The administration of the Caucasus is purely military. The first thought in the Russian mind is conquest. After that there is no other thought but to retain possession. Instead of planting trees and encouraging the people to improve their methods of agriculture, the Russians build fortresses, and instead of building school-houses they build barracks. The railway across the province and that which runs down to the Persian border were primarily for the movement of troops, and military supplies are given preference over all other freight. The famous road through the Caucasus Mountains is for military purposes rather than for commerce. At least one hundred and fifty thousand soldiers are kept on a war footing in this province alone. That number of men are not only withdrawn from the fields and factories, and the number of producers thus reduced, but the peasants who work the farms, the shopkeepers and other peaceful members of the population, are taxed to pay for their support, which is a continual grievance that cannot be removed. If the money that is spent upon military purposes could be devoted to material development and the education of the people the army would not be needed.
All the influential and lucrative offices are held by imported Russians, although clerkships and other minor positions are given to natives. The province of the Caucasus, which is north of the mountain range, and that of the trans-Caucasus, which is south, are governed by autocrats who are directly responsible to the czar, and to him alone. Several members of the imperial family have occupied the posts which were considered desirable until the revolution.
At the same time, it should be explained that the Russians are there by invitation. More than a hundred years ago the Georgian king voluntarily appealed for the protection of Alexander I, against the aggressiveness of Aga Mohammed Kahn, a Persian invader, and in 1801 he signed a treaty of practical annexation to Russia with Alexander I. There is a fine large historical picture by a Georgian artist in the military museum here representing the enthusiasm manifested by the people when the Russian troops entered the city of Tiflis and the Russian governor assumed authority.
The political situation here is practically the same as that in Poland. Georgia is a conquered province. It was added to the Russian Empire without the consent of the people. They are Russian subjects by compulsion and they do not like it. Their former king appealed to the Russians for protection against the Persians more than a century ago; the Russians responded to the appeal and have "assimilated" the kingdom of Georgia as they did the kingdom of Poland.
All the big buildings are barracks. The garrison of Tiflis is thirty-five thousand soldiers, and that does not seem to be sufficient to keep the people in order. There are soldiers everywhere. Every other man you meet on the street wears a uniform; almost every guest at the hotel is a general or a colonel, and every first-class passenger on the railway trains is an officer of rank. They are a fine-looking lot of men, and their uniforms are very conspicuous, being of a light bluish gray, with an abundance of gold braid. A Russian officer is never out of uniform and never parts from his sword. In the railway trains, in the restaurants, even at church, he is heavily armed, and every officer seems to wear his winter overcoat in this hot weather which is difficult to understand. There may be a regulation requiring officers to wear overcoats twelve months in the year, regardless of the temperature, and that is the only way we can explain it.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs at St. Petersburg, as a matter of convenience for the transaction of business, has an annex here, and a sub-secretary of foreign affairs who deals with Persia, the emir of Bokhara, and other Asiatic princes under Russian protection. He receives his instructions from St. Petersburg, but is allowed a good deal of discretion in dealing with matters of official business. The present incumbent of that office is a very agreeable gentleman, Loukainow Stanislavovitchou Kokhanowskiomou, to whom I had a letter of introduction, but fortunately I was not compelled to pronounce his name. I could properly address him as "Excellency." He occupies a commodious house not far from the viceroy's palace, comporting with the dignity and importance of his office, and has a collection of rugs and Oriental embroideries that a connoisseur would covet.