GEORGIA (Russian Gruzia, Armenian Vrastan), formerly an A.S.S.R., since the constitution of Dec. 1936 a state member of the U.S.S.R. occupying the western part of Trans-Caucasia. Area 69,900 square kilometers; population (1933) 3,110,600. Its boundaries are west, the Black sea, north, the main ridge of the Caucasus, fringed by the Karachaev, Kabardine-Balkarsk, North Ossetian, Ingushetian, Chechen and Daghestan autonomous areas and republics, south-east, Azerbaijan, and south, Armenia and Turkey. It is a mountain and plateau region, including the south ern slopes of the Caucasus, with glaciers and lofty peaks, and the northern slopes of the Armenian plateau, sometimes called the Anti-Caucasus or lesser Caucasus. Between them lie the valleys of the Rion flowing into the Black sea and the Kura and its trib utaries flowing into the Caspian, and along these valleys goes the railway linking Poti to Baku.
The Suram or Meskhiysk range, a spur from the Caucasus to the Armenian plateau, not only forms the watershed between the Black sea and Caspian drainage, but also markedly influences the climate. To the west is a Mediterranean region, with a maximum winter rainfall and a luxuriance of sub-tropical vegetation. To the east is a climate of greater extremes of temperature with a scanty rainfall having its maximum in Spring, while between the Alazan and the Kura rivers is bare steppe only cultivable if irrigated. The eastern region is exposed to the winds from Central Asia. The broad coastal plain, with its luxuriant vegetation and malaria in fested swamps, extends from Batum to Sukhum and continues inland almost to the Suram range, along the western slopes of which lies Imeretia. Eastwards from the Black sea, on the higher slopes of the Caucasus are the wild and inaccessible valleys of Swanetia, with Mingrelia below. Further east is the trachytic cone of Kazbek, 16,541 ft., towering above the Dariel gorge along which goes the Georgian military road. West of the Mamison pass, as far as Klukhor, the only passes are glacial, used occasion ally by the mountain peasants, but eastward are grassy passes where horses can cross the chain in many places, and this key region between the sources of the Terek and the Ardon on the north and those of the Rion and the Kura on the south, has been held by the Ossetes from time immemorial. There is no plain in eastern Georgia, but from Gori a plateau slopes south eastward, with the Alazan river on the north, the Kura on the south and the valley of the Yora in the centre. Round the Alazan, with its numerous left bank mountain tributaries, is the fertile vine-grow ing Kakhetian region. In addition to the sharp east and west climatic division in Georgia, there are vertical climatic zones, ranging from the warm valleys, through the leafy forest and pine forest zone to the Alpine pastures with their short, hot summer and long cold winter, and to the region of perpetual snow and gla ciation.
This complexity of relief and climate has led to the develop ment and preservation of scattered populations, each with its own language and culture, remote from communication with one an other and the outside world. There are three main linguistic Geor gian groups, Karthelian or Georgian proper now the administra tive language, Mingrelian and Mingrelian-Lazi and Swanetian. In western Georgia are the historic divisions of Imeretia, Racha, Lechkhum, Swanetia, Guria and Mingrelia and in eastern Georgia, Kartalinia, Kakhetia, Meskhetia, Dzhavakhetia, Mtskheta, Khev suria, Pshavia, Borchalo and South Ossetia. Elements of the population from other regions include Russians, Armenians, Per sians, Tatars, Turks and Jewish colonies of ancient date in the hill regions. Near Tiflis are German settlements dating from the i8th century. The population in 1926 was 2,666,388, and the Georgian element with its varied dialects, formed about 65%. The greater part of the population, especially in the rural areas, is illiterate, and the new republic thus has to face great difficulties. Agriculture, mostly of a primitive kind, is the chief occupa tion. In western Georgia, in the absence of grass for working cattle, the leaves and stalks of maize are used, and maize flour is the common food. In Guria, Mingrelia and Imeretia, the spring floods spread alluvium on the fields and maize can be sown year after year. Cotton production in the two latter areas has almost reached pre-war level (1928). Tobacco for export is grown in Ozurgeti district. Orchard fruits, berries, peaches, apricots, vines, pomegranates, citrons fruits, tomatoes, cucumbers, beetroot, mel ons and vegetables are cultivated, but so unscientifically that they have little export value, and preserve-making is primitive. Bamboo and various