Georgians - History and Cultural Relations



Humans have been living in Georgia for an extremely long time, as attested by the recent discovery near Tbilisi of a Homo erectus jawbone that may be over a million years old. Stable agricultural and stock-raising cultures left archaeological remains beginning around 5000 B.C. In the third millennium B.C. these cultures were in contact with Akkadian Mesopotamia and then with the Hittites in Asia Minor; trade networks developed and the people learned to work in bronze. Around 2000 B.C. Indo-European groups began passing through Caucasia, mingling to some extent with the native population. Between the twelfth and seventh centuries B.C. , according to Assyrian and Urartian records, there were a number of proto-Georgian tribal unions: Colcha and Diaokhi, also Mushki and Tabal, and possibly the biblical Meshech and Tubal. By 500 B.C. the first Georgian kingdoms took shape—Colchis (or Egrisi) in the west and Iberia in the east. These were at first tributaries of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, then independent states; the first ruler described in Georgian chronicles, King Parnavaz, lived in these times. In the first century B.C. Romans invaded and established weak control over both kingdoms. Over the next four centuries Romans and the Iranian Parthians fought over Caucasia while Georgian princes sided with one or the other and tried to preserve as much independence as possible. Beginning in the seventh century B.C. Greeks established trading colonies along the Black Sea, where they played a leading role in commerce into this century. In the first century B.C. Strabo described four social classes in Georgia: rulers, priest-judges, soldiers and farmers, and common people.

In AD. 337, according to tradition, Saint Nino of Cappadocia converted King Mirian, and Christianity became the state religion of Iberia. Over the next 300 years, however, Christian Byzantium fought the Mazdaist Sassanids for control of Georgia's various principalities. In the fifth century, King Vakhtang Gorgasali repelled Ossetian and Khazar raids and brought an era of strength and security; according to legend, he also founded Tbilisi. Arabs conquered Georgia in the seventh century, decimating the people and splintering the land into tiny kingdoms. By 1008 the Bagration dynasty managed to unite all of Georgia except Tbilisi, only to have the country destroyed again by Seljuk Turks. King David the Rebuilder drove the Seljuks from Georgia and portions of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and the Black Sea littoral, recapturing Tbilisi after 400 years of Muslim domination. He invited Kipchaks and Armenians to settle depopulated areas in Georgia and proclaimed religious toleration. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries Georgia enjoyed a golden age under Queen Tamar and her son Giorgi Lasha. Tamar Mepe (King Tamar), as she is known, conquered all Transcaucasia from the Black Sea to the Caspian, including present-day northeastern Turkey. She made the northern mountaineers her tributaries, built many churches, and brought the Georgian feudal system to its zenith of complexity and centralization. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, however, Georgia was invaded and conquered by waves of Mongols. With the fall of Constantinople in 1453, Georgia's Christian kings lost their main ally; soon after, the country split into three kingdoms and numerous principalities. In the following years the Ottoman Turks, Safavid Persians, and occasionally the Russian czars fought over Georgian lands. Especially in western Georgia, slave trading and constant warfare drastically reduced and impoverished all classes of society.

In the early eighteenth century, King Vakhtang VI codified the laws of Georgia and brought a cultural revival. Despite repeated betrayals, Georgia's kings were convinced that their only hope for survival against the Turks and Persians lay with Russia. In 1783 King Irakli II signed the Treaty of Georgievsk, placing the Kakheti-Kartli kingdom under Russian protection; in 1801 Czar Paul I annexed it to his crown. By mid-century all of Georgia was under Russian rule. The nobility became Russianized, but there were also repeated anti-Russian plots and popular revolts. In the 1860s, Georgian serfs were emancipated but remained burdened with debts to their former lords. Many nobles were themselves heavily in debt to a rising urban class of merchants and capitalists. In the late 1800s, the writer Ilia Ch'avch'avadze headed movements to improve the lot of serfs, bring universal education, and unite all classes into a Georgian nationality. In the 1890s, the "third group" ( mesame dasi ) of Georgian poets and intellectuals took up Marxist ideas; the young Stalin was linked with this third group, but later parted ways with it. In 1917 local revolutionary groups arose and took power as the czarist government collapsed. Georgia was briefly part of a Transcaucasian federation and then became an independent democratic state for three years under Social Democratic (Menshevik) leadership. The new government established close relations with Germany; the British, victorious in World War I, then replaced German troops and advisers. France and England eventually recognized Georgia, but offered no concrete support. In 1920 Lenin and Georgia's president, Noe Zhordania, signed a nonaggression pact; early in 1921, apparently at Stalin's instigation, the Red Army invaded and conquered Georgia.

