| Publication |
2009.
|
| Summary/Abstract |
THE AUGUST 2008 EVENTS in the Caucasus and an avalanche of related comments have made it imperative to look back into the past and remind the world of the circumstances under which Georgia, Abkhazia and Ossetia joined the Russian Empire. Archival documents leave no space for doubts: first, back in the 18th to the early 19th century when these states were negotiating their joining Russia they acted as independent separate persons; second, Russia met them halfway when they clearly and insistently asked for protection against the threat of physical extermination or absorption coming from neighboring states. This means that contrary to what is often asserted this was neither occupation nor annexation but an act of brotherly help and manifestation of Russia's clearly understood responsibility for the fates of the neighboring small Orthodox peoples. Here are the facts.
|