Levan V Dadiani

At that time, Levan resided in Abkhazia, at the court of Kelesh Ahmed-Bey Shervashidze, whom Grigol had surrendered his son as an honorary hostage in exchange of the Abkhaz support in a power struggle in Mingrelia in 1802.

Next year, he aided the Russians in the conquest of the Kingdom of Imereti, which had, for centuries, claimed suzerainty over Mingrelia, and in an expedition against the Ottoman-held province of Akhaltsikhe, for which he received the Order of Saint Vladimir, 2nd Class.

[5] In August 1829, during the Russo-Turkish War (1828–1829), Dadiani and his Mingrelians, serving under Major-General Karl Hesse, were instrumental in defeating the Turks at Mukha-Estate.

Levan, anticipating riches by selling timber to Egypt, dreamed of turning Zugdidi, Mingrelia's chief town, into a modern city called Grigoriopolis[6] and filed a request to the tsar Nicholas I to be allowed to do so in 1837, a few months after he hosted the Russian monarch in his possessions in September 1837.

[7] After Niko Dadiani's death in 1834, Levan summoned his eldest son David, an energetic and educated officer in the Russian service in Tiflis, to manage a growing political crisis in the principality.

[8] With his health declining and Mingrelia facing a breakdown of law and order, Levan Dadiani resigned government duties in favor of David on 11 May 1840, retaining formal titles of a Mingrelian ruler.