Adolf Berge

Who was Adolf Berge?

Adolph Bergé or Adolf Pyetrovich Berzhe was an Imperial Russian bureaucrat and an Orientalist, with principal interests in the history and culture of the South Caucasus.

A St. Petersburg native, Bergé's father was from France and his mother was from Germany. Trained in the Oriental studies at St. Petersburg University, Bergé was dispatched to the chancellery of the Viceroy of the Caucasus Prince Mikhail Vorontsov in 1851. He made two scholarly trips to Persia in 1853 and 1855. From 1864 to his death Bergé chaired the Tiflis-based Caucasian Archaeographical Commission. He died at Tiflis in 1864, leaving behind a number of works pertaining to the history of the Caucasus and Middle East, including the monumental 11-volume collection of archival documents "Acts, collected by the Archaeographical Commission at the Directorate of the Viceroy of the Caucasus", the last volume of which appeared in print after Bergé's death.