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Vsevolod Merkulov

Vsevolod Merkulov

Vsevolod Nikolayevich Merkulov (Всеволод Николаевич Меркулов in Russian) (10.25(11.7), 1895 - 1953), was the head of NKGB. In 1913, Merkulov graduated from the Tiflis Gymnasium with the gold medal and became a student at St.Petersburg University, Department of Physics and Mathematics. In 1921-1922, he worked as a detective at the Transportation Unit of the Cheka in Georgia. In 1925-1931, Merkulov held the posts of Head of Secret Operations Directorate and Deputy Head of GPU of Adzharistan. Between 1931 and 1938, he worked on different party assignments. In 1938, Merkulov was appointed Deputy Head of GUGB of NKVD of the USSR. In 1938-1941, he held the post of Deputy People's Commissar of NKVD. Merkulov was People's Commissar of State Security of the USSR from February 3, 1941 until July 20, 1941 and from July 20, 1943 until 1946. In 1941-1943, Merkulov was Deputy People's Commissar. Category:Soviet repression structures and people

Russian language

Russian (Russian: русский язык, russkij jazyk, ) is the most widely spoken language of Europe and the most widespread of the Slavic languages. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages, and is therefore related to Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin, as well as the modern Germanic, Romance, and Celtic languages, including English, French, and Irish, respectively. Written examples are attested from the 10th century onwards. While it preserves much of its ancient synthetic-inflexional structure and a Common Slavonic word base, modern Russian exhibits a large stock of the international vocabulary for politics, science, and technology. A language of great political importance in the 20th century, Russian is one of the official languages of the United Nations. NOTE. Russian is written in a non-Latin script. All examples below are in the Cyrillic alphabet, with transcriptions in IPA.

Classification

Russian is a Slavic language in the Indo-European family. From the point of view of the spoken language, its closest relatives are Belarusian and Ukrainian, the other two national languages in the East Slavic group. In many places in Ukraine and Belarus, these languages are spoken interchangeably. The basic vocabulary, principles of word-formation, and, to some extent, inflexions and literary style of Russian have been influenced by Church Slavonic, a developed and partly adopted form of the South Slavic Old Church Slavonic language used by the Russian Orthodox Church. Many words in modern literary Russian are closer in form to the modern Bulgarian language than to Ukrainian or Belarusian. However, the East Slavic forms have tended to remain in the various dialects that are experiencing a rapid decline. In some cases, both the East Slavic and the Church Slavonic forms are in use, with slightly different meanings. For details, see Historical Sound Changes and History of the Russian language. Outside the Slavic languages, the vocabulary and literary style of Russian have been greatly influenced by Greek, Latin, French, German, and English.

Geographic distribution

Russian is primarily spoken in Russia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics of the USSR. Until 1917, it was the sole official language of the Russian Empire. During the Soviet period, the policy toward the languages of the various other ethnic groups fluctuated in practice. Though each of the constituent republics had its own official language, the unifying role and superior status was reserved for Russian. Following the break-up of 1991, several of the newly independent states have encouraged their native languages, which has partly reversed the privileged status of Russian, though its role as the language of post-Soviet national intercourse throughout the region has continued. In Latvia, notably, its official recognition and legality in the classroom have been a topic of considerable debate in a country where more than third of the population is Russian-speaking, consisting mostly of post-World War II immigrants from Russia and other parts of the former USSR (Belarus, Ukraine). Similarly, in Estonia, the Soviet-era immigrants and their Russian-speaking descendants constitute about one quarter of the country's current population. A much smaller Russian-speaking minority in Lithuania has largely been assimilated during the decade of independence and currently represent less than 1/10 of the country's overall population. In the twentieth century it was widely taught in the schools of the members of the old Warsaw Pact and in other countries that used to be satellites of the USSR, especially in Poland, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia. However, younger generations are usually not fluent in it, because Russian is no longer mandatory in the school system. It was, and still is, widely taught in Asian countries such as Laos, Vietnam and Mongolia due to Soviet influence, and is still used as a lingua franca in Afghanistan by various tribes. Russian is also spoken in Israel by at least 750,000 ethnic Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union (1999 census). The Israeli press and websites regularly publish material in Russian. Sizeable Russian-speaking communities also exist in North America (especially in large urban centers of the US and Canada such as New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Toronto, Miami, and Chicago). In the first two of them, Russian-speaking groups total over half a million. In a number of locations they issue their own newspapers, live in their self-sufficient neighborhoods (especially the generation of immigrants who started arriving in the early sixties). It is important to note, however, that only about a quarter of them are ethnic Russians. Before the dissolution of the Soviet Union the overwhelming majority were Russian-speaking Jews. Afterwards the influx from the countries of the former Soviet Union changed the statistics somewhat. According to the United States 2000 Census, Russian was reported as language spoken at home by 1.50% of population, or about 4.2 million, placing it as #10 language in the United States. Significant Russian-speaking groups also exist in Western Europe. These have been fed by several waves of immigrants since the beginning of the twentieth century, each with its own flavour of language. Germany, Britain, Spain, France, Italy, Belgium, and Greece have significant Russian-speaking communities totaling 3 million people. Two thirds of them are actually Russian-speaking descendants of Germans, Greeks, Jews, Armenians, or Ukrainians who either repatriated after the USSR collapsed or are just looking for temporary employment. But many are well-off Russian families acquiring property and getting education. Earlier, the descendants of the Russian émigrés tended to lose the tongue of their ancestors by the third generation. Now, when the border is more open, Russian is likely to survive longer, especially when many of the emigrants visit their homelands at least once a year and also have access to Russian websites and TV channels. Recent estimates of the total number of speakers of Russian:

