Departures of note

In 1832, Prince Vakhtang Orbeliani returned from the St. Petersburg Page Corps without graduating and joined a conspiracy to overthrow Russian rule in Georgia. The plotters planned to invite Russian officials in the Caucasus to a grand ball, where they would be offered a choice between death and surrender. The plot collapsed, and Orbeliani was arrested and sentenced to death, but the sentence was commuted to exile in Kaluga.

Born in Tiflis in 1812, Orbeliani was the son of Prince Vakhtang Orbeliani and Princess Tekle, a daughter of King Erekle II. He came from a family of Romanticist poets, including his brother Alexander and cousin Grigol. After the failed uprising, he joined the Russian military in 1838, serving in the Nizhny Novgorod Dragoon regiment and spending most of his career fighting the rebellious mountain tribes in the Caucasus War. He commanded the Georgian Grenadier Regiment from 1855 and was promoted to major general in 1860.

Between 1858 and 1863, Orbeliani held administrative and military posts in the North Caucasus, including commander of the restive districts of Kabarda and Terek. Later, he served on a peasants' council and worked as an arbitrator. His poetry, like his brother's, mourned the fall of the Georgian monarchy and sought consolation in Christian patience, often evoking the sacred Grapevine cross of St. Nino. He was buried in the western corner of Tbilisi Sioni Cathedral.