David Dadiani

The Russian authorities, citing the Mingrelians' discontent with Dadiani's harsh measures, attempted, but failed to bribe him into resigning his office.

As an adolescent, David was sent to Tiflis to be educated under the guidance of the Russian generals Vasili Bebutov and Georg Andreas von Rosen.

The disillusioned prince David returned to Tiflis and resumed his service with the Russian military, being promoted to the rank of colonel.

Eventually, on 11 May 1840, Levan V resigned the government of Mingrelia in favor of his son; he remained a titular prince-regnant, while David became a co-prince and de facto ruler of the principality.

He, further, emancipated the lower strata of the clergy from serfdom and, at the same time, placed Mingrelia's chief prelate, the archbishop of Chqondidi, under his authority.

At the head of Mingrelian forces, he fought the anti-Russian rebels in neighboring Guria in 1841 and the Circassian tribes on the northwest Caucasian coastline later that year.

In 1847, the Russian government removed Samurzakano from Mingrelia's control and put it under the Kutais Governorate, paying Dadiani off with 25,000 roubles.

[3] According to the Russian military physician Erast Andreyevsky, there were rumors that Dadiani was poisoned by the people disaffected by his rule.