Ivan Bartolomei

Ivan Alekseyevich Bartolomei (Russian: Иван Алексеевич Бартоломей, 28 November 1813 – 5 October 1870) was an Imperial Russian military officer, antiquarian, and writer.

In 1853, he led a mission to bring the mountaineers of Free Svanetia under Russian suzerainty.

Beyond his service as an Imperial general and bureaucrat, Bartolomei was interested in the peoples and cultures of the Caucasus.

He collected Georgian, Bactrian, Parthian, and Sasanian coins, which he subsequently donated to the Hermitage Museum.

He authored several studies on the Caucasian ethnography and linguistics and first attempts at creating Abkhaz and Chechen primers.