Post-Communist Georgia: A Short History

10 things you might not know about Georgia

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These policies caused widespread hardship as many state enterprises found themselves without orders or financing. A deep credit crunch shut down many industries and brought about a protracted depression. The rationale of the program was to squeeze the built-in inflationary pressure out of the economy so that producers would begin making sensible decisions about production, pricing and investment instead of chronically overusing resources—a problem that resulted in shortages of consumer goods in the Soviet Union in the s.

By letting the market rather than central planners determine prices, product mixes, output levels, and the like, the reformers intended to create an incentive structure in the economy where efficiency and risk would be rewarded and waste and carelessness were punished. Removing the causes of chronic inflation , the reform architects argued, was a precondition for all other reforms: Hyperinflation would wreck both democracy and economic progress, they argued; they also argued that only by stabilizing the state budget could the government proceed to dismantle the Soviet planned economy and create a new capitalist Russia.

The former Soviet Union had to deal with a number of unique obstacles during the post-Soviet transition including political reform, economic restructuring and the redrawing of political boundaries. The discomfort associated with these changes was not felt the same in each former Soviet republic. As a general rule, states to Russia's west, such as Poland , Hungary , and the Czech Republic , have fared slightly better than their eastern neighbors since the collapse of the Eastern bloc, while Russia itself and countries to Russia's east experienced greater difficulties and found themselves on worse footing immediately after dissolution.

A major reason that Russia's transition has been so wrenching is that it is remaking both its Soviet-era political and economic institutions at once. In addition to institutional reforms designed to create a new political-economic system, Russia was also charged with remaking itself into a new national state following the disintegration of the Soviet Union.

The first major problem facing Russia was the legacy of the Soviet Union's enormous commitment to the Cold War. In the late s, the Soviet Union devoted a quarter of its gross economic output to the defense sector at the time most Western analysts believed that this figure was 15 percent. In some regions of Russia, at least half of the workforce was employed in defense plants the comparable U. These over-reliance on the military sector made Russian industry and human capital relatively noncompetitive upon entry into a market-oriented system.

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Furthermore, the end of the Cold War and the cutback in military spending affected industry quite dramatically making it difficulty to quickly retool equipment, retrain workers, and find new markets. In the process of economic re-tooling, an enormous body of experience, qualified specialists and know-how was lost or misallocated, as the plants were sometimes switching from, for example, producing hi-tech military equipment to making kitchen utensils.

A second obstacle, partly related to the sheer vastness and geographical diversity of the Russian landmass, was the sizable number of "mono-industrial" regional economies regions dominated by a single industrial employer that Russia inherited from the Soviet Union. The concentration of production in a relatively small number of big state enterprises meant that many local governments were entirely dependent on the economic health of a single employer; when the Soviet Union collapsed and the economic ties between Soviet republics and even regions were severed, the production in the whole country dropped by more than fifty percent.

Roughly half of Russia's cities had only one large industrial enterprise, and three fourths had no more than four. Instead the companies, mainly large industrial firms, were traditionally responsible for a broad range of social welfare functions—building and maintaining housing for their work forces, and managing health, recreational, educational, and similar facilities.

The towns in contrast possessed neither the apparatus nor the funds for the provision of basic social services. Industrial employees were left heavily dependent on their firms. Thus, economic transformation created severe problems in maintaining social welfare since local governments were unable to assume finance or operational responsibility for these functions.

Finally, there is a human capital dimension to the failure of post-Soviet reforms in Russia. The former Soviet population was not necessarily uneducated. Literacy was nearly universal, and the educational level of the Soviet population was among the highest in the world with respect to science, engineering, and some technical disciplines, although the Soviets devoted little to what would be described as " liberal arts " in the West.

Rampant credential inflation in the Russian university system made it difficult for employers to determine who was really skilled and the problems of the higher education system more generally made it difficult to remedy other issues of human capital that came from the transition to a market-oriented system, such as upskilling and re-skilling. These managers were responsible for a broad array of social welfare functions for their employees, their families, and the population of the towns and regions where they were located. Profitability and efficiency , however, were generally not the most prominent priorities for Soviet enterprise managers.

