Imperial Russian Rule
On August 25, 1878, the Russian army under General Dmitry Sviatopolk-Mirsky entered Batum, and the Ottoman marshal Dervish-Pasha surrendered him a city key in Aziziye Square (modern-day Freedom Square).
The town was declared a free port until 1886. It functioned as a center of a special military district until being incoprorated in the Government of Kutaisi on June 12, 1883. Finally, on 1 June 1903, with the Okrug of Artvin, it was established as the region (oblast) of Batumi placed under the direct control of the General Government of Georgia.
Batum was officially granted the city status and the right to elect the city council (duma) on April 28, 1888. On September 2, 1888, Gavronsky elected the first mayor of Batum. On January 25, 1895, Prince Luka Asatiani, former mayor of Kutaisi, was elected a mayor of Batum. He was reelected in 1898. He presided over several modernizing projects such and suddenly died in 1902. He was succeeded by Prince Ivane Andronikashvili who remained on this post until 1916 when he moved to Tiflis.
The expansion of Batumi began in 1883 with the construction of the Batumi-Tiflis-Baku railway completed in 1900 by the finishing of the Baku-Batumi pipeline. Henceforth Batumi became the chief Russian oil port in the Black Sea. The town expanded to an extraordinary extent and the population increased very rapidly: 8,671 inhabitants in 1882, and 12,000 in 1889. By 1902 the population was 16,000. 1,000 of them were oil refinery workers.
Read more about this topic: History Of Batumi
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