The history of Georgia goes back before recorded history. Part of Georgia’s Black Sea coast was settled by the 9th century BC and acted as a trading post with Assyrian and Greek sailing vessels. In its history, as we’ve discussed before, Georgia has been conquered by the Assyrians, Greeks, Romans, the Byzantine Empire, Seljuk Turks, Mongols, Huns, Persians, Arabs, Armenians, Russians, and, today, by American contractors.
In 337 CE, King Mirian III converted to Christianity, making Georgia the world’s second Christian state (preceded only by Armenia). By the end of the 5th century king Vakhtang had established a feudal state (as opposed to today’s futile state) with his capital in Tbilisi. Georgia existed under a variety of rulers, being split apart by some and reunited by others, existing as a “bread basket,” if you will, providing agricultural goods as tribute to whomever ruled the region at that particular time. Georgia remained a backwater until King Davit IV (aka David the Builder) drove out the Turks and reunited Georgia in 1121. Under his rule, Georgia became the most powerful state in the Caucasus region. His rule is known in Georgia as the Golden Age.
The Golden Age ended in 1220 by Genghis Khan and his Mongol hordes, followed by the Black Death starting in 1366, and Tamerlane who invaded the country six times between 1386 – 1403. The last king of a united Georgia was Alexander I (1412-43), who, upon his death, split the country into three parts – one for each of his sons. Georgia remained three separate “mini-kingdoms” until the Russians invaded in the 18th century, driving one of the three kings – Vakhtang VI – into exile in Russia in 1723. Vakhtang VI is revered in Georgia for his enlightened rule and his public work projects. He constructed irrigation channels and had the intelligentsia write a complete history of Georgia and the Caucasus region before he skedaddled to Russia.
Georgia experienced a variety of different rulers for the next 200 years, among them the Prussians, the Turks (again), the Persians (again), the Russians (again), the Chechens (where did they come from??), and, coming full circle, the Russians (yet again). They remained under Russian control until the Russian Revolution in 1917. After the Russian Revolution, Georgia briefly regained independence. This only lasted until 1921 when the Red Army again invaded Georgia, occupying the entire country in only nine days (the start of a pattern, as we’ll see later).
Georgia remained a part of the USSR as the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic until the Soviet Union fell in 1989. When the USSR began to disintegrate, Georgia began a campaign to secede from the USSR. This was brought to an abrupt halt on April 9, 1989, (a date commemorated by a street name in Tbilisi and other town in the country), when the Soviet Interior Ministry sent tanks into Tbilisi, killing 21 demonstrators. The Georgian Supreme Soviet (the equivalent of a state government) responded to the massacre by declaring Georgian law superior to USSR law, and then declaring Georgia was an “annexed and occupied country” in February 1990. In April 1991, Georgia declared itself, once again, an independent nation.
Life as a trade partner with the Russians went smoothly until 2008 when a province of Georgia, South Ossetia – heavily populated with ethnic Russians, not Georgians – declared itself autonomous. When the central government in Tbilisi challenged this claim, South Ossetia asked Russia for assistance. Georgia responded by launching a full-scale military attack against South Ossetia’s provincial capital and largest city, Tskhinvali, in August 2008. The Russians responded immediately, sending combat troops into South Ossetia and bombing targets in Gori and Tbilisi. Five days of heavy fighting ensued, ending in a Georgian retreat. France brokered a ceasefire on August 12th (nine days after the start of the conflict). (See? Told you we’d come back to the nine-day thing.)
Today, Russian troops remain in South Ossetia, and South Ossetia is, de facto, an independent territory recognized by just four nations – Russia, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Nauru (Nauru?!).
A not-so-quick side note: Josef Vissarionovich Djugashvili was born in Gori (where I’ll be working) in either 1878 or 1879. A gifted poet, he won a scholarship to the seminary in Tbilisi in 1894. He soon became involved in revolutionary politics and was expelled from the seminary in 1899, taking a job as an accountant and record-keeper at the Tbilisi Meteorological Observatory until 1901.
After participating in a violent demonstration against the government in 1901, Djugashvili went into exile, taking on a new nom de guerre, Stalin, which in Russian means “man of steel.” He joined the Communist party and in 1912 founded the party newspaper Pravda (“truth” in Russian). In 1922, he became general secretary of the party’s Central Committee, and upon Lenin’s death in 1924, maneuvered himself into a position of absolute power.
Stalin died on March 5, 1953. In 1956 Khrushchev denounced his crimes and in 1961 his body was moved out of the Red Square mausoleum he shared with Lenin.
Stalin is widely seen in Georgia to this day as a “strongman” who, through personal strength and conviction, pulled the USSR into the 20th century. His crimes are widely overlooked in country and a statue to him still stands outside the Parliament building in Tbilisi.
So, there you have it, a quick 900-word history of Georgia. Next time I’ll discuss the geography, climate, and culture of Georgia. If you have any suggestions or ideas for this blog (like “Quit writing it.”), let me hear from you. I’ve opened a new email account that I’ll use only for this blog. It’s rclifton12@yahoo.com. Thanks for reading.
Primary source for this posting: Burford, R. (2011). Georgia (4th ed.). Guilford, CT: The Globe Pequot Press.
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