After the initial turmoil and euphoria of early marketizations, Russia's economy sank into deep depression by the mids due to botched reform efforts and low commodity prices globally. Russia's economy was hit further by the financial crash of before experiencing a modest recovery in — as commodity prices began to rise again. According to Russian government statistics, the economic decline was far more severe than the Great Depression was in the United States in terms of Gross Domestic Product. Following the economic collapse of the early s, Russia suffered from a sharp increase in the rates of poverty and economic inequality.

Public health indicators show a dramatic corresponding decline. Although all post-Soviet countries experience an immediate decline in birth-rates due to economic turmoil this may have been particularly acute in Russia. Meanwhile, life expectancy dropped for men from 64 years in to 57 years by , while women's dropped from 74 to about Both health factors and a sharp increase in deaths of the youth demographic from unnatural causes such as murders, suicides, and accidents have significantly contributed to this trend.

While Russia no longer suffered from the supply shortages of consumer goods that were so characteristic of the s USSR see Consumer goods in the Soviet Union , this was not only related to the opening of the Russian market to imports in the early s but also to the relative impoverishment of the Russian people in the s.

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Russians on fixed incomes the vast majority of the workforce saw their purchasing power drastically reduced, so while the stores might have been well stocked in the Yeltsin era, average people could now afford to buy little, if anything from these stores. The growing income, however, has not been evenly distributed. Structural reform and a severe devaluation of the ruble lowered the standard of living for most segments of the Russian population.

As a result, there was powerful political opposition to reform. Democratization opened the political channels for venting these frustrations, which translated into votes for anti-reform candidates, especially those of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and its allies in the Duma. Russian voters, able to vote for opposition parties in the s, often rejected economic reforms and yearned for the stability and personal security of the Soviet era.

These were the groups that had enjoyed the benefits of Soviet-era state-controlled wages and prices, high state spending to subsidize priority sectors of the economy, protection from competition with foreign industries, and welfare entitlement programs. During the Yeltsin years in the s, these anti-reformist groups were well organized, voicing their opposition to reform through strong trade unions, associations of directors of state-owned firms, and political parties in the popularly elected parliament whose primary constituencies were among those vulnerable to reform.

A constant theme of Russian history in the s was the conflict between economic reformers and those hostile to the new capitalism. On January 2, , Yeltsin—acting as his own prime minister—enacted the most comprehensive components of economic reform by decree, thereby circumventing the Supreme Soviet of Russia and Congress of People's Deputies of Russia , which had been elected in March , before the dissolution of the USSR. While this spared Yeltsin from the prospects of bargaining and wrangling with Soviet deputies, it also eliminated any meaningful discussion of the right course of action for the country.

Nonetheless, radical reform continued to face some critical political barriers. The Soviet-era Central Bank was still subordinate to the conservative Supreme Soviet who continued to support socialist policies in opposition to Yeltsin and the presidency. During the height of hyperinflation in —, the Central Bank actually tried to derail reforms by actively printing even more money during this period of inflation. After all, the Russian government was short of revenue and was forced to print money to finance its debt.

As a result, inflation exploded into hyperinflation, and the Russian economy continued into an evermore serious slump.

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The struggle for the center of power in Soviet Russia following the collapse of the Soviet Union and for the nature of the economic reforms culminated in a political crisis and bloodshed in the autumn of Yeltsin, who represented a course of radical privatization, was opposed by the Supreme Soviet. Confronted with opposition to the presidential power of decree and threatened with impeachment, he "dissolved" the parliament on September 21, in contravention of the existing constitution, and ordered new elections and a referendum on a new constitution.

