Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic

{{pp-semi-indef|small=yes}} {{Infobox country | conventional_long_name = Socialist Soviet Republic of Georgia {{no bold|{{small|(1921–1936)}} {{native name|ka|საქართველოს სოციალისტური საბჭოთა რესპუბლიკა}} {{native name|ru| Социалистическая Советская Республика Грузия}}}}{{hr}}Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic {{no bold|{{small|(1936–1990)}} {{native name|ka|საქართველოს საბჭოთა სოციალისტური რესპუბლიკა}} {{native name|ru|Грузинская Советская Социалистическая Республика}}}}{{hr}}Republic of Georgia {{no bold|{{small|(1990–1991)}} {{native name|ka|საქართველოს რესპუბლიკა}} {{native name|ru|Республика Грузия}}}} | common_name = Georgian SSR | religion = State atheism | status = '''1921–1922:''' Semi-independent state '''1922–1936:''' Part of the Transcaucasian SFSR '''1936–1990:''' Union republic of the Soviet Union '''1990–1991''': Union Republic with priority of the Georgian legislation '''April–December 1991:''' ''De facto'' independent state | life_span = 1921–1991 | p1 = Democratic Republic of Georgia | flag_p1 = Flag of Georgia (1918–1921, 4-5).svg | p2 = Socialist Soviet Republic of Abkhazia | flag_p2 = Flag of the SSR Abkhazia.svg | p3 = Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic | flag_p3 = Flag of the Transcaucasian SFSR (variant).svg | s1 = Georgia (country){{!}}Georgia | flag_s1 = Flag of Georgia (1990–2004).svg | image_flag = Flag of Georgian SSR.svg | flag_type = Flag (1951–1990) | image_coat = Emblem of the Georgian SSR-2.png | symbol_type = State emblem (1981–1990) | image_map = Georgian SSR in the Soviet Union.svg | image_map_caption = Location of Georgia (red) within the Soviet Union | national_motto = პროლეტარებო ყველა ქვეყნისა, შეერთდით! {{small|(Georgian)}} Proletarebo qvela kveqnisa, sheertdit! {{small|(transliteration)}} {{small|"Proletarians of all countries, unite!"}} | national_anthem = საქართველოს საბჭოთა სოციალისტური რესპუბლიკის სახელმწიფო ჰიმნი ''Sakartvelos sabch’ota sotsialist’uri resp’ublik’is sakhelmts’ipo himni'' {{small|"Anthem of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic"}} {{small|(1946–1990)}} {{center|File:Anthem-ssr-georgian-instr-1968.ogg}} დიდება ''Dideba'' {{small|"Glory"}} {{small|(1990–1991)}} {{center|File:Former Georgian national anthem, 1990–2004.oga}} | coordinates = {{coord|41|43|21|N|44|47|33|E|region:GE|display=it}} | government_type = {{plainlist| * '''1920–1990:''' Unitary communist state * '''1990–1991:''' Unitary parliamentary republic * '''May–December 1991:''' Unitary semi-presidential republic}} | title_leader = First Secretary | leader1 = Mamia Orakhelashvili | year_leader1 = 1921–1922 {{small|(first)}} | leader2 = Givi Gumbaridze | year_leader2 = 1989–1990 {{small|(last)}}<ref>On 14 November 1990, article 6 on the monopoly of the Communist Party of Georgia on power was excluded from the Constitution of the Georgian SSR</ref> | title_representative = Head of state | representative1 = Filipp Makharadze | year_representative1 = 1922–1923 {{small|(first)}} | representative2 = Zviad Gamsakhurdia | year_representative2 = 1990–1991 {{small|(last)}} | title_deputy = Head of government | deputy1 = Polikarp Mdivani | year_deputy1 = 1922 {{small|(first)}} | deputy2 = Besarion Gugushvili | year_deputy2 = 1991 {{small|(last)}} | capital = Tbilisi | common_languages = Georgian Russian Abkhaza Ossetianb Mingrelian Svan | event_pre = Soviet invasion and occupation | date_pre = 25 February 1921 | year_start = 1921 | event_start = Formation | date_start = 25 February | event1 = Admitted to USSR | date_event1 = 30 December 1922 | event2 = TSFSR dissolved | date_event2 = 5 December 1936 | event3 = Sovereignty declared | date_event3 = 9 March 1990 | event4 = Renamed to Republic of Georgia | date_event4 = 14 November 1990 | event5 = Independence declared | date_event5 = 9 April 1991 | event_end = Independence recognized | year_end = 1991 | date_end = 26 December | stat_year1 = 1989 census | stat_pop1 = 5,443,359 | calling_code = +7 881/882/883 | footnote_a = In the Abkhazian ASSR. | footnote_b = In the South Ossetian AO. | today = Georgia ''Abkhazia''{{efn|name=georgia-dispute|Abkhazia and South Ossetia are disputed between Georgia and their respective breakaway states}} ''South Ossetia''{{efn|name=georgia-dispute}} | legislature = Supreme Soviet | currency = Soviet rouble (Rbl) | currency_code = SUR }} [[File:Order of Red Banner, Georgian SSR, 1923.png|thumb|right|Order of the Red Banner of the Georgian SSR, 1923]]

