by George Bournoutian
The term "Georgians" refers to the collective name of a closely-related group of people, who live in the mountains and plains of southwest Transcaucasia. As a whole, however, the Georgians call themselves "Kartveli" and their land "Sakartvelo". The Russians call them "Gruzini", the Turks "Gurcu", the Iranians "Gorji", and the Armenians "Vratsi".
The Georgian ethnic formation began around 500 B.C. when the native Caucasian groups mixed with the incoming Indo-European people from Anatolia. By 300 B.C. two Georgian regions had emerged: the west Georgian kingdom, referred to by the Greeks who settled its Black Sea coast as Colchis; and the east Georgian kingdom of Kartli with its capital at Mtskheta. By the Christian era, Rome had gained control over the western region. Byzantium and Iran fought over eastern Georgia until the Arabs conquered the entire territory.
The Arab conquest brought most of Georgia under a single authority, although a number of Georgian princes continued to govern as vassals of the Arabs. Between the seventh and ninth centuries, Georgia suffered the consequences of the Arab-Byzantine conflict and the invasion of the Khazars. Several autonomous states emerged under feudal lords.
Georgia was finally united, for the first time in its history, at the start of the eleventh century, when Bagrat III of the Armenian Bagratids, supported by the peasants, artisans, merchants, and especially the Georgian Church, established himself as king.
The new kingdom managed to repulse the Turkish onslaught—-something the Byzantines who had destroyed Armenia earlier, could not do, resulting in the Turkish invasion of Armenia. Bagrat's successors, especially David the Builder and Queen Tamar, made Georgia the most powerful state in Transcaucasia. Tbilisi became the main center and Georgia's golden age of arts, architecture, and literature was ushered.
The Mongol invasion ended this splendor and by 1243 all of Georgia was subjugated and had to pay tribute in money or troops. By the fifteenth century Georgia had broken up into three Bagratid kingdoms and five principalities.
The sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries witnessed Georgia, like Armenia, suffering the devastating wars between the Iranian Safavids and the Ottoman Turks who took many Georgians as slaves.
The fall of the Safavids made a final Georgian revival, under King Erekle II, possible. Realizing his precarious position, Erekle sought a strong Christian ally. Religious and geographical considerations made Russia the obvious choice. In 1783 Georgia signed the Treaty of Georgievsk and placed itself under the protection of Russia, which annexed parts of Georgia at the start of the nineteenth century and the rest by the mid-nineteenth century.
Russian rule brought great prosperity to Georgia. The population increased five-fold by World War I. Tbilisi became the center of the Russian administration of the Caucasus and the seat of the viceroy. Oil pipelines and railroads connected Tbilisi to the ports of Baku, Poti, and Batum. Georgian and Armenian cultural revivals of the nineteenth century began in Tbilisi. Soon the Russians controlled the administration, the Armenians the economy, while the Georgians, mostly farmers and artisans, were the least powerful group. Russian rule brought western political ideas as well and the Georgian Social Democrats became a major force in Russian politics.
Following the Russian Revolution and during the Russian Civil War, Georgia, in March 1918, separated itself from the empire and, together with Armenia and Azerbaijan, became part of the Transcaucasian Republic. On May 26, 1918 Georgia left the federation and declared its independence under Menshevik rule. In February 1921 Georgia was Sovietized and, together with Armenia and Azerbaijan, became part of the Transcaucasian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic in 1922.
On December 5, 1936, Georgia, together with Armenia and Azerbaijan became a separate constituent republic of the USSR. The Adzhar, Abkhaz, and South Ossetian territories became autonomous regions under Georgian rule (as Nagorno-Karabagh was in Azerbaijan). During the Stalin era, Georgia was ruled by the notorious Beria, who was responsible for the purge of scores of intellectuals and the halting of nativization. After the death of Stalin in 1953, Mzhavanadze became First Secretary of the Communist Party. The Khrushchev and Brezhnev eras at first encouraged national development; then followed the policy of benign neglect.
In 1972 Mzhavanadze was accused of corruption and was finally removed from office to be replaced by Eduard Shevardnadze. Despite the negative effects of this policy, a national elite, as well as a new nationalism emerged in Georgia, as in Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Shevardnadze became responsible for reorganizing Georgia and resolving the clashes and demonstrations in the autonomous regions populated by minorities. In spring 1978 Georgia was the first Transcaucasian republic to cry out against the attempt by the new Soviet Constitutional debate to remove the native language as the official language of the republic. Georgian pressure removed that clause from the proposed constitution. During the Gorbachev period, various demonstrations against the nuclear reactor in Mtskheta, and in favor of the preservation of Georgian culture in Abkhazia and Ossetia occurred. The Georgian National Independence Party rose to prominence and the elections of September 1990 brought Gamsakhurdia into the forefront. His anti-democratic policies eventually toppled him from power in 1991 and brought Shevardnadze into power in 1992.
The Land
Georgia borders the Black Sea and Turkey to the west, the Caucasus mountains to the north, the Armenian highlands to the south, and the plains of Azerbaijan to the east.
Religion
Eastern Georgia accepted Christianity in 337. Armenians claim that Gregory the Illuminator was instrumental in introducing Christianity into Georgia. Georgian churches, after all, are almost identical in structure to Armenian churches and scholars unanimously agree that the Christian impetus came from Armenia. Most Georgians disagree, and maintain that St. Nino and King Mirian were solely responsible for the conversion. Western Georgia remained mostly pagan until 520. Originally the Georgian, like the Armenian, was one of the eastern churches but after the schism, it remained as part of the Greek Orthodox Church. Although the Greeks and, later, the Russians periodically dominated the Georgian Church, it is a self-governing national Church. Almost all Georgians belong to the Georgian Orthodox Church, but there are some who converted to Roman Catholic and Islam.
Alphabet
A written language, a form of Aramaic, existed in pre-Christian times but Christianity soon introduced a new writing system in the fifth century. International scholars agree that Mesrob Mashtots, the inventor of the Armenian alphabet, was responsible for the creation of the Georgian, as well as the Caucasian Albanian, alphabets.