The parliament then declared Yeltsin deposed and appointed Aleksandr Rutskoy acting president on September Tensions built quickly, and matters came to a head after street riots on October 2—October 3. On October 4, Yeltsin ordered Special Forces and elite army units to storm the parliament building, the "White House" as it is called. With tanks thrown against the small-arms fire of the parliamentary defenders, the outcome was not in doubt. Rutskoy, Ruslan Khasbulatov , and the other parliamentary supporters surrendered and were immediately arrested and jailed.

The official count was dead, wounded with several men killed and wounded on the presidential side. Thus the transitional period in post-Soviet Russian politics came to an end. A new constitution was approved by referendum in December Russia was given a strongly presidential system. Radical privatization went ahead. Although the old parliamentary leaders were released without trial on February 26, , they would not play an open role in politics thereafter. Though its clashes with the executive would eventually resume, the remodeled Russian parliament had greatly circumscribed powers.

For details on the constitution passed in see Constitution and government structure of Russia. In , Yeltsin dispatched 40, troops to the southern region of Chechnya to prevent its secession from Russia. Russia was quickly submerged in a quagmire like that of the U. When the Russians attacked the Chechen capital of Grozny during the first weeks of January , about 25, civilians died under week-long air raids and artillery fire in the sealed-off city. Massive use of artillery and air-strikes remained the dominating strategy throughout the Russian campaign.

Even so, Chechen forces seized thousands of Russian hostages, while inflicting humiliating losses on the demoralized and ill-equipped Russian troops. Russian troops had not secured the Chechen capital of Grozny by year's end. The Russians finally managed to gain control of Grozny in February after heavy fighting. In August , Yeltsin agreed to a ceasefire with Chechen leaders, and a peace treaty was formally signed in May However, the conflict resumed in , thus rendering the peace accord meaningless.

This time the rebellion was crushed by Vladimir Putin. The new capitalist opportunities presented by the opening of the Russian economy in the late s and early s affected many people's interests. Some quietly liquidated the assets of their organization and secreted the proceeds in overseas accounts and investments. Great fortunes were made almost overnight. At the same time, a few young people, without much social status, saw opportunity in the economic and legal confusion of the transition. In turn, the emerging cash-based, highly opaque markets provided a breeding ground for a large number of racket gangs.

By the mids, the best-connected former nomenklatura leaders accumulated considerable financial resources, while on the other hand, the most successful entrepreneurs became acquainted with government officials and public politicians. The privatization of state enterprises was a unique opportunity because it gave many of those who had gained wealth in the early s a chance to convert it into shares of privatized enterprises. The Yeltsin government hoped to use privatization to spread ownership of shares in former state enterprises as widely as possible to create political support for his government and his reforms.

The government used a system of free vouchers as a way to give mass privatization a jump-start.

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But it also allowed people to purchase shares of stock in privatized enterprises with cash. Even though initially each citizen received a voucher of equal face value, within months most of the vouchers converged in the hands of intermediaries who were ready to buy them for cash right away. As the government ended the voucher privatization phase and launched cash privatization, it devised a program that it thought would simultaneously speed up privatization and yield the government a much-needed infusion of cash for its operating needs.

Under the scheme, which quickly became known in the West as "loans for shares," the Yeltsin regime auctioned off substantial packages of stock shares in some of its most desirable enterprises, such as energy , telecommunications , and metallurgical firms, as collateral for bank loans. In exchange for the loans, the state handed over assets worth many times as much. Under the terms of the deals, if the Yeltsin government did not repay the loans by September , the lender acquired title to the stock and could then resell it or take an equity position in the enterprise.

The first auctions were held in the fall of The auctions themselves were usually held in such a way so to limit the number of banks bidding for shares and thus to keep the auction prices extremely low. By summer , major packages of shares in some of Russia's largest firms had been transferred to a small number of major banks, thus allowing a handful of powerful banks to acquire substantial ownership shares over major firms at shockingly low prices.

