On November 12, at 15:00, the exhibition "Gendarmerie in the Caucasus" will be opened in the exhibition pavilion of the National Archive of the Ministry of Justice of Georgia.

 

The exhibition will present both original documents and photocopies from the fund of the Tbilisi Gendarmerie Division, which includes written documents, surveillance materials, secret correspondence and other interesting documents created in this organization in the years 1839-1917. Attached to this material are gendarmerie cards made for prisoners in 1904-1917. Along with the photos, the cards contained the detainee's fingerprints, personal information, physical description and information about the charges. 5413 such cards have reached us.

As for the photo collection of the Gendarmerie, it is mainly preserved on glass negatives and includes about 5000 photos of people arrested by the Tbilisi Gendarmerie Division in 1904-1917, which were taken during their arrest.

 

Among the prisoners are Georgian public figures and politicians, who had problems with the gendarmerie because of their activities. In the materials you will find photos of Mikheil Javakhishvili, Noe Jordania, Noe Ramishvili, Razden Arsenidze, Ana Sologhashvili, Zakaria Chichinadze, Ioseb Imedashvili and other famous people and Gendarmerie cards.

The photo collection and cards, in addition to its direct content, provide us with interesting information in many ways. For example, on the physical data of people living a century ago, their clothing and social status.

The Gendarmerie was the secret (political) police of Tsarist Russia created in the 1820s. Its purpose was to reveal state and political crimes and fight against them.

Exhibition curators: Ketevan Asatiani, Tengiz Simashvili

 

The exposition in the exhibition pavilion of the National Archive will last until November 18.