Georgia, Georgian Sakartvelo, Russian Gruziya, republic (c.26,900 sq mi/69,700 sq km; 1989 population 5,400,841; 2004 estimated population 4,693,892), in W Transcaucasia; (cap.) Tbilisi. Other important cities are Rustavi, Kutaisi, Batumi, Sukhumi, and Poti.
Geography
Georgia borders on the Black Sea in the W, on Turkey and Armenia in the S, on Azerbaijan in the E, and on the Russian Federation in the N. Included in Georgia are the Abkhazanian Autonomous Republic, the Adjarian Autonomous Republic, and the South Ossetian Autonomous Region (see Ossetia). Situated on the S slopes of the Greater Caucasus and in the Lesser Caucasus, Georgia is largely mountainous. The Suram Mountains separate the Rion (Rioni) and Kura river valleys. The perpetually snowcapped Mount Kazbek, the tallest peak within Georgia, rises to 16,541 ft/5,042 m. The climate is humid subtropical in the Black Sea lowland of Mingrelia, alpine in the Greater and Lesser Caucasus, and dry in the Kura steppes in the E.
Economy
Agriculture is the leading occupation in Georgia, whose warmer districts produced most of the USSR’s tea and citrus fruits, as well as abundant tobacco, wine grapes, rice, and mulberry trees (for silk). Sheep, pig, and poultry raising are widespread. Because the rugged terrain makes large-scale collective agriculture difficult, individual farming remains important. Georgia is rich in minerals, notably manganese (mined mostly at Chiatura and in Imeritia); coal, lignite, barites, iron, molybdenum, oil, and peat are also found. There are sizable deposits of marble, dolomite, talc, and clays for use in construction. Georgia has abundant hydroelectric energy. The country’s chief manufacturing includes airplanes, trucks, farm machinery; light industrial products, iron and steel, railroad and mining equipment, chemicals, and building materials. The most important food industry is wine. The Black Sea shore is dotted with resorts and spas that attract numerous tourists. The Black Sea coast railroad, the line from Batumi through Tbilisi to Baky, the Georgian Military Road, and the Ossetian Military Road are the country’s main transportation arteries.
Population
About 71% of the population are Georgians—a people who speak a language related to the Ibero-Caucasian family of languages. Armenians (8.1%) and Russians (6.3%) are the other major ethnic groups, with Ossetians (3%), Abkhazians (1.8%), and Azeris (5.7%) in much smaller numbers. The Georgian church is an independent Eastern Orthodox congregation. There has been a standard Georgian literary language since about the 5th century. Educational and cultural institutions include the university at Tbilisi (established 1918) and the Georgian Academy of Sciences.
History to 1555
Georgia developed as a kingdom about the 4th century B.C. Mtskheta was its earliest capital. The Persian Sassanidae, who ruled the country from the 3rd century A.D., were expelled c.400. In the 4th century Christianity was introduced in Georgia. In the 6th century began the rule of a branch of the Armenian Bagratid. Alp Arslan held the region in the 11th century, but King David II expelled the Seljuk Turks, united the Georgians, and reestablished their independence. In the 12th and 13th centuries Georgia under Queen Thamar (1184–1213) reached its greatest expansion (it then included the whole of Transcaucasia) and cultural flowering. From that period dates the national poem, Hero or Knight in Tiger’s Skin, by Shota Rustaveli. Ravaged (13th century) by the Mongols, Georgia revived but was again sacked by Timur (c.1386–1403). In the 15th century King Alexander I divided Georgia into three kingdoms (Imertia, Kakhetia, and Karthlia) among his sons, and the period of decline set in. In the 16th century Georgia became an object of struggle between Turkey and Persia.
History - 1555 to 1989
In 1555, W Georgia passed under Turkish suzerainty and E Georgia (Kakhetia and Karthlia) under Persian rule. In the 18th century kings of Kakhetia tried to unite Georgia, but, pressed by the Turks and the Persians, accepted (1783) vassalage to Russia in exchange for assistance. The last king, George XIII, threatened by Persia, abdicated (1801) in favor of the czar and ceded Kakhetia and Karthlia to Russia. Between 1803 and 1829 Russia also acquired from Turkey the W parts of Georgia (Abkhazia, Mingrelia, Imeritia, and Guria). After the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Georgian Menshevik party proclaimed (May 1918) Georgia’s independence, and the Soviet government in Moscow recognized it two years later. In 1921, however, the Red Army invaded Georgia, and in February 1921, it was proclaimed a Soviet republic. It joined the USSR in 1922 as a member of the Transcaucasian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, and in 1936 it became a separate union republic. After World War II, Stalin, himself a Georgian, ordered the deportation of hundreds of thousands of Georgians as suspected collaborators.
History - 1989 to Present
In April 1989, a protest against Soviet rule in Georgia led Soviet troops to fire on demonstrators, killing twenty and injuring hundreds. Georgia declared its independence in April 1991, and was recognized as an independent state by the U.S. in December 1991. In January 1992, a rebellion against the increasingly dictatorial regime of President Zviad Gamsakhurdia led to his ouster. He escaped to W Georgia and instigated a counterrebellion. The South Ossetian Autonomous Republic and Abkhazanian Autonomous Republic also rose in rebellion, the former demanding union with Russia’s North Ossetia and the latter demanding independence; a cease-fire agreement calling for Russian peacekeeping forces was signed in May 1994. In October 1992, Eduard Shevardnadze, Mikhail Gorbachev’s former foreign minister and the leader of the Democratic Reform Movement, was elected president. In 1994, Georgia agreed to military and economic cooperation with Russia and joined the Commonwealth of Independent States in March. Shevardnadze was the target of a bombing in August 1995 in which he was wounded; he was reelected president in November 1995, but widespread protests because of government attempts to manipulate legislative elections in 2003, led to his resignation.
Government
New elections in early 2004 swept Mikheil Saakashvili into power along with his National Movement Party. Georgia has a popularly elected 250-member parliament. The head of state is the president, who is elected by popular vote.
Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania, who helped lead the revolution that toppled the corruption-tainted regime of Eduard Shevardnadze, was killed on February 3, 2005, by what officials said was apparently a gas leak from a heater. President Saakashvili said that for now he would assume the duties of prime minister as well as president. By law he has one week to announce a replacement.