These deals were effectively giveaways of valuable state assets to a few powerful, well-connected, and wealthy financial groups. The concentration of immense financial and industrial power, which loans for shares had assisted, extended to the mass media. One of the most prominent of the financial barons Boris Berezovsky , who controlled major stakes in several banks and companies, exerted an extensive influence over state television programming for a while. Berezovsky and other ultra-wealthy, well-connected tycoons who controlled these great empires of finance, industry, energy, telecommunications, and media became known as the " Russian oligarchs ".

A tiny clique who used their connections built up during the last days of the Soviet years to appropriate Russia's vast resources during the rampant privatizations of the Yeltsin years, the oligarchs emerged as the most hated men in the nation. The Western world generally advocated a quick dismantling of the Soviet planned economy to make way for "free-market reforms," but later expressed disappointment over the newfound power and corruption of the "oligarchs. Early in the campaign it had been thought that Yeltsin, who was in uncertain health after recuperating from a series of heart attacks and whose behavior was sometimes erratic, had little chance for reelection.

When campaigning opened at the beginning of , Yeltsin's popularity was close to zero. Panic struck the Yeltsin team when opinion polls suggested that the ailing president could not win; members of his entourage urged him to cancel presidential elections and effectively rule as dictator from then on.

Instead, Yeltsin changed his campaign team, assigning a key role to his daughter, Tatyana Dyachenko , and appointing Anatoly Chubais campaign manager. The president's inner circle assumed that it had only a short time in which to act on privatization; it, therefore, needed to take steps that would have a large and immediate impact, making the reversal of reform prohibitively costly for their opponents.

Chubais' solution was to co-opt potentially powerful interests, including enterprise directors and regional officials, in order to ensure Yeltsin's reelection. The position of the enterprise directors to the program was essential to maintaining economic and social stability in the country. The managers represented one of the most powerful collective interests in the country; it was the enterprise managers who could ensure that labor did not erupt in a massive wave of strikes. The government, therefore, did not strenuously resist the tendency for voucher privatization to turn into "insider privatization," as it was termed, in which senior enterprise officials acquired the largest proportion of shares in privatized firms.

Thus, Chubais allowed well-connected employees to acquire majority stakes in the enterprises. This proved to be the most widely used form of privatization in Russia. Three-quarters of privatized enterprises opted for this method, most often using vouchers. Real control thus wound up in the hands of the managers. Support from the oligarchs was also crucial to Yeltsin's reelection campaign.

The "loans for shares" giveaway took place in the run-up to the presidential election—at a point when it had appeared that Zyuganov might defeat Yeltsin. Yeltsin and his entourage gave the oligarchs an opportunity to scoop up some of Russia's most desirable assets in return for their help in his reelection effort. The oligarchs, in turn, reciprocated the favor. The media painted a picture of a fateful choice for Russia, between Yeltsin and a "return to totalitarianism. In the outlying regions of the country, the Yeltsin campaign relied on its ties to other allies—the patron-client ties of the local governors, most of whom had been appointed by the president.

The Zyuganov campaign had a strong grass-roots organization, but it was simply no match for the financial resources and access to patronage that the Yeltsin campaign could marshal. Yeltsin campaigned energetically, dispelling concerns about his health, exploiting all the advantages of incumbency to maintain a high media profile. To assuage voters' discontent, he made the claim that he would abandon some unpopular economic reforms and boost welfare spending, end the war in Chechnya , pay wage and pension arrears, and abolish military conscription he did not live up to his promises after the election, except for ending the Chechen war, which was halted for 3 years.

Grigory Yavlinsky was the liberal alternative to Yeltsin and Zyuganov. He appealed to a well-educated middle class that saw Yeltsin as an incompetent alcoholic and Zyuganov as a Soviet-era throwback. Seeing Yavlinsky as a threat, Yeltsin's inner circle of supporters worked to bifurcate political discourse, thus excluding a middle ground—and convince voters that only Yeltsin could defeat the Communist "menace.

