This book examines how the Russian Empire expanded across the barrier of the Caucasus mountains to take control of the Georgian lands at the close of the eighteenth century. With no organized plan for conquest, Imperial policy fluctuated based both on personnel changes in the Imperial government and strategic re-evaluations of Imperial interests. Particular attention is paid to the role of two significant individuals - Princes Potemkin and Tsitsianov - in pushing the Empire toward total incorporation.

NIKOLAS GVOSDEV is currently the Associate Director of the J. M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies at Baylor University, Waco, Texas. He was a Rhodes Scholar at St Antony's College, Oxford University, 1992-95. He is the author of a number of articles and editorial pieces which have appeared in American journals and newspapers.