with unprecedented powers. In appointing him, Alexander gave him
the previously separate offices of commander-in-chief in Georgia,
civilian governor of Georgia, inspector of the Caucasian Line, and
military governor of Astrakhan (important for naval reinforcements
and supply deliveries). Even Ermolov and Paskevich did not hold all
these commands. During the three and a half years Tsitsianov filled
those offices, he reorganized the government of Georgia; fought
tribesmen of the high Caucasus; endeavored to bring the west Geor-
gian principalities under Russian control; signed treaties for the sub-
mission of Baku, Shakki, Shirvan, and Qarabagh; attempted the
conquest of Yerevan; and succeeded in conquering Ganjeh. In the
process, he intensified the Muslim Caucasians' mistrust of Russia
and contributed directly to the outbreak of war with Iran. Alexander
was well pleased with his accomplishments and rewarded him with
the order of St. Alexander Nevskii and later the same medal set with
diamonds, as well as the order of St. Vladimir, First Class, and 8,000
rubles. He was promoted from lieutenant general, the third highest
grade in the Table of Ranks, to general of the infantry, the second
highest. Not surprisingly, he became the model for many an officer
serving in the Caucasus. In 1805, he was recalled so that he could be
given an even more prestigious command in the war against France,
but he stayed at his current post until a successor could be named. In
February of the following year, his career came to an abrupt end
when he was shot after walking into a trap set for him by Hosein Qoli
Khan of Baku.
In his personal attributes, Tsitsianov contrasted sharply with the
model of the heroic world conquerer (for example, the Chingiz Khan,
Timur, or Napoleon) who, by the audacity of his daring and the
force of his will, builds an empire and inspires awe. Tsitsianov did
not lack the ferocious drive to sweep all obstacles from his path, but
his career shows us the other side of the conquering hero—the ob-
stacles that cannot be overcome by the will to victory, the arrogant
blunders of the self-enamored, and the sordidness that, on closer in-
spection, can be found underlying the triumph. His apparent success
and his "martyrdom" at Baku caused him to be remembered admir-
ingly by later generations of Russian imperial historians. N. N. Beliav-
skii and V. A. Potto wrote of his breadth of vision, determination,
nobility of character, eloquence, energy, and enormous devotion to
the service of Russia's interests.
9
Such admiration was not limited to
proponents of Russian expansion in Asia. The standard English work
on Russia's Caucasian empire, J. F. Baddeley's The Russian Conquest
of the Caucasus, also praised the general in glowing terms:
72 Russia's Conquest of the Eastern Caucasus