According to Handbag Picks, Georgia, one of the 15 member states of the USSR, now has 4,049,000 residents, With a relatively high density, 58 residents for 2 km, on a sup. of 69,700 km 2. The master it is Tbilisi (694,000 residents), formerly known as Tiflis. In the decade 1948-58, industrial activities particularly intensified: manganese (the richest deposits in the world), hard coal, oil, barite, rare metals (gold), construction rocks form the basis of numerous industrial activities including: heavy industry (steel, mechanical), oil refineries, chemical laboratories; in addition to the textile and other food (wine) industries. More than 900 large factories have been built; among these the most important: the Transcaucasian “Stalin” steel plant, a car factory (in Kutaisi), the machine tool plant in Kirov, the chemical laboratory in Rustavi, the large coal mining plants.
Agriculture has also taken on a new development; the climate allows various crops, of vines, cereals, plums, citrus fruits as well as tea and tobacco. The Colchis, once a swampy depression, has become a vast garden for a complex of new canals; millions of eucalyptus have been planted. 674 kolkhoz and 23 sovkhoz are dedicated to tea cultivation; the global harvest went from 33,700 kg in 1950 to 106,000 in 1956. Geranium is also grown. The rich vegetation favors beekeeping. Cattle breeding developed: 1,458,000 cattle; pigs 771,000; rams and goats 2,070,000.
Population, society and rights
Georgia is made up of the melting pot of ethnic groups typical of the Caucasian region. Although the majority of the population (about 83.3%) is Georgian, there are about eighty different nationalities, among which the most represented are Azerbaijani (6.5%), Armenian (5.7%) and Russian (1.5%). As in the case of Abkhazia and Ossetia, the concentration of Armenian and Azerbaijani minorities in border regions, respectively in Javakheti and Kvemo Kartli, has generated inter-ethnic tensions and demands for greater autonomy. This also happened for the Agara, an ethnically Georgian region, whose population, converted to Islam during the Ottoman rule, has long benefited from an autonomy based on religious affiliation. In a predominantly Christian Orthodox country, Muslims represent the main religious minority (about 10% of the population), followed by Armenian-Gregorian and Catholic minorities. One problem facing Georgia is that of internal refugees, who often live in very difficult conditions. According to government data, there were 260,000 displaced people in the country at the end of 2014, mainly from the territories of Ossetia and Abkhazia.
The ‘revolution of roses’, the first of the bloodless ‘color revolutions’ that affected the post-Soviet space in the three-year period 2003-05, had raised great hopes for the possibility of renewal of a corrupt and authoritarian ruling class. Defined by the then US President George W. Bush as a “beacon of freedom for the region and for the world”, Georgia has partially failed to meet the expectations of democratization. Despite this, the country remains the freest in the complex scenario of the South Caucasus. The electoral processes, in particular, have registered a constant approximation to the internationally recognized standards of transparency, freedom and fairness. Following the anti-government demonstrations in spring 2009, a package of constitutional amendments was launched which introduced a relationship of trust between parliament and executive and strengthened the powers of the prime minister over those of the president of the republic. In fact, we have passed from a semi-presidential system to a parliamentary one.
In the last year there has been an inversion of the democratic process. In particular, with regard to freedom of the press, the trial opened in August 2015 against Rustavi 2, the country’s best-known television network, was widely criticized as politically motivated.
Language
Literary and national language is Georgian or Grusinic (georg. K‛art‛uli ena); belongs to the Caucasian family and belongs to the southern or Cartvelic group of the same. The dialectal fractionation is minimal. In the phonetics we note the presence of a strong expiratory accent which has produced frequent falls of unstressed vowels. Georgian is written with an alphabet derived from the Armenian one.