Voter turnout in the first round of the polling on June 16 was With no candidate securing an absolute majority, Yeltsin and Zyuganov went into a second round of voting. In the meantime, Yeltsin co-opted a large segment of the electorate by appointing Lebed to the posts of national security adviser and secretary of the Security Council. In the end, Yeltsin's election tactics paid off. In the run-off on July 3, with a turnout of Yeltsin lost to Zyuganov in Russia's southern industrial heartland. The southern stretch of the country became known as the " red belt ", underscoring the resilience of the Communist Party in elections since the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Shortly thereafter on April 9, , Georgia declared independence from the Soviet Union and Gamsakhurdia was subsequently elected as the first independent President. They speak the Georgian language known as Kartuli , part of the Kartvelian family of languages. Other languages in the Kartvelian family are Mingrelian, Laz, and Svan, which are spoken by small minorities in Georgia and are largely mutually comprehensible. The Abkhaz people speak Abkhaz, a language loosely related to some other northern Caucasian languages.

Ossetian, a language also spoken in the North Ossetia region of Russia, is an Indo-European language closely related to Persian. The Adjarans also populate a small, autonomous region and have negotiated to stay within the Georgian Republic with considerable privileges.

Georgia is also home to significant minorities of Russians, Armenians, Azeris, and Greeks. While a less contentious issue, Georgia is also a multi-confessional state, with the confessions divided largely on ethnic lines. The rest are largely Armenian Christians and Russian Orthodox, although there is also a small yet very old community of Jews. South Ossetia ended the conflict with defacto but unrecognized independence in a peace brokered by and maintained by Russian peacekeepers. Encouraged by the unrest, a coup led by elements of the military and parts of the old Communist elite was launched against Gamsakhurdia in December of A civil war ensued between the supporters of Gamsakhurdia and Eduard Shevardnadze, the former minister of foreign affairs of the Soviet Union and ringleader of the coup.

Gamsakhurdia died in December of , though it is unclear whether his death was a suicide or an assassination. Shevardnadze then organized a new government and in November of was elected president with a large majority. Conditions did not improve, however. Shevardnadze attempted to retake Abkhazia from , which successfully defended its autonomy with Russian support. Thus, only a few years after attaining independence, Georgia had gone through a civil war and two rebellions.

Nearly a third of Georgian territory was either functionally independent or from the central government, and the portion that was ruled by Tbilisi largely felt that its government was corrupt, oppressive, and ineffective. The Georgian parliamentary elections of November 2, , nevertheless, resulted in a large win for supporters of Shevardnadze. Georgians took to the streets to protest perceived voter fraud and other electoral violations in what would later be called the Rose Revolution. Protestors even stormed the parliament building, causing Shevardnadze to declare a state of emergency.

On November 23, he resigned as president. The speaker of the parliament, Nino Burjanadze, briefly took over the responsibilities of President until new elections in January, brought Mikheil Saakashvili, a prominent opposition politician, into the office, mainly on an anti-corruption platform. Shevarnadze, however still lives in Tblisi, and with the current change in government, seems to be contemplating a return to politics or a concerted effort to rewrite the history of his presidency. He has publically apologized, for example, to the people of Georgia for giving up the reigns of power and allowing Saakashvilli to become president.

Nino Burjanadze is now one of the major opposition figures to Saakashvilli in the Georgian government. Under Saakashvili, Georgia went through a series of rapid changes. Saakashvili reformed the Georgian police and created draconian punishments for corruption. Abroad, Saakashvili quickly became a darling of the liberal West, which called him a harbinger of democracy to the post-Soviet world. Saakashvili cultivated a close relationship with President Bush.

Domestically, Saakashvili succeeded in bringing Adjara back under the authority of the central government, but Abkhazia and South Ossetia retained their defacto independence. Furthermore, while Tbilisi saw many improvements in the period, for most of the country life continued as it had before with no improvements to infrastructure or social services.

Saakashvili was criticized by his opponents for closing Imedi, a prominent opposition TV station, and also for the early elections, which opponents say gave the opposition little time to organize against him. On August 7, Saakashvili launched a military operation to reclaim South Ossetia. Since coming to power Saakashvili administration accomplished a series of reforms aimed at improving tax collection.

