Acta of the Caucasian Archeographic Commission

This collection contains important sources on the history of the peoples of the Caucasus—the Arab chronicle of 922, patent letters, deeds, and charters issued by local rulers—and other documents, primarily from the 14th century through the first half of the 19th century, in Georgian, Armenian, Russian, Arabic, Persian, Tatar, and Turkish, as well as genealogies of the local khans and sultans. The bulk of the collection consists of documents covering the period 1762–1862. This part of the collection contains important information on the history of the Caucasus and its unification with Russia, on the Russo-Iranian and the Russo-Turkish wars, on the Crimean War, on the liberation struggle of the mountaineers, and on peasant uprisings.

Acta of the Caucasian Archeographic Commission was published for the purpose of justifying the colonialist policy of tsarism in the Caucasus. This had an effect on the choice of documents—sources on military history are emphasized, documents on the history of the economy and on social relations are few—as well as on the classification of the documents—each volume includes documents corresponding to the tenure of a particular governor of the Caucasus. Acta of the Caucasian Archeographic Commission is an important source on the history of the Caucasus in the 19th century.