narcotic and medicinal plants are also grown, and tea cultivation has markedly increased. Silkworm breeding flourishes in the Kutais district, where the mulberry is better cultivated. In eastern Georgia irrigation is often necessary; cotton, rice, wheat and barley are the chief crops. The fertile regions of Kakhetia and West Kartalinia are noted for their vines and fruits, though hailstorms often ruin the crop, and phylloxera is a con stant scourge. Beekeeping is everywhere profitable. Wheat and barley are grown on the hills and foothills, the latter in Racha and Suanetia where wheat cultivation is impossible. On the high hills summer wheat, and in the valleys winter wheat is grown. All three varieties, the hard yellow and red and the soft white are found, and every variety of culture, one, two, three and many field, manured and fallow. Only the German colonists carry on an intensive system which provides them with winter food for their cattle, and allows of dairy produce for export. Nomad cattle and sheep breeding is going through a crisis. An unforeseen result of the creation of autonomous republics and of the cession of the south to Turkey has been an interference with the balance between the Alpine summer pastures, and the lowland winter grazing. In Georgia there are 641,00o hectares of summer pas ture, and only 234,000 of winter, while in Azerbaijan the pro portions are reversed. An added difficulty is that the lowland pastures have an inadequate water supply and late spring snow may cause damage to the flocks as in 1924 and 1927. The insani tary habits of the nomads bring plague in their train and their low cultural grade will make it long before scientific provision of winter food can remedy the present difficulties. Buffaloes are used as working cattle in the wet west, and have not diminished much, but the number of sheep, goats and horses is markedly less than in pre-war times, and there is still a deficiency of work ing cattle. Irrigation problems are also complicated by the di vision of the republics, since the upper and lower courses of the rivers lie in different units and, though a federal committee is considering policy, no agreement has been reached. Local irri gation canals were ruined in a lesser degree than the larger me chanical schemes; the Karayask plant, built in 1867, was de stroyed in 1917 and has not yet been replaced. A new mechani cal irrigation plant is in course of construction in Kakhetia. The general level of agriculture is also lowered by the paucity of means of communication and the absence of towns to create a demand. Moreover widespread malaria in the plains has lowered the vitality of the workers.
Georgia is heavily timbered with forests of many varieties, but the timber industry is little developed, partly because of the inaccessibility of the region and the lack of communications and partly because the streams are not suitable for floating the logs. Its development will need great care, for the forests on these steep slopes regulate the river flow and prevent landslides. Box wood for spinning shuttles, greeknut, beech, oak and pine are the chief commercial varieties. For an account of the forests, see CAUCASUS.
Georgia existed as a kingdom for 2,00o years. Its earliest name was Karthli or Karthveli from Karthlos, an eponymous king, whose son Mtskhethos founded Mtskhetha, the modern Mtskhet; the Persians knew it as Gurjistan, the Romans and Greeks as Iberia, though the latter placed Colchis also in the west of Georgia. Kakhetia and Karthli formed the nucleus of a kingdom which varied much, including at different times Guria, Mingrelia, Abkhasia, Imeretia and Daghestan. Georgia was con quered by one of Alexander's generals, but Pharnavaz or Pharna bazus (302 to 237 B.C.) shook off the Macedonian yoke. At the end of the 2nd century B.C. the last Pharnavazian prince was dethroned by his own subjects and the crown given to Arsaces, king of Armenia, thus founding the Arsacid dynasty. The Romans under Pompey in 65 B.C. and under the emperor Trajan, A.D. 114, invaded the country with little success. The Sassanian dynasty began with Mirhan or Mirian (265-342), son of a Persian king and a princess of the Arsacid dynasty. Christianity was intro duced and the first church erected at Mtskhet. In 379 a Persian general built Tphilis (Tiflis) as a counterpoise to Mtskhet. Tir idates (393-405) freed the country from Persian rule. In 446 499 Vakhtang, surnamed Gurgaslan or Gurgasal (the "wolf lion"), established a patriarchate at Mtskhet and made Tphilis his capital. After conquering Mingrelia, Abkhasia, the Ossetes and part of Armenia, he joined Persia in an attack on India. His son Dachi or Darchil permanently transferred the seat of government to Tphilis (Tiflis).