Among other things a flat income tax was introduced in As of , 54 percent of the population lived below the national poverty line but by poverty decreased to 34 percent, by it is In regards to telecommunication infrastructure, Georgia is ranked the last among its bordering neighbors in the World Economic Forum's Network Readiness Index NRI — an indicator for determining the development level of a country's information and communication technologies.

Georgia ranked number 58 overall in the NRI ranking, [] up from 60 in Tourism is an increasingly significant part of the Georgian economy. Today transport in Georgia is provided by rail , road, ferry, and air. Traditionally, the country was located on an important north-south trade route between European Russia and the Near East and Turkey.

In recent years Georgia has invested large amounts of money in the modernization of its transport networks. The Georgian railways represent an important transport artery for the Caucasus, as they make up the largest proportion of a route linking the Black and Caspian Seas.

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In turn, this has allowed them to benefit in recent years from increased energy exports from neighbouring Azerbaijan to the European Union, Ukraine, and Turkey. Since the Georgian Railways have been undergoing a rolling program of fleet-renewal and managerial restructuring which is aimed at making the service provided more efficient and comfortable for passengers. Air and maritime transport is developing in Georgia, with the former mainly used by passengers and the latter for transport of freight. Georgia currently has four international airports, the largest of which is by far Tbilisi International Airport , hub for Georgian Airways , which offers connections to many large European cities.

Other airports in the country are largely underdeveloped or lack scheduled traffic, although, as of late, efforts have been made to solve both these problems. Scheduled and chartered passenger ferry services link Georgia with Bulgaria, [] Romania, Turkey and Ukraine. Like most native Caucasian peoples , the Georgians do not fit into any of the main ethnic categories of Europe or Asia. The present day Georgian or Kartvelian nation is thought to have resulted from the fusion of aboriginal, autochthonous inhabitants with immigrants who moved into South Caucasus from the direction of Anatolia in remote antiquity.

Ethnic Georgians form about The census recorded , ethnic Russians , or 6. According to statistics, Georgia gets most of its immigrants from Russia In the early s, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union , violent separatist conflicts broke out in the autonomous region of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali Region. The most widespread language group is the Kartvelian family , which includes Georgian, Svan , Mingrelian and Laz. Georgian is the primary language of The goal was to import English speakers from across the world to ensure that all children in Georgia spoke English in four years and replace Russian as a second language.

The special status of the Georgian Orthodox Church is officially recognised in the Constitution of Georgia and the Concordat of , although religious institutions are separate from the state, and every citizen has the right of religion. Main religions [12]. Religious minorities of Georgia include Muslims In Abkhazia , a minority of the Abkhaz population is also Sunni Muslim, alongside the faithful of the revived Abkhaz pagan faith.

There are also smaller communities of Greek Muslims of Pontic Greek origin and Armenian Muslims , both of whom are descended from Ottoman-era converts to Turkish Islam from Eastern Anatolia who settled in Georgia following the Lala Mustafa Pasha's Caucasian campaign that led to the Ottoman conquest of the country in Georgian Jews trace the history of their community to the 6th century BC; their numbers have dwindled in the last decades due to high levels of immigration to Israel.

Despite the long history of religious harmony in Georgia, [] there have been instances of religious discrimination and violence against "nontraditional faiths", such as Jehovah's Witnesses , by followers of the defrocked Orthodox priest Basil Mkalavishvili. In addition to traditional religious organizations, Georgia retains secular and irreligious segments of society 0. Despite that Georgian major population are Orthodox Christians and some minor discrimination against people with different faith, country is very tolerant to other religions.

For example, Tbilisi's Leselidze Street on has a church, mosque, and synagogue next to each other. The education system of Georgia has undergone sweeping modernizing, although controversial, reforms since Students with a secondary school certificate have access to higher education. Only the students who have passed the Unified National Examinations may enroll in a state-accredited higher education institution, based on ranking of the scores received at the exams. Most of these institutions offer three levels of study: There is also a Certified Specialist's Program that represents a single-level higher education program lasting from three to six years.

