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KAKHA KVASHILAVAON THE PROBLEM OF ESTABLISHING A PRISTAVSTVOIN SAMURZAKANO.ACCORDING TO THE NEWLY ASCERTAINEDARCHIVAL MATERIALSIn Samurzakano which almost 150 years had been a disputed territorybetween Samegrelo and Abkhazia, was established a directly Russianoccupation rule in 1840. Though Giorgi and Mikheil Sharvashidze recognizedLevan V Dadiani’s authority on this land, they surreptitiouslysupported the activity of the local oppositionists. Thereby Giorgi andMikheil had tried to interfere in the realization of their rights in the Galidzga-Enguriinterfluve. Russia took advantage of this situation and inSamurzakano and there was established a police-administrative unit –pristavstvo. It was a logical continuation of the colonial policy, whichprovided for the destruction of the local self-governing entities.In the article we are the first using the archival documents that havebeen identified by us in the Historical Archives of the National Archivesof Georgia, the National Centre of Manuscripts of Georgia and the ManuscriptCollections of the Historical and Ethnographic Museum of Zugdidi.According to these sources, it was not easily for Russia to legitimizetaking away Samurzakano from Dadiani. In these new discovered documentswe see clearly that the Russians quite rightly recognized that Galidzga-Enguriinterfluve was part of Samegrelo. This fact refuted the statementof the Abkhaz separatist historians (O. Bgazhba, S. Lakoba) thatRussia began to recognize the legitimacy of the rights of Mikhail Sharvashidzeon this land.386