When the Russian revolution was tamed, what remained of serfdom completely ended in Georgia, but the conditions of the peasants remained the same. And rural reform, applied in Russia, did not appear in Georgia. In short, all the privileges that had spread to Russia with the first revolution did not touch Georgia in the least.
In the meantime, the First World War came and Georgia became a war zone, while in the south-western part there was a revolt against the Russians. And when the 1917 revolution broke out in Russia, the Mensheviks of the Socialist Party took over all the workers’ organizations, appointed a provisional government and freed the Bolsheviks, the most heated revolutionaries. According to Abbreviationfinder, an acronym site which also features history of Georgia, the same thing happened in Georgia. Everywhere there were peasant revolts; a Transcaucasian Commissariat was formed which confronted Turkey for the possession of certain territories.
On May 26, 1918 three independent republics were formed: Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. Georgia, to free itself from the Bolsheviks, moved to the side of Germany which, on the other hand, had a completely different interest, namely that of taking over all the oil territories.
At the end of the war Georgia was in the hands of British troops, also called because the inclusion of the Bolsheviks had in the meantime become worrying. They continued their activity enough to force Georgia, in May 1920, to conclude an agreement with the Russian Soviet Republic.
Soon, however, with the worsening of the peasant struggles, the antimensheviks seized Georgia, the only Caucasian region that remained outside the Soviet Union. On February 12, 1921 the Menshevik government was forced to abandon Tiflis and Georgia was proclaimed the Soviet Autonomous Republic.
And in 1936 she was elevated to a federal member of the Soviet Union. As such, it was the subject of a broad economic development plan, especially in the heavy and light industries sector. Thus the oil refineries, chemical laboratories, textile and food industries were established. Important steel plants were built, first of all the Transcaucasian “Stalin”. A car factory was founded in Kutaisi, one of the machine tools in Kirov and large coal mining plants. The hydroelectric power plants of Zemo-Avtsciali, on the KurĂ , on the Rione and on the Krami are remarkable.
Agriculture also assumed enormous importance and, given the temperate climate, the products were varied and sustained. Tea and tobacco production were highly developed. Beekeeping and cattle breeding are also important.
For many years Georgia was historically part of the Soviet Union, therefore following all the vicissitudes, war and social, of that nation, from which it detached itself on April 9, 1991, proclaiming its independence.
And this result was possible following the new political course established by Gorbachev, which went down in history with the name of “perestroika”, and started as early as 1988. Massive demonstrations occurred during 1989, especially with the fall of the Berlin Wall, but firmly repressed by the Soviet. But, in the meantime, Z. Gamsakhurdia emerged, who had been head of the opposition party since the seventies. Pending regular presidential elections, he was appointed provisional President of Georgia on April 14, 1991. On May 26, 1991, these elections were held and confirmed by a large majority.
However, thanks to this consensus, he applied a power system that was not at all democratic, provoking demonstrations and giving rise to strong opposition. Not condescending to any of the requests made by the people, between December 1991 and January 1992 there were armed clashes, with a hundred victims.
On January 6 he was forced to flee Georgia where a Military Council was installed to take control of the country. In the following March a Council of State was formed, headed by E. Shevardnadze, former Foreign Minister of the Soviet Union and an important man of perestroika.
And immediately another problem arose: the desired autonomy on the part of the Abkhazians and Ossetians. The latter, with a referendum of January 1992, had chosen to join the Russian Federation. This led to an armed conflict with Georgia, then composed between Shevardnadze and Yeltsin, while no solution had been reached for Abkhazia in September 1992.
Other conflicts occurred between the different ethnic groups of the Armenians and the Atzeri. And in this situation it was not possible to give stability to work and politics, also because of Georgia’s refusal to join the new CIS federation, which began after the complete dissolution of the Soviet Union. All efforts were also in vain in the economic field, until 1994, when a certain state of peace and equilibrium was reached, when Georgia in 1993 had already decided to return to its autonomy, yes, but under Russian influence.
During 1995, with the reconstitution of the central state authority, the development and improvement of the economy could be resumed and a Constitution was launched which, among other things, changed the name from Republic of Georgia to Georgia only.
Elections were held in November 1995 to elect single-chamber Parliament. Shevardnadze’s party had a majority and this result was confirmed also in the 1999 elections. The President took steps to apply economic reforms but, at the same time, to increase the prestige of Georgia, already admitted to the United Nations since 1992, on the field international.
In 1996, together with Armenia and Azerbaijan, he signed a cooperation agreement with the European Union. And despite everything, the President in January 1998 was the object of an attack in Tbilisi which he miraculously escaped from. Not so was it for two of his bodyguards who instead lost there