Prince Ivane Andronikashvili , also known as Knyaz

Knyaz

Kniaz, knyaz or knez is a Slavic title found in most Slavic languages, denoting a royal nobility rank. It is usually translated into English as either Prince or less commonly as Duke....

 Ivan Malkhazovich Andronnikov (1798 – November 19, 1868) was a Georgian

Georgia (country)

Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...

 noble and general in the Imperial Russian service.

He was born in Qudaghlo in the Kingdom of Kartli and Kakheti to Prince Malkhaz Andronikashvili and Princess Mariam Bagrationi. (In 1801, the Kingdom of Kartli and Kakheti became part of the Russian Empire.) His mother, Princess Mariam Bagrationi, was the sister of the last Imeretian

Kingdom of Imereti

The Kingdom of Imereti was established in 1455 by a member of the house of Bagration when the Kingdom of Georgia was dissolved into rival kingdoms. Before that time, Imereti was considered a separate kingdom within the Kingdom of Georgia, to which a cadet branch of the Bagration royal family held...

 king Solomon II

Solomon II of Imereti

Solomon II , of the Bagrationi Dynasty, was the last King of Imereti from 1789 to 1790 and from 1792 until his deposition by the Imperial Russian government in 1810....

.

When Andronikashvili turned nineteen, he was enrolled in the St Petersburg Cavalry Regiment of the Leib Guard

Russian Imperial Guard

The Russian Imperial Guard, officially known as the Leib Guard were military units serving as personal guards of the Emperor of Russia. Peter the Great founded the first such units following the Prussian practice in the 1690s, to replace the politically-motivated Streltsy.- Organization :The final...

. In 1824 he joined the Nizhniy Novgorod dragoon regiment as a major. He served later in the Caucasus

Caucasus

The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...

 during the wars with Persia (1826-1829) and Turkey (1828-1829). He was promoted Major General in 1841 and appointed Governor General of Tiflis in 1849. He took part in the Caucasian War

Caucasian War

The Caucasian War of 1817–1864, also known as the Russian conquest of the Caucasus was an invasion of the Caucasus by the Russian Empire which ended with the annexation of the areas of the North Caucasus to Russia...

 and led an expedition against the rebellious Ossetes in 1840 and 1850.

The Crimean War

Crimean War

The Crimean War was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...

 was the apex of Andronikashvili’s military career. On November 14, 1853, he defeated Ali Pasha's army of 20,000 men at Akhaltsikhe

Battle of Akhalzic

The Battle of Akhalzic may refer to one of the following:*A battle under the walls of Akhaltsikhe during the Russo-Turkish War, 1828-1829 on August 9 between 9,000 Russians under Field-Marshal Paskevich and 30,000 Turks under Kios-Mahomet-Pasha...

 with as few as 5,000 soldiers, mostly irregular Georgian cavalrymen. He achieved another victory against considerable odds over Selim Pasha’s 36,000 troops at the Choloki River

Choloki River

The Choloki River in Georgia forms the border between the autonomous province of Ajaria and the province of Guria. For a time in the nineteenth century it formed the border between Turkey and Imperial Russia....

 with the force of 13,000. Prince Andronikashvili was promoted General of Cavalry just a few months before his death in 1868.

Honours and awards

• Order of St. Vladimir
  Order of St. Vladimir
  The Cross of Saint Vladimir was an Imperial Russian Order established in 1782 by Empress Catherine II in memory of the deeds of Saint Vladimir, the Grand Prince and the Baptizer of the Kievan Rus....
  
  , 4th class (1826),
• Order of St. Anna
  Order of St. Anna
  The Order of St. Anna ) is a Holstein and then Russian Imperial order of chivalry established by Karl Friedrich, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp on 14 February 1735, in honour of his wife Anna Petrovna, daughter of Peter the Great of Russia...
  
  , 2nd class (1827)
• Order of St. George
  Order of St. George
  The Military Order of the Holy Great-Martyr and the Triumphant George The Military Order of the Holy Great-Martyr and the Triumphant George The Military Order of the Holy Great-Martyr and the Triumphant George (also known as Order of St. George the Triumphant, Russian: Военный орден Св...
  
  , 4th class (1830) and 3rd class (1853)
• Order of St. Stanislaus 1st class (1847)
• Order of St. Alexander Nevsky
  Order of St. Alexander Nevsky
  The Imperial Order of St. Alexander Nevsky was an order of chivalry of the Russian Empire.-History:The introduction of the Imperial Order of St. Alexander Nevsky was planned by Emperor Peter I of Russia...
  
  (1854)

External links

Russian Biographical Dictionary