The '''Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic''',{{Efn|{{Langx|ka|საქართველოს საბჭოთა სოციალისტური რესპუბლიკა|Sakartvelos sabch'ota sotsialist'uri resp'ublik'a}}; {{Langx|ru|Грузинская Советская Социалистическая Республика|Gruzinskaya Sovetskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika}}}} also known as '''Soviet Georgia''', the '''Georgian SSR''', or simply '''Georgia''', was one of the republics of the Soviet Union from its second occupation (by the Red Army) in 1921 to its independence in 1991. Coterminous with the present-day republic of Georgia as well as the contested regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, it was based on the traditional territory of Georgia, which had existed as a series of independent states in the Caucasus prior to the first occupation of annexation in the course of the 19th century. The Georgian SSR was formed in 1921 and subsequently incorporated in the Soviet Union in 1922. Until 1936 it was a part of the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, which existed as a union republic within the USSR. From November 18, 1989, the Georgian SSR declared its sovereignty over Soviet laws. The republic was renamed the Republic of Georgia on November 14, 1990, and subsequently became independent before the dissolution of the Soviet Union on April 9, 1991, whereupon each former SSR became a sovereign state.

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 Georgian Democratic Republic, the First Republic of Armenia and the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. The 1919 parliamentary elections saw the Social Democratic Party come to power in Georgia. It tried to establish a moderate left, multi-party system, but faced some internal and external problems. Georgia was dragged into wars against Armenia and remnants of the Ottoman Empire, while the rapid spread of ideas of revolutionary socialism in rural regions accounted for some Soviet-backed peasants' revolts in Racha, Samegrelo and Dusheti. In 1921, the crisis came to a head. The 11th Red Army invaded Georgia from the south and headed to Tbilisi. On 25 February, after a one-week offence by the Red Army, Tbilisi fell to the Bolsheviks.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Europa World Year Book 2004, Volume I |edition=45th |series=Europa World Year Book |year=2004 |orig-year=1928|publisher=Europa Publications |location=London |isbn=1-85743-254-1 |page=1806 |quote=However, Georgia was invaded by Bolshevik troops in early 1921, and a Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) was proclaimed on 25 February.}}</ref> Georgian Bolsheviks took over the country and proclaimed the establishment of the Georgian SSR. Some small-scale battles between Bolshevik troops and Georgian Army also took place in Western Georgia. In March 1921 the government of the Georgian Democratic Republic was forced in exile. On March 2 of the following year the first constitution of Soviet Georgia was accepted.

