Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic

Socialist Soviet Republic of Georgia (1921–1936) საქართველოს სოციალისტური საბჭოთა რესპუბლიკა (Georgian) Социалистическая Советская Республика Грузия (Russian) Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic (1936–1990) საქართველოს საბჭოთა სოციალისტური რესპუბლიკა (Georgian) Грузинская Советская Социалистическая Республика (Russian) Republic of Georgia (1990–1991) საქართველოს რესპუბლიკა (Georgian) Республика Грузия (Russian)
1921–1991
Flag (1951–1990) State emblem (1981–1990)
Motto: პროლეტარებო ყველა ქვეყნისა, შეერთდით! ( independent state (1921–1922) Part of the Transcaucasian SFSR (1922–1936) Union republic (1936–1991) De facto independent state (1990–1991)
Capital	Tbilisi 41°43′21″N 44°47′33″E / 41.72250°N 44.79250°E / 41.72250; 44.79250
Common languages	Georgian Russian Abkhaza Ossetianb Mingrelian Svan
Religion	State atheism
Government	1921–1990: Unitary Marxist–Leninist one-party socialist republic 1990–1991: Unitary multi-party parliamentary republic Apr.-Dec. 1991: semi-presidential republic
First Secretary
• 1921–1922 (first)	Mamia Orakhelashvili
• 1989–1990 (last)[1]	Givi Gumbaridze
Head of state
• 1922–1923 (first)	Filipp Makharadze
• 1990–1991 (last)	Zviad Gamsakhurdia
Head of government
• 1922 (first)	Polikarp Mdivani
• 1991 (last)	Besarion Gugushvili
Legislature	Admitted to USSR	30 December 1922
• TSFSR dissolved	5 December 1936
• Sovereignty declared	18 November 1989
• Renamed to Republic of Georgia	14 November 1990
• Independence declared	9 April 1991
• Independence recognized	26 December 1991
Currency	Soviet rouble (Rbl) (SUR)
Calling code	+7 881/882/883
Preceded by Succeeded by Democratic Republic of Georgia Socialist Soviet Republic of Abkhazia Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic Georgia
Today part of	Armenia Azerbaijan Georgia Russia
In the Abkhazian ASSR. In the South Ossetian AO.

The Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic (

Geographically, the Georgian SSR was bordered by Turkey to the south-west and the Black Sea to the west. Within the Soviet Union it bordered the Russian SFSR to the north, the Armenian SSR to the south and the Azerbaijan SSR to the south-east.

History

Establishment

On November 28, 1917, after the October Revolution in Russia, there was a Transcaucasian Commissariat established in Tiflis. On April 22 the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic was formed, though it only lasted for a month before being replaced by three new states: the

In 1922 the Georgian SSR was incorporated into Soviet Union. From March 12, 1922, to December 5, 1936, it was part of the Transcaucasian SFSR together with the Armenian SSR and the Azerbaijan SSR. During this period the province was led by Lavrentiy Beria, the first secretary of the Georgian Central Committee of the Communist Party of Georgia.^[3] In 1936, the TSFSR was dissolved and Georgia became the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic.

Lavrentiy Beria became head of the Georgian branch of the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) and was transferred to Moscow in 1938.

Purges

The exact number of Georgians executed during the

On March 9, 1956, about a hundred Georgian students were killed when they demonstrated against Nikita Khrushchev's policy of de-Stalinization that was accompanied by an offhanded remark he made about Georgians at the end of his anti-Stalin speech.

The decentralisation program introduced by Khrushchev in the mid-1950s was soon exploited by Georgian Communist Party officials to build their own regional power base. A thriving pseudo-capitalist shadow economy emerged alongside the official state-owned economy. While the official growth rate of the economy of the Georgia was among the lowest in the USSR, such indicators as savings level, rates of car and house ownership were the highest in the Union,^[5] making Georgia one of the most economically successful Soviet republics. Corruption was at a high level. Among all the union republics, Georgia had the highest number of residents with high or special secondary education.^[6]

Although corruption was hardly unknown in the Soviet Union, it became so widespread and blatant in Georgia that it came to be an embarrassment to the authorities in Moscow. Eduard Shevardnadze, the country's interior minister between 1964 and 1972, gained a reputation as a fighter of corruption and engineered the removal of Vasil Mzhavanadze, the corrupt First Secretary of the Georgian Communist Party. Shevardnadze ascended to the post of First Secretary with the blessings of Moscow. He was an effective and able ruler of Georgia from 1972 to 1985, improving the official economy and dismissing hundreds of corrupt officials.

In the 1970s Soviet authorities adopted a new policy of forming a "

Shevardnadze's appointment as Soviet Foreign Minister in 1985 brought his replacement in Georgia by Jumber Patiashvili, a conservative and generally ineffective Communist who coped poorly with the challenges of perestroika. Towards the end of the late 1980s, increasingly violent clashes occurred between the Communist authorities, the resurgent Georgian nationalist movement and nationalist movements in Georgia's minority-populated regions (notably South Ossetia). On April 9, 1989, Soviet troops were used to break up a peaceful demonstration at the government building in Tbilisi. Twenty Georgians were killed and hundreds wounded. The event radicalised Georgian politics, prompting many – even some Georgian communists – to conclude that independence was preferable than Soviet unity and would provide Georgia with a chance to fully integrate both South Ossetia and Abkhazia, whose peoples were still loyal to the Union.

On October 28, 1990, democratic parliamentary elections were held. On November 14 a transitional period was declared until the restoration of Georgia's independence and in this regard, the republic changed its name to "