Tbilisi has become the main artery of the Georgian educational system, particularly since the creation of the First Georgian Republic in permitted the establishment of modern, Georgian-language educational institutions. Tbilisi is the home to several major institutions of higher education in Georgia, notably the Tbilisi State Medical University , which was founded as Tbilisi Medical Institute in , and the Tbilisi State University TSU , which was established in and remains the oldest university in the entire Caucasus region.

Georgian culture evolved over thousands of years from its foundations in the Iberian and Colchian civilizations. The Georgian language, and the Classical Georgian literature of the poet Shota Rustaveli , were revived in the 19th century after a long period of turmoil, laying the foundations of the romantics and novelists of the modern era such as Grigol Orbeliani , Nikoloz Baratashvili , Ilia Chavchavadze , Akaki Tsereteli , Vazha-Pshavela.

Georgia is known for its folklore , traditional music, dances, theatre, cinema, and art. Georgian architecture has been influenced by many civilizations. There are several different architectural styles for castles , towers , fortifications and churches. The Upper Svaneti fortifications, and the castle town of Shatili in Khevsureti , are some of the finest examples of medieval Georgian castle architecture. Georgian ecclesiastic art is one of the most notable aspects of Georgian Christian architecture , which combines the classical dome style with the original basilica style, forming what is known as the Georgian cross-dome style.

Cross-dome architecture developed in Georgia during the 9th century; before that, most Georgian churches were basilicas. Other examples of Georgian ecclesiastic architecture can be found outside Georgia: Bachkovo Monastery in Bulgaria built in by the Georgian military commander Grigorii Bakuriani , Iviron monastery in Greece built by Georgians in the 10th century , and the Monastery of the Cross in Jerusalem built by Georgians in the 9th century. Television, magazines, and newspapers in Georgia are all operated by both state-owned and for-profit corporations which depend on advertising , subscription , and other sales-related revenues.

The Constitution of Georgia guarantees freedom of speech. As a country in transition , the Georgian media system is under transformation. The media environment of Georgia remains the freest and most diverse in the South Caucasus , [] despite the long-term politicisation and polarisation affecting the sector. The political struggle for control over the public broadcaster have left it without a direction in too. A large percentage of Georgian households have a television, and most have at least one radio.

Most of Georgia's media companies are headquartered in its capital and largest city, Tbilisi. Georgia has an ancient musical tradition, which is primarily known for its early development of polyphony. Georgian polyphony is based on three vocal parts, a unique tuning system based on perfect fifths, and a harmonic structure rich in parallel fifths and dissonances.

Georgian cuisine and wine have evolved through the centuries, adapting traditions in each era. One of the most unusual traditions of dining is supra , or Georgian table , which is also a way of socialising with friends and family. The head of supra is known as tamada. He also conducts the highly philosophical toasts, and makes sure that everyone is enjoying themselves.

Various historical regions of Georgia are known for their particular dishes: In addition to traditional Georgian dishes, the foods of other countries have been brought to Georgia by immigrants from Russia, Greece, and recently China. The most popular sports in Georgia are football , basketball , rugby union , wrestling , judo , and weightlifting.

Historically, Georgia has been famous for its physical education; the Romans were fascinated with Georgians' physical qualities after seeing the training techniques of ancient Iberia. Within Georgia, one of the most popularized styles of wrestling is the Kakhetian style. There were a number of other styles in the past that are not as widely used today.

For example, the Khevsureti region of Georgia has three different styles of wrestling. Other popular sports in 19th century Georgia were polo , and Lelo , a traditional Georgian game later replaced by rugby union. The first and only race circuit in the Caucasian region is located in Georgia. Dinamo Tbilisi won the prestigious Euroleague competition in Georgia had five players in the NBA: Other notable basketball players are two times Euroleague champion Giorgi Shermadini and Euroleague players Manuchar Markoishvili and Viktor Sanikidze.

