Vakhushti Bagrationi

Historian, geographer, cartographer

1696–1757

Vakhushti Bagrationi (1696–1757), son of King Vakhtang VI, was born in Tbilisi. In 1724, when the Ottomans occupied Kartli, he followed his father to Russia. There he was known as Tsarevich Vakhusht, and he spent the rest of his life in Moscow.

In 1745 he completed the “Description of the Kingdom of Georgia”, a large history of the country, and in 1750 the “Geographical Description of Georgia”. Vakhushti wrote of Georgia as a single whole, although in his day it was divided among rival kings and princes. In 1745–1746 he compiled two atlases of the Caucasus with the coats of arms of its historic lands.

His works were translated into Russian and then French, and until the early 20th century European scholars and travellers found their way by them. In 2013 the “Description” and the geographical atlas were inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World register. With his brother Bakar, Vakhushti completed at his press near Moscow the first printed Georgian Bible, issued in 1743. He is buried in the Donskoy Monastery in Moscow.