GEORGIA:: IN THE MOUNTAINS OF POETRY (Caucasus World: Peoples of the Caucasus)

✍ Scribed by PETER NASMYTH

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2006
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 353
• Edition: 3 Revised
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This is the first comprehensive cultural and historical introduction to modern Georgia. It covers the country region by region, taking the form of a literary journey through the transition from Soviet Georgia to the modern independent nation state. Georgia's recorded history goes back nearly 3,000 years. The Georgians converted to Christianity in 330 and their Bagratuni monarchy endured for over 1,000 years. The Soviets ruled the region from 1921 but their vigorous repression did little to eradicate the strong Georgian sense of nationhood and under Gorbachev, Georgian independence became inevitable. Nasmyth's lively and topical survey charts the nation's remarkable cultural and historical journey to statehood. Having travelled extensively in the country over a period of five years, Peter Nasmyth is exceptionally qualified to write on Georgia. His authoritative, dynamic and perceptive book is based on hundreds of interviews with modern Georgians, from country priests to black marketeers. Georgia will be essential reading for anyone interested in this fascinating region as well as for students and researchers requiring an insight into life after the collapse of the old Soviet order in the richest and most dramatic of the former republics.

✦ Table of Contents

Book Cover......Page 1
Half Title......Page 2
Series Title......Page 3
Title......Page 4
Copyright......Page 5
Contents......Page 6
Acknowledgements......Page 8
Preface to the third edition......Page 9
Part I: PRE-INDEPENDENT GEORGIA......Page 18
1. Why Georgia?......Page 20
2. Before the Caucasus......Page 27
3. The mountains of poetry......Page 36
4. Kazbegi......Page 50
5. The mountain......Page 56
6. Kazbegi to Tbilisi......Page 62
7. Tbilisi......Page 72
8. Mtskheta......Page 130
9. Gori......Page 139
10. Vardzia......Page 148
11. Kakheti......Page 153
12. Svaneti......Page 164
13. Sukhumi......Page 188
Part II: INDEPENDENT GEORGIA......Page 204
14. The eve of independence......Page 206
15. The young shoots of war......Page 213
16. Batumi......Page 222
17. Khevsureti......Page 240
18. Georgia’s war: a return to Sukhumi......Page 261
19. A religious revival......Page 279
20. Kutaisi......Page 292
21. New Georgia......Page 302
22. The Rose Revolution......Page 314
23. A walk in Tusheti......Page 327
FURTHER READING......Page 340
Appendix 1: Oil, water & Mensheviks......Page 341
Appendix 2: Notes on the new economics......Page 344
Select bibliography......Page 346
Political chronology of Georgia since 1900......Page 349
Index......Page 351