Ivane Andronikashvili

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Prince Andronikashvili

Prince Ivane Andronikashvili (Georgian: ივანე ანდრონიკაშვილი), also known as Knyaz Ivan Malkhazovich Andronnikov (Russian: Иван Малхазович Андронников) (1798 – November 19, 1868) was a Georgian 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 king Solomon II.

When Andronikashvili turned nineteen, he was enrolled in the St Petersburg Cavalry Regiment of the Leib Guard. In 1824 he joined the Nizhniy Novgorod dragoon regiment as a major. He served later in the Caucasus 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 and led an expedition against the rebellious Ossetes in 1840 and 1850.

The Crimean War was the apex of Andronikashvili’s military career. On November 14, 1853, he defeated Ali Pasha's army of 20,000 men at Akhaltsikhe 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 with the force of 13,000. Prince Andronikashvili was promoted General of Cavalry just a few months before his death in 1868.