Prince Vakhtang Orbeliani ( ka, ვახტანგ ორბელიანი) (5 April 1812 – 29 September 1890) was a Georgian

Romanticist Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. The purpose of the movement was to advocate for the importance of subjec ...

poet and soldier in the

Imperial Russia Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor/empress, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania * ...

n service, of the noble

House of Orbeliani The House of Orbeliani ( ka, ორბელიანი) was a Georgian noble family (tavadi), which branched off the House of Baratashvili in the 17th century and later produced several lines variously called Orbeliani, Orbelishvili (ორბ ...

. Vakhtang Orbeliani was born in

Tiflis Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი, ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), ( ka, ტფილისი, tr ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia ( ...

(Tbilisi), then under

n rule, to

Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...

Vakhtang Orbeliani and Princess Tekle, a beloved daughter of the penultimate Georgian king

Erekle II Heraclius II, also known as Erekle II ( ka, ერეკლე II) and The Little Kakhetian ( ka, პატარა კახი, link=no ; 7 November 1720 or 7 October 1721 Cyril_Toumanoff.html" ;"title="ccording to Cyril Toumanoff">C. Touman ...

. He was a brother of

Alexander Orbeliani Count Alexander Orbeliani (Jambakur-Orbeliani) ( ka, ალექსანდრე ორბელიანი ��ამბაკურ-ორბელიანი}) (24 May 1802 – 28 December 1869) was a Georgian Romanticist poet, playwright, ...

and a cousin of

Grigol Orbeliani Prince Grigol Orbeliani or Jambakur-Orbeliani ( ka, გრიგოლ ორბელიანი; ჯამბაკურ-ორბელიანი) (2 October 1804 – 21 March 1883) was a Georgian Romanticist poet and general in Imp ...

, fellow Romanticist poets. He studied at the Tiflis nobility school and enrolled into the

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

Page Corps The Page Corps (; ) was a military academy in Imperial Russia, which prepared sons of the nobility and of senior officers for military service. Similarly, the Imperial School of Jurisprudence prepared boys for civil service. The present-day equiva ...

which he did not graduate from and returned to homeland to lead a failed coup attempt against Russian rule in 1832. The conspirators planned to invite the Russian officials in the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, comprising parts of Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Caucasus Mountains, i ...

to a grand ball where they would be given the choice of death or surrender. After the collapse of this plot, Orbeliani was arrested and sentenced to death, but reprieved and exiled to

Kaluga Kaluga (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Kaluga Oblast, Russia. It stands on the Oka River southwest of Moscow. Its population was 337,058 at the 2021 census. Kaluga's most famous residen ...

. The abortive uprising and relatively mild punishment that followed forced many conspirators to see the independent past as irremediably lost and to reconcile themselves with the

Russian autocracy Tsarist autocracy (), also called Tsarism, was an autocracy, a form of absolute monarchy in the Grand Duchy of Moscow and its successor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire. In it, the Tsar possessed in principle authority and ...

, transforming their laments for the lost past and the fall of the native dynasty into Romanticist poetry. In 1838, Orbeliani joined the Russian military service and served in the

Nizhny Novgorod Nizhny Novgorod ( ; rus, links=no, Нижний Новгород, a=Ru-Nizhny Novgorod.ogg, p=ˈnʲiʐnʲɪj ˈnovɡərət, t=Lower Newtown; colloquially shortened to Nizhny) is a city and the administrative centre of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast an ...

Dragoon Dragoons were originally a class of mounted infantry, who used horses for mobility, but dismounted to fight on foot. From the early 17th century onward, dragoons were increasingly also employed as conventional cavalry and trained for combat wi ...

regiment. Most of his military career was spent in the struggle against the rebellious mountainous tribes during the

Caucasus War The Caucasian War () or the Caucasus War was a 19th-century military conflict between the Russian Empire and various peoples of the North Caucasus who resisted subjugation during the Russian conquest of the Caucasus. It consisted of a series o ...

. He was placed in command of the Georgian

Grenadier A grenadier ( , ; derived from the word ''grenade'') was historically an assault-specialist soldier who threw hand grenades in siege operation battles. The distinct combat function of the grenadier was established in the mid-17th century, when ...

Regiment in 1855 and promoted to major general in 1860. Between 1858 and 1863, he carried out various administrative and military duties in the

North Caucasus The North Caucasus, or Ciscaucasia, is a subregion in Eastern Europe governed by Russia. It constitutes the northern part of the wider Caucasus region, which separates Europe and Asia. The North Caucasus is bordered by the Sea of Azov and the B ...

, including being commander in the restive districts of

Kabarda The Grand Principality of Great Kabarda, also known as East Circassia or Kabardia (), was a historical country in the North Caucasus corresponding partly to modern-day Kabardino-Balkaria. It existed as a political community from the fifteenth ce ...

and Terek. Later in his career, he served as a member of peasants’ council and worked as an arbitrator. Like his elder brother Alexander’s, his poetry is obsessed with the destruction of the Georgian monarchy at the end of the 18th century, and the poet seeks console in a Christian patience. His best poetry is dominated by the sacred image of Georgian Christianity —

Grapevine cross The grapevine cross ( ka, ჯვარი ვაზისა, ''Jvari Vazisa''), also known as the Georgian cross or Saint Nino's cross, is a major symbol of the Georgian Orthodox Church and dates possibly from the 4th century AD, when Christia ...

St. Nino Saint Nino (sometimes St. Nune or St. Ninny; ka, წმინდა ნინო, tr; ; ; c. 296 – c. 338 or 340) was a woman who preached Christianity in the territory of the Kingdom of Iberia in what is now Georgia (country), Georgia. Her pr ...

Rayfield, Donald Patrick Donald Rayfield OBE (born 12 February 1942, Oxford) is an English academic and Emeritus Professor of Russian and Georgian at Queen Mary University of London. He is an author of books about Russian and Georgian literature, and about Jose ...

(2000), '' The Literature of Georgia: A History'', p. 143.

Routledge Routledge ( ) is a British multinational corporation, multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, academic journals, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanit ...

, . Vakhtang Orbeliani is buried in the western corner of

Tbilisi Sioni Cathedral The Sioni Cathedral of the Dormition () is a Georgian Orthodox cathedral located in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. Following a medieval Georgian tradition of naming churches after specific places in the Holy Land, the Sioni Cathedral bears the ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Orbeliani, Vakhtang 1812 births 1890 deaths Male poets from Georgia (country) Military personnel from Tbilisi Imperial Russian Army generals Georgian generals in the Imperial Russian Army Georgian major generals (Imperial Russia) Nobility of Georgia (country) Writers from Tbilisi Russian military personnel of the Caucasian War 19th-century poets from Georgia (country) 19th-century male writers