On 13 October 1921 the Treaty of Kars was signed, which established the common borders between Turkey and the three Transcaucasian republics of the Soviet Union. Georgian SSR was forced to cede the Georgian-dominated Artvin Okrug to Turkey in exchange for keeping Adjara, which was granted political autonomy within the Georgian SSR under Soviet rule.{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}}

===Transcaucasian Soviet Federated Socialist Republics=== thumb|Members of the first Supreme Soviet of the Georgian SSR

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.<ref>. Geronti Kikodze (1954) Notes of a Contemporary, first published in 1989, Mnatobi, Issue 1, Tbilisi, Georgia.</ref> 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 Great Purges is not estimated, but some scholars suggest it varies from 30,000 to 60,000. During the purges, many eminent Georgian intellectuals such as Mikheil Javakhishvili, Evgeni Mikeladze, Vakhtang Kotetishvili, Paolo Iashvili, Titsian Tabidze and Dimitri Shevardnadze were executed or sent to the Gulag. Party officials also suffered the purges. Many prominent Georgian Bolsheviks, such as Mikheil Kakhiani, Mamia Orakhelashvili, Sergo Ordzhonikidze, Budu Mdivani, Mikheil Okujava and Samson Mamulia were removed from office and killed.

===World War II===

Reaching the Caucasus oilfields was one of the main objectives of Adolf Hitler's invasion of the USSR in June 1941, but the armies of the Axis powers never reached as far as Georgia. The country contributed almost 700,000 fighters (350,000 were killed) to the Red Army, and was a vital source of textiles and munitions. During this period Joseph Stalin, an ethnic Georgian, ordered the deportation of the Chechen, German, Ingush, Karachay, Karapapaks, Meskhetian Turks and Balkarian peoples from the Caucasus; they were transported to Siberia and Central Asia for alleged collaboration with the Nazis. He also abolished their respective autonomous republics. The Georgian SSR was briefly granted some of their territory until 1957.<ref>{{cite book |title= The Lesser Terror: Soviet State Security, 1939–1953|last= Parrish|first= Michael|year= 1996|publisher= Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn= 0-275-95113-8|pages= 102|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=NDgv5ognePgC&q=deportations+Chechens+Georgia+Klukhori&pg=PA102}}</ref>

===Post-Stalin period=== thumb|Workers at a factory in the Georgian SSR 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.<ref name=grossman/> Some entrepreneurs ("commersants") produced and sold goods outside of the state sector while others ("speculators") obtained "deficit" goods through their connections and re-sold them at higher prices. The unofficial economy accounted for over 25% of the republic's GNP.<ref>{{cite web |title=Georgian Shadow Economy – its Past and its Legacy |url=https://iset-pi.ge/en/blog/440-georgian-shadow-economy-its-past-and-its-legacy |access-date=18 December 2025 |website=ISET}}</ref> 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,<ref name="grossman">Grossman, Gregory, ‘The "Second Economy" of the USSR’, Problems of Communism, vol. 26 no. 5, 1977, ''quoted from'' Cornell, Svante E., [http://www.silkroadstudies.org/new/inside/publications/0419dissertation.pdf ''Autonomy and Conflict: Ethnoterritoriality and Separatism in the South Caucasus – Case in Georgia''] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070630141309/http://www.silkroadstudies.org/new/inside/publications/0419dissertation.pdf |date=June 30, 2007 }}. Department of Peace and Conflict Research, ''Report No. 61''. p. 149. University of Uppsala, {{ISBN|91-506-1600-5}}.</ref> making Georgia one of the most economically successful Soviet republics. Among all the union republics, Georgia had the highest number of residents with high or special secondary education.<ref>{{cite book |title=Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia|last= Suny|first= Ronald G.|author-link=Ronald Grigor Suny|author2=James Nichol |author3=Darrell L. Slider |year= 1996|publisher=DIANE Publishing|isbn=0-7881-2813-2|pages= [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_B2W1YOG3N10C/page/n238 186]|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_B2W1YOG3N10C|quote=Abkhazia.}}</ref>