An insurrection in 1924 was crushed, leaving an estimated 10,000 dead and 20,000 deported to Siberia. Under Stalin—an ambiguous, highly charged figure, a Georgian who became Russianized—many more people were imprisoned, exiled, or killed. A period of enforced political conformity ensued. It was not until Eduard Shevardnadze became secretary of the Georgian Communist party in 1972 that moderate reforms were instituted. In 1988 Georgian nationalist groups began demonstrations in the center of Tbilisi. Soviet troops killed nineteen protestors on 9 April 1989, and the groundswell of revolutionary feeling accelerated. In autumn 1990, as Mikhail Gorbachev's policies swept the Soviet Union, Zviad Gamsakhurdia's Mrgvali magida ("Round Table") coalition defeated the Communists in Georgian parliamentary elections. In spring 1991 a referendum on Georgian independence gained 99 percent approval, and on 9 April 1991, invoking the act of independence of 26 May 1918, the parliament redeclared Georgia a sovereign state. President Gamsakhurdia began dismantling Soviet institutions, replacing local councils with prefects. At the same time he acknowledged that Georgia remained de facto part of the Soviet Union. In parliament, the former Supreme Soviet, Gamsakhurdia's Round Table coalition held 155 seats, the former Communist party 60, and liberals and independents 26. Radicals and intellectuals formed an alternative National Congress that advocated an immediate, complete break with the Soviet Union. Gamsakhurdia's opponents pointed to press controls and political arrests as evidence that he was becoming a dictator; he, in turn, accused them of being agents of the KGB and emphasized his popular support (he was elected with 86 percent of the votes cast). In early 1992 a coalition of opposition groups, joined by many former members of Gamsakhurdia's administration, mounted an uprising in Tbilisi, which after several weeks succeeded in overthrowing the government and forcing Gamsakhurdia into exile. Shortly after consolidating their power, the new government asked Eduard Shevardnadze, the former Communist party leader, to be the new head of government. His appointment was confirmed in the election of October 1992.

Georgia's northern mountaineers traditionally raided the Muslim tribes across the crests, and also each other. Nominally Muslim and Christian villagers in the mountains had many shared traditions and habitually attended each other's festivals. Across the south and around Tbilisi, Azerbaijani, Armenian, and Turkish communities blend into Georgian ones, making Georgians sometimes feel overrun. Ajarians, Laz, and other Muslim Georgians, however, feel ties to Turkey. In 1944 Muslims in the province of Meskheti, including some Georgians, were deported to Central Asia; they still seek permission to return. Jews have lived in Georgia for twenty-six centuries without persecution, but they are now emigrating to Israel. The merchants and craftsmen in Georgia have always been largely of other nationalities, especially Armenian. Greek and Turkish influences are strong in western Georgia, whereas eastern regions have borrowed more of Persian culture; Russian and German ties are also important today. In earlier centuries, rulers often changed religions and orientations depending on which foreign power was in ascendance. In the nineteenth century Georgia was a common place of exile for Russian officers; Pushkin, Lermontov, and Tolstoy all spent time in Georgia and wrote works about the Caucasus that became popular in Russia. Educated Georgians, in turn, immersed themselves in Russian and Western literature and ideas.

In the late 1980s, as Georgia began seeking independence from the Soviet Union, Abkhazians and Ossetes renewed campaigns to secede from Georgia. The Abkhazians are a minority in their republic and complain that Georgians have not supported their culture and economy. Ossetes wish to form a single entity with their compatriots in the North Ossetian Autonomous Region of Russia. In 1990 the South Ossetian Autonomous Region declared its independence, and in 1991 fighting broke out between small groups of Ossetes and Georgians. Gamsakhurdia abolished South Ossetia's sovereignty (restoring the province's ancient Georgian name of Shida Kartli) and sent in Georgian troops; Soviet authorities responded with troops of their own. Sporadic fighting continues in both Abkhazia and South Ossetia.




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