Breathtaking and fascinating even in the 21st century. The Georgian War Road owes its shape to a Pole, Bolesław Statkowski.

Jubilee of engineer Bolesław Stat kowski
On 20 June 1894, Tiflis (Tbilisi) celebrated the half-century of the work of an outstanding engineer and researcher. The newspaper "Kavkaz'" made this into page material. The dignitaries quoted outdid themselves in congratulations. "You have in your dossier exceptional successes in erecting structures that will immortalise you," wrote one. Another argued that "the rushing Terek, graced by iron bridges thrown across it, and the darkly majestic Darial, crossed by a wide, beautiful road, will testify to posterity of your merits from year to year, from generation to generation, from age to age". The list of those who came in person was opened by the administrators of the Caucasus, but further down, every second name was Polish. Generals Piotr Taranowski and Olgierd Szczerbowicz-Wieczór, the chief surgeon of the Caucasus army, Jan Minkiewicz, and the chief chancellor of Tiflis, Justyn Mickiewicz, turned up. Whether Bolesław Statkowski, as it was he who celebrated the jubilee, was congratulated in Polish - we do not know. However, it can be assumed that whatever the language, they were talking about the Georgian War Road.

The route and the mythical mountain of Prometheus
Although the construction of the Georgian War Road began in the late 18th century, the route, connecting Russia with Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, had for centuries led along the Terek River and through the Darial Gorge. The mythical Prometheus was chained at the 'end of the world' to the rocks of the Caucasus, in fact Kazbek (5054 m), at the foot of which the route ran. The titan's exile to this place thus proves that the Greeks also reached there, as confirmed by Strabon and Pliny the Elder.

The extremely difficult mountain conditions made the crossing arduous and dangerous. Despite this, none of the rulers ordered the hardening of the route and it was only the Russians who undertook this task. This was determined by the Russo-Turkish War of 1768-1774 and the incorporation of Georgia (1783) and Azerbaijan (1804-1828) into the Empire. Indeed, it turned out that the capacity of the road was a sine qua non for the maintenance of the new lands.

Georgian War Road - beginnings of construction
The new route along the old route was built by the military and hence its name. But what's good for the army doesn't always suit civilians and reconstruction began as early as 1803. The work was supervised by General Pavel Tsitsyanov, who had pacified the Kościuszko Uprising nine years earlier in the Grodno region. In the Caucasus, he raised considerable funds and began erecting the necessary infrastructure.

As an efficient administrator, he also performed other tasks. When he seized power in Baku on behalf of the Tsar in 1806, he was decapitated, which affected the pace of construction of the Georgian War Road. At the same time, the engineers also experienced natural setbacks. Kazbek glaciers are called charging glaciers by glaciologists. The dynamics of the ice masses are favoured by seasonal temperature changes and the activity of Kazbek, which is a dormant volcano and ejects hot substances from time to time.

The Greater Caucasus - the inspiration of writers, the challenge of builders
Pushkin, travelling on the Georgian War Road in 1829, had to deviate from the destroyed route and followed the buried river. In his poem Obval, inaccurately translated as Avalanche, he described how he listened to the sound of water flowing underground. But what inspired the poet was a curse for the builders. Faced with a collapse, no bridge would stop, no road surface would hold, and without these elements, creating a safe, comfortable road was impossible.

So two solutions were outlined from the outset - stay with the temporary nature of the road or plan it anew. St Petersburg opted for the latter. It was also said, not without reason, that the construction and constant repairs cost so much that the road could be entirely covered with gold roubles. To solve the problem, scientists were therefore approached. They were to determine whether there would be further collapses and to develop a route. The German geologist, Hermann von Abich, invited by the Tsar, and the Polish engineer, Bolesław Statkowski, had the greatest influence on the final shape of the road.

Bolesław Statkowski - from Pinsk to Tbilisi (Tiflis)
Statkowski arrived in Georgia in 1847 as a graduate of the St Petersburg Corps of Communication Engineers; many Poles graduated from this school, including Kierbedzi: Stanislav, a bridge builder, and Stanislav junior, a builder of the East China Railway.

In the Caucasus, Bolesław Statkowski became known as an excellent manager and innovator. This attracted the attention of his superiors and he was commissioned to draw up a plan to modernise the road. His proposal caught the interest of the decision-makers and in 1855 the 30-year-old was sent to Europe. For the next 16 months, he studied in England, Belgium, France and Switzerland and assisted in the tunnelling of the Alps. It is significant that here, too, he did not accept knowledge unreflectively.

The hot topic of engineers at the time was flood protection, and Polak published a brochure in which - unlike most specialists - he argued that the builder's aim was to let the water run off as quickly as possible, not to hold it back. He later developed this concept in the Caucasus, erecting structures in such a way that, with the least possible loss of infrastructure, the elements could cancel out the momentum.

Georgian War Road - construction anew
The engineer, who was born near Pinsk, returned from his internship and in 1857 personally presented Alexander II with a project for the expansion of the road. The Tsar accepted it, ordered it to be implemented and, as an incentive, presented Bolesław Statkowski with the Order of St Anne, Third Class.

Work began on a double track - the entire 212 km stretch of the road was to gain a hard surface. New post stations, stables and inns were also erected. The second part was more complicated and involved the creation of a safe infrastructure. Iron and stone bridges were part of it, but the Polish engineer did not trust these structures.

Bolesław Statkowski was convinced of the destructive power of the Caucasus - he introduced the concept of a mud avalanche ("siel") to science - so he decided to move selected sections to artificially made rock shelves. Dynamite was used for this work and the Caucasus resounded with explosions. This is how the spectacular Zemomletskiy Zjazd was created - a section of serpentine road carved into the rock, 5 km long, where the difference in altitude between the highest point - nota bene the highest on the entire route - the Cross Pass (2379 m) and the lowest point is one kilometre. This stretch of road alone was enough to immortalise the name of the Polish engineer.

Memorial route - excursions along the Georgian War Road
At the foot of the Zemomletskiy Descent, a slab of black marble was set into the rock, judging by the archive photo, about 2.5 metres high and 1.5 metres wide. A Russian inscription, carved and gilded, proclaimed:

Road built during the time of the governor, Prince Bariatinsky, between 1857 and 1861, by Colonel Statkovsky and according to his design, under the administration of the Eighth District of Communications of Gen. M. Al'dbrandt.

Today the slab is no longer there, and residents of nearby settlements suspect that it was removed after the Second World War. Russian is not a favourite language there and such monuments evoke mixed feelings. However, the imagination suggests a solution. Here, a new plaque is erected - with inscriptions in Georgian and Polish, and in its central place it reads ბოლესლავ სტატკოვსკი / Bolesław Statkowski.