign campaigns of 1813–14, he served as Chief of Artillery for the Allied Armies. From 1816, he was the commander of the “Separate Georgian Corps” (renamed the “Separate Caucasian Corps” in 1820), commander-in-chief of the Caucasus, and at the same time the extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador to Persia. His administrative and military authority extended over the entire Transcaucasus and North Caucasus, with Tbilisi as the administrative center.

As both military and civil governor, Ermolov pursued a harsh colonial policy in the Caucasus and led the Russian conquest of the North Caucasus. He believed that the only way to subdue the local population was through violence and instilling fear. In the mountain regions of the Caucasus, he was known as “the wrath of God,” according to A. Griboedov.

Seeking to increase state revenue, Ermolov attempted to introduce several reforms in Georgia. In 1821, he established a preferential tariff on goods imported from Europe into Transcaucasia (through the transit route Odessa–Kulevi–Tbilidi–Persia). Among his initiatives was the so-called ecclesiastical reform, which provoked the uprising of the Imereti-Guria population. The Russian authorities brutally suppressed the rebellion, burning villages and exiling many people to Siberia.

Ermolov himself wrote to M. Vorontsov about the Georgians: “These people are not worthy of the benevolent rule of Alexander I; they need an iron rod.”

In March 1827, Tsar Nicholas I dismissed Ermolov from military service for offering protection to the Decembrists who had been exiled to the Caucasus.

Literary works: Записки, ч. 1–2, М., 1865–68.

Literature: საქართველოს ისტორიის ნარკვევები, ტ. 4, თბ., 1973; А. П.Ермолов. Материалы для его биографии, собранные М. Погодиным, М., 1864