Although corruption existed throughout 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 "Soviet people". The "Soviet people" were said to be a "new historical, social, and international community of people having a common territory, economy, and socialist content; a culture that reflected the particularities of multiple nationalities; a federal state; and a common ultimate goal: the construction of communism." Russian was meant to become the common language of this community, considering the role that Russian was playing for the nations and nationalities of the Soviet Union. However, in 1978, Soviet authorities had to face the opposition of thousands of Georgians, who gathered in downtown Tbilisi to hold mass demonstration after Soviet officials accepted removal of the constitutional status of the Georgian language as Georgia's sole official state language. Bowing to pressure from mass street demonstrations on April 14, 1978, Moscow approved Shevardnadze's reinstatement of the constitutional guarantee the same year. April 14 was established as a Day of the Georgian Language. In 1981, massive celebrations took place in honour of the republic's 60th anniversary, with a mass event taking place in front of General Secretary Brezhnev on Tbilisi's Constitution Square.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kOR6wIiodY |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211212/9kOR6wIiodY| archive-date=2021-12-12 |url-status=live|title=საქართველოს გასაბჭოების 60 წლისთვისადმი მიძღვნილი საზეიმო დემონსტრაცია 1981|date=8 November 2017 |via=www.youtube.com|website=YouTube|last=GPB ARCHIVE|language=ka|trans-title=Ceremonial demonstration dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the Sovietization of Georgia, 1981}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

===End of the Soviet period=== [[File:Flag of Georgia (1990-2004).svg|thumb|right|200px|Flag of the Republic of Georgia, 1990–2004]] 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 9 April 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 to 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 18 November 1989, Georgian SSR Supreme Soviet declared all union laws to be null, and a few months later, its Chairman of Presidium, Givi Gumbaridze led a supreme session with the 11th convocation of the supreme soviet, and issued a resolution which declared the protection of Georgian state sovereignty on 9 March 1990 and nullified previous treaties conducted by the RSFSR.

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 the Republic of Georgia.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://constitutions.ru/?p=2898|title=Закон об объявлении переходного периода в республике Грузия — Российский правовой портал: Библиотека Пашкова|website=constitutions.ru|date=6 January 2010 |language=ru|trans-title=Law on the declaration of a transition period in the Republic of Georgia}}</ref> Georgia (excluding Abkhazia) was one of the six republics along with Armenia, Moldova and the Baltic States who boycotted participation in the March 1991 union-wide preservation referendum. On 31 March 1991, a referendum was held on the restoration of Georgia's independence on the basis of the Independence Act of 26 May 1918. The majority of voters voted in favor of the act.<ref name="ria.ru">{{Cite news |date= |title=Референдум о восстановлении независимости Грузии 31 марта 1991 г. |trans-title=Referendum on the restoration of independence of Georgia, March 31, 1991 |url=https://ria.ru/20110331/354518467.html |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20251211182232/https://ria.ru/20110331/354518467.html |archive-date=2025-12-11 |access-date=2026-02-21 |work=RIA Novosti |language=ru-RU}}</ref>

Georgia declared independence on 9 April 1991 under Zviad Gamsakhurdia<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.rrc.ge/law/Akt_1991_04_09_R.htm?lawid=1525&lng_3=ru|title=АКТ о Восстановлении Государственной Независимости Грузии|publisher=www.rrc.ge|access-date=2019-12-10|archive-date=2012-11-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121120170149/http://www.rrc.ge/law/Akt_1991_04_09_R.htm?lawid=1525&lng_3=ru|url-status=dead|language=ru|trans-title=ACT on the Restoration of State Independence of Georgia}}</ref> as one of the republics to secede just four months before the failed coup against Gorbachev in August, which was supported by a declining number of hardliners. However, this was unrecognized by the Soviet government and Georgia remained a part of the Soviet Union until its collapse in December 1991.{{Citation needed|date=February 2026}}

<gallery> File:Georgian soviet republic1922.png|Map of the Georgian & Abkhazian Socialist Soviet Republics in 1922–1931 File:GruzinskajaSSR 1939.jpg|Map of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1931–1943 File:Gruzinskaja SSR (1944-1955).jpg|Map of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1944–1955 File:Georgian soviet republic1957 1991.png|Map of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1957–1991 </gallery>

