Why Georgia? Trivia Quiz

Answer: All of these have been proposed, but no one knows for sure

Of these, the Persian hypothesis seems to have gained the most traction with modern scholars. Historically, the Russian term for the country, 'Gruziya', has been more definitively linked to Persian origins. Twenty-first century diplomats have encouraged the term 'Georgia' internationally, though some former communist countries still use 'Gruziya' in certain situations.

Answer: Because Georgian is from a completely different, non-Slavic language group

Georgian is the dominant language of the Kartvelian family, a language group not related to the Indo-European tongues that dominate most of Europe. Though its current alphabet has evolved over the centuries, it is traditionally believed to be descended from the writing system created by King Pharnavaz in the third century CE.

The oldest known literary work in the language is 'The Martyrdom of the Holy Queen Shushanik' by Iakob Tsurtaveli, dating to the fifth century CE.

Answer: To find the Golden Fleece

'Argonautica' was both a creative work and a scholarly effort, bringing together many Greek legends that were already well known in Apollonius' time. Along with the core tale of Jason leading the seafaring heroes on their ship the Argos, the poem also recounts the tale of Prometheus Bound; the eagle that eats Prometheus' liver daily is seen as the Argonauts approach the Caucasus, and its wake disturbs the Argos' sails. We also get retellings of several heroes' stories, including those of Heracles (who leaves the group early on), Meleager, Euphemus, and Castor. Georgia's place in this epic underscores the region's link with the Hellenistic world.

Answer: A series of invasions by the Mongols

The Mongols reached Georgian territory in the 1220s, and Georgian Queen Rusudan signed a very unfavorable peace treaty with them in 1243. Georgia's autonomy would wax and wane through the late Middle Ages, taking another blow with Tamerlane's invasions at the close of the fourteenth century.

Though Georgia did maintain a number of adjoining client states, overseas imperialism was never a large factor in the country's history. Nationalism as such did not really exist in the middle ages, and real estate speculation is also anachronistic to the period.

Answer: Because Georgia joined the Russian Empire

By 1800, Georgia was a battered remnant of its former self and was on the verge of being annexed by Persia. Though Russia and Georgia had an antagonistic relationship through the eighteenth century, they recognized a common cultural and religious bond, and even the most Russophobic Georgian nobles preferred Russian domination to Persian hegemony.

In 1805, Russia defeated Persia in battle along the Askerani River to secure Georgian territory. Through the nineteenth century, Russia won back most of the territory that Georgia had ceded to the Ottoman Empire since 1400.

Answer: Because the chaos of the Russian Revolution and Civil War made it impossible for the Kremlin to hold the country

Georgia declared its independence on May 26, 1918. The Russian government was going through the turmoil of the Russian Civil War between the Bolshevik Communist Red Army and the opposition White Army, and British forces (loosely aligned with the Whites) placed newly-independent Georgia under their protection.

In 1921, the Red Army overran Georgia, and following a bloody Georgian revolt in 1924, the country joined the nascent Soviet Union.

Answer: Because Stalin was himself Georgian

Stalin was a native Georgian and spoke only his mother tongue until enrolling in a church school, where Russian was mandatory, at age twelve. Stalin attended a Georgian Orthodox seminary for a time until adopting radical Bolshevism in his early 20s. He was a major Bolshevik organizer in Georgia, founding paramilitary forces, working to encourage labor unrest, and robbing banks to fund leftist causes.

After Georgia attempted to break from Russia in the wake of the Civil War, however, Stalin took a hard line against Georgian autonomy and sought to weaken Georgian nationalism by merging it with the other Caucasian territories and suppressing the Red Army of Georgia's formation.

This represented a divergence from Lenin's thought, and Lenin's accusations that Stalin was imposing "Great Russian nationalism" on Georgia were a major point in the break between the two leaders. Lenin's health was failing, however, and he was unable to stop Stalin from seizing power. Georgia was eventually split into its own Soviet Socialist Republic in 1936.

Answer: Because of the vast oil fields in the Caucasus and the Middle East beyond

About 700,000 Georgians fought against Axis invasion during World War II; around half of these died. Approximately 30,000 Georgians who had fled Stalinist rule ended up fighting on the Axis side, though actual combat never reached Georgia. Hitler's expenditure of resources attempting to capture Caucasian and Iranian oil fields - and the resulting fuel shortages when he failed to do so - figure prominently in most military analyses of the Axis failures in the war.

As the cliché goes, amateurs study strategy while professionals study logistics. Given the petroleum-intensive nature of blitzkrieg warfare, Nazi losses can be viewed as logistical collapses just as much as they can be interpreted as strategic or political failures.

Answer: Because the Soviet Union it had been part of since 1921 disintegrated

Mikhail Gorbachev ascended to Soviet leadership in 1985 and immediately began instituting democratic and market economy-based reforms to revitalize the USSR's stagnating economy. The easing of strict Communist controls on media and market channels fostered a growing sense of local autonomy and a willingness of local governments to defy central authority.

The USSR's remaining satellite states in Eastern Europe broke ties with the USSR in rapid succession, as exemplified by 1989 dismantling of the Berlin Wall and the toppling of almost all communist-era governments in the region.

In March of 1990, Lithuania declared nominal independence and refused to participate further in Soviet politics. Several other Soviet Republics followed suit. In March 1991, the USSR held a referendum on whether or not the union should be maintained.

Although unionists won 76% of the popular vote, six republics, including Georgia, refused to vote altogether. Shortly thereafter, Georgian leader Zviad Gamsakhurdia organized a vote on Georgian independence, which passed in a landslide. Georgia formally declared independence on April 9, 1991, and the Soviet Union formally dissolved on December 8, 1991.

In a demonstration of its distance from the other former Soviet republics, Georgia declined to join the loose Commonwealth of Independent States providing mutual support between former USSR members. (Georgia would join the CIS later in 1994, but left again in 2008.)

Answer: Because a war with Russia resulted in de facto independence for South Ossetia and Abkhazia

The autonomy of the Abkhazian and Ossetian ethnic minorities in northern Georgia has been an issue since Georgia's independence. The Georgian government asserted control over Abkhazian and Ossetian-majority territory, while Russia has maintained that the relatively small enclaves should be self-governing. Abkhazia gained effective self-rule after a 1993-1994 war, though their independence was not recognized internationally. War between Georgia and Russia in 1991-1992 established a modicum of self-rule in parts of South Ossetia, but this also was not recognized by formal international diplomacy.

In August of 2008, Russia moved to authoritatively defend South Ossetia, resulting in self-rule in that country and recognition of Abkhazian and South Ossetian independence by Russia and a smattering of other states, including Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Tuvalu. Georgia did not recognize the independence of these states, classifying the territory as "occupied" rather than "independent."