Georgia (
Georgian: საქართველო, romanized:sakartvelo, IPA:[sakʰartʰʷelo]ⓘ) is a
transcontinental country in Eastern Europe and West Asia. It is part of the
Caucasus region, bounded by the
Black Sea to the west, Russia to the north and northeast, Turkey to the southwest, Armenia to the south, and Azerbaijan to the southeast. Georgia covers an area of 69,700 square kilometres (26,900 sq mi). It has a
population of 3.7 million, of which over a third live in the capital and
largest city,
Tbilisi.
Georgians, who are indigenous to the region, constitute a majority and a
titular nation in Georgia.
Lasting for several centuries, the kingdom fell to the
Mongol invasions in the 13th century, but managed to re-assert sovereignty by the 1340s. The following decades were marked by the
Black Death, as well as numerous
invasions under the leadership of
Timur, who devastated the country's economy, population, and urban centers. The Kingdom's geopolitical situation further worsened after the conquest of the
Byzantine Empire and the
Empire of Trebizond by the
Ottoman Turks. As a result of these processes, by the end of the 15th century Georgia turned into a fractured entity. This whole series of events also led to the final
collapse of the kingdom into anarchy by 1466 and the mutual recognition of its constituent kingdoms of
Kartli,
Kakheti, and
Imereti as independent states between 1490 and 1493—each led by a rival branch of the
Bagrationi dynasty, and into five semi-independent principalities—
Odishi,
Guria,
Abkhazia,
Svaneti, and
Samtskhe. (Full article...)
Born in
Racha, in western
Georgia, Svanidze eventually moved to
Tiflis with her two sisters and brother, and worked as a
seamstress. Her brother
Alexander was a confidant of Stalin, then still known by his birth name of Ioseb Jughashvili, and introduced him to Svanidze in 1905. They were married in 1906 and she gave birth to Yakov a few months later. The family moved to
Baku to avoid arrest, though Svanidze got quite ill there and returned to Tiflis in 1907, dying shortly after her return, likely from
typhus or
tuberculosis. Her death had a profound effect on Stalin, who deeply cared for Svanidze. He abandoned Yakov to be raised by the Svanidze family, and rarely saw them again, fully immersing himself in his revolutionary activities. (Full article...)
Image 57A
medieval illustration of the Georgian king
George IV Lasha waging war against the Mongols in 1220. King George is shown in blue garment on a white horse holding a
whip. A depiction from La Flor des estoires de la terre d'Orient by
Hayton of Corycus. (from History of Georgia (country))
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