Sport is regaining its popularity in the country in recent years. Georgia national basketball team qualified to EuroBasket during the last three tournaments since From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This article is about the country. For other uses, see Georgia disambiguation. Country in the Caucasus region.

Areas under Georgian control shown in dark green; areas outside of that control shown in light green. Name of Georgia country. History of Georgia country. Georgia within the Russian Empire. Democratic Republic of Georgia. Nikolay Chkheidze, Russian, Transcaucasian and Georgian politician.

Claimed or proposed boundaries of Georgia superimposed on its modern borders. International recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Politics of Georgia country. Foreign relations of Georgia. Law enforcement in Georgia country. Human rights in Georgia. Administrative divisions of Georgia country , Abkhazia , and Adjara. Occupied territories of Georgia. Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti. Geography of Georgia country. Borders of the continents. Climate of Georgia country.

List of non-marine molluscs of Georgia country and List of fish of the Black Sea. Economy of Georgia country and Agriculture in Georgia country. Transport in Georgia country. Demographics of Georgia country. For languages of the U. Religion in Georgia country. Culture of Georgia country. Music of Georgia country. In Abkhazian AR , also Abkhazian. Archived from the original PDF on 10 December In Elgie, Robert ; Moestrup, Sophia. Semi-Presidentialism in the Caucasus and Central Asia.

Palgrave Macmillan published 15 May Nakashidze discusses the adoption and evolution of semi-presidentialism in Georgia since the Rose Revolution in From to , political power was concentrated in the hands of the president, under a president-parliamentary variant of semi-presidentialism. Only during the period of cohabitation from to was the president's authority challenged. In , the Constitution was amended with effect from , reducing the power of the president considerably, arguably in an attempt by term-limited President Saakashvili to secure a political comeback as a powerful prime minister.

Under the new premier-presidential Constitution, powers have been much more evenly distributed with each branch of government exercising its Constitutional powers. Retrieved 6 October Retrieved 2 May Retrieved 1 November Retrieved 21 June United Nations Development Programme. Retrieved 18 September National Statistics Office of Georgia Geostat. Retrieved 7 June State Ministry for Reintegration. Archived from the original PDF on 24 June Retrieved 1 February Georgica , Autumn, , nos. Historical, Indo-European, and Lexicographical Studies. Historical Dictionary of Georgia 2 ed. Philology, typology and language structure.

The Russian designation of Georgia Gruziya also derives from the Persian gurg. The Sasanian World through Georgian Eyes: Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies. Early Texts And Eurasian Contexts , pp. The Peoples of the Hills: Retrieved 24 May Lives and Legends of the Georgian Saints 2 ed. Iranian elements in Georgian art and archeology". Retrieved 22 April Studies in Christian Caucasian History. Nation-building in the post-Soviet borderlands. Modern History of Soviet Georgia.

Representation, Culture and Dialogue. Cultural Dynamics of Social Representation. Georgian Literature and Culture. Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. The Knight in the Panther Skin occupies a unique position as the Georgian national epic. Tbilisi State University Press. Royal Imagery in Medieval Georgia. Persia, Byzantium, and the architects of the written Georgian past, Volume 2 p ".

University of Michigan Retrieved 25 September Retrieved 17 May Dowling Russia at War: An Atlas of Russian History: Eleven Centuries of Changing Borders. Yale University Press , , p. Retrieved 9 August Violations of the laws of war and Russia's role in the conflict".

Archived from the original on 5 August Retrieved 5 May Retrieved 2 November Retrieved 24 July Seven days that brought Russia and Georgia to war". Archived from the original on 20 September The Wall Street Journal. Moscow's campaign to 'coerce Georgia to peace ' " PDF. Archived from the original on 2 January Retrieved 19 November The New York Times. Legal Aspects of War in Georgia". Archived from the original on 16 July Archived from the original on 14 August Archived from the original PDF on 7 October

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