==References==

=== Notes === {{noteslist}}

=== Footnotes === {{Reflist}}

=== Bibliography === {{Refbegin|colwidth=30em}} * {{Citation|last=Cornell|first=Svante E.|author-link=Svante Cornell|title=Small Nations and Great Powers: A Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict in the Caucasus|year=2001|publisher=Curzon Press|location=London|isbn=978-0-70-071162-8}} * {{Citation|last=Jones|first=Stephen F.|author-link=Stephen F. Jones|date=October 1988|title=The Establishment of Soviet Power in Transcaucasia: The Case of Georgia 1921–1928|journal=Soviet Studies|volume=40|issue=4|pages=616–639|doi=10.1080/09668138808411783}} * {{Citation|last=Marshall|first=Alex|year=2010|title=The Caucasus Under Soviet Rule|publisher=Routledge|location=New York City|isbn=978-0-41-541012-0}} * {{Citation|last=Martin|first=Terry|year=2001|title=The Affirmative Action Empire: Nations and Nationalism in the Soviet Union, 1923–1939|publisher=Cornell University Press|location=Ithaca, New York|isbn=978-0-80-143813-4}} * {{Citation|last=Rayfield|first=Donald|author-link=Donald Rayfield|year=2012|title=Edge of Empires: A History of Georgia|publisher=Reaktion Books|location=London|isbn=978-1-78-023030-6}} * {{Citation|last=Rayfield|first=Donald|year=2004|title=Stalin and His Hangmen: The Tyrant and Those Who Killed for Him|publisher=Random House|location=New York City|isbn=978-0-37-575771-6}} * {{Citation|last=Saparov|first=Arsène|year=2015|title=From Conflict to Autonomy in the Caucasus: The Soviet Union and the making of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Nagorno Karabakh|publisher=Routledge|location=New York City|isbn=978-0-41-565802-7}} * {{Citation|last=Scott|first=Erik R.|year=2016|title=Familiar Strangers: The Georgian Diaspora and the Evolution of Soviet Empire|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford, United Kingdom|isbn=978-0-19-939637-5}} * {{Citation|last=Smith|first=Jeremy|year=2013|title=Red Nations: The Nationalities Experience in and after the USSR|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge, United Kingdom|isbn=978-0-52-112870-4}} * {{Citation|last=Suny|first=Ronald Grigor|author-link=Ronald Grigor Suny|year=1994|title=The Making of the Georgian Nation|edition=Second|publisher=Indiana University Press|location=Bloomington, Indiana|isbn=978-0-25-320915-3}} * {{Citation|last=Zürcher|first=Christoph|author-link=Christoph Zürcher|year=2007|title=The Post-Soviet Wars: Rebellion, Ethnic Conflict, and Nationhood in the Caucasus|publisher=New York University Press|location=New York City|isbn=978-0-81-479709-9}} {{Refend}}

== External links == *[https://archive.org/details/GeorgiaLandOfTheGoldenFleeceRevealsItsRiches ''Georgia, land of the Golden Fleece, reveals its riches''] a propaganda pamphlet about the GSSR from the 1960s. * Avalishvili, Levan: "The “Great Terror” of 1937–1938 in Georgia: Between the Two Reports of Lavrentiy Beria" in the [http://www.laender-analysen.de/cad/pdf/CaucasusAnalyticalDigest22.pdf Caucasus Analytical Digest No. 22] * Anchabadze, George: "Mass Terror in the USSR: The Story of One Family" in the [http://www.laender-analysen.de/cad/pdf/CaucasusAnalyticalDigest22.pdf Caucasus Analytical Digest No. 22] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20180803014724/https://museum.ge/index.php?lang_id=ENG&sec_id=53 საქართველოს ეროვნული მუზეუმი] Georgian museum of Soviet Occupation, Tbilisi.

{{Republics of the Soviet Union}} {{Historical states of Georgia |state=collapsed}} {{Georgia (country) topics}} {{Authority control}}

Category:1920s in Georgia (country) Category:1921 establishments in Georgia (country) Category:1930s in Georgia (country) Category:1940s in Georgia (country) Category:1950s in Georgia (country) Category:1960s in Georgia (country) Category:1970s in Georgia (country) Category:1980s in Georgia (country) Category:1990s in Georgia (country) Category:1991 disestablishments in Georgia (country) Category:1991 disestablishments in the Soviet Union Category:20th century in Georgia (country) Category:Communism in Georgia (country) Category:Former socialist republics Category:Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic Category:Post–Russian Empire states Category:Republics of the Soviet Union Category:States and territories disestablished in 1991 Category:States and territories established in 1921