In 571 the Georgians, while Persia was being attacked by Turks and Byzantine Greeks, appealed to the Byzantine emperor, Justin II., who placed Guaram, a prince of the Bagratid family of Armenia on the throne. The Bagratid dynasty ruled until 1803. Byzantine influence was strong in the Georgian church until the Arab invasions in the 7th and 8th centuries, when Islam ism was repeatedly imposed on the Georgians at the point of the sword. Under Bagrat III., who built in Kutais in 1003 a fine cathedral, peace was restored and his kingdom extended from the Black Sea to the Caspian. In the iith century the Seljuk Turks overran the country, but David II. (1089-1125), the Renovator, with the help of the Kipchak Mongol horde, forced them back over the Armenian mountains. Under George III. (1156-1184), Armenia was in part conquered and Ani, one of its capitals, taken. His daughter Tamara or Thamar succeeded him and ex tended her power over Trebizond, Erzerum, Tovin and Kars, while her son George IV. (121 2-12 23) conquered Ganja and re pulsed the Persians. In 1220 and 1222 the Mongol hordes under a son of Jenghiz Khan overran the country and under his sister Rusudan, Tiflis was twice captured by the Persians and in 1236 Georgia was devastated by the Mongols. After a recovery under George V. (1318-1346), who reconquered Imeretia, the Mongols under Timur (Tamerlane) laid the country waste until 1403. Alexander I. (1413-1442) freed the country from the Mongols, but divided it among his three sons, whom he made sover eigns of Imeretia, Kakhetia and Karthli (Georgia) respectively; Imeretia remained a separate state till its annexation by Russia (1810).
In 1492, the king of Kakhetia sought the protection of Ivan III. against the Turks and Persians. In the 17th century, Thei muraz (1629-1634), king of Georgia, appealed to Michael, the first of the Romanov tsars of Russia, against Shah Abbas of Persia, as did Imeretia and Guria. In 1638 the prince of Min grelia took the oath of allegiance to the Russian tsar, and in 1650 the prince of Imeretia took the same step. Vakhtang VI. of Georgia put himself in the i8th century under the protection of Peter the Great. After the i8th century Afghan conquest of Persia, the Turks captured Tiflis and compelled Vakhtang to abdicate, but in 1735 withdrew their claim. Peter the Great in 1722 extorted from Persia her prosperous Caspian provinces, but left her the predominating power in Georgia. Heraclius II. of Georgia (1783) declared himself a vassal of Russia and in al.,pealed to Russia for help against Agha Mohammed, shah of Persia, who had laid Tiflis in ruins. George XIII., the next king of Georgia, renounced his crown in favour of the tsar and in 180i Georgia became a Russian province. Guria submitted to Russia in 1829.
Under the tsars Georgia was divided between the Russian pro vinces of Tiflis. and Kutais (see TRANSCAUCASIA). After the Oct. 1917 revolution a period of civil war followed in Georgia, which ended in 1921, upon the creation of the Georgian A.S.S.R.
In spite of her illiterate masses, Georgia has a cultural herit age which should prove a valuable asset to the new Georgian university. Her language is of the Caucasian group, and has a sac erdotal and an ordinary alphabet. The extant version of the Georgian bible dates from the eighth century, and the famous national poem "The man clothed in the panther's skin," by Roustaveli, memorized by many Georgians to-day, dates from the reign of Queen Tamara in the i i th century. An English translation of it has been published by the Royal Asiatic Society.