Official status

Russian is the official language of Russia, and an official language of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the Autonomous Republic of Crimea (Ukraine) and the unrecognized Moldovan Republic of Transnistria. It is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Education in Russian is still a popular choice for many of the both native and RSL (Russian as a second language) speakers in Russia and many of the former Soviet republics. 97% of the public school students of Russia, 75% in Belarus, 41% in Kazakhstan, 24% in Ukraine, 23% in Kyrgyzstan, 21% in Moldova, 7% in Azerbaijan, 5% in Georgia received their education only or mostly in Russian, although the corresponding percentage of ethnic Russians was 80% in Russia, 11% in Belarus, 27% in Kazakhstan, 17% in Ukraine, 9% in Kyrgyzstan, 6% in Moldova, 2% in Azerbaijan, 1.5% in Georgia.

Dialects

Despite levelling after 1900, especially in matters of vocabulary, a large number of dialects exist in Russia. Some linguists divide the dialects of the Russian language into two primary regional groupings, "Northern" and "Southern", with Moscow lying on the zone of transition between the two. Others divide the language into three groupings, Northern, Central and Southern, with Moscow lying in the Central region. Dialectology within Russia recognizes dozens of smaller-scale variants. The dialects often show distinct and non-standard features of pronunciation and intonation, vocabulary, and grammar. Some of these are relics of ancient usage now completely discarded by the standard language. Also cf. Moscow pronunciation of "-чн-", e.g. "булошная" (buloshnaya - bakery) instead of "булочная" (bulochnaya). The northern dialects typically pronounce unstressed clearly (the phenomenon called okanye оканье); the southern palatalize the final and aspirate the into . It should be noted that some of these features are also present in modern Ukrainian, indicating a linguistic continuum or strong influence one way or the other. Among the first to study Russian dialects was Lomonosov in the eighteenth century. In the nineteenth, Vladimir Dal compiled the first dictionary that included dialectal vocabulary. Detailed mapping of Russian dialects began at the turn of the twentieth century. In modern times, the monumental Dialectological Atlas of the Russian Language (Диалектологический атлас русского языка ), was published in 3 folio volumes 1986-1989, after four decades of preparatory work. The standard language is based on the Moscow dialect.

Derived languages


- Fenia or Fenka, a criminal lingo of ancient origin, with Russian grammar, but with distinct vocabulary.
- Surzhyk is a Ukrainian-Russian pidgin spoken in some rural areas of Ukraine
- Trasianka is a Belarusian-Russian mix (sort of pidgin) used by a large portion of the rural population in Belarus.
- Russenorsk is an extinct pidgin language with Russian vocabulary and Norwegian grammar, used for communication between Russians and Norwegians in Svalbard and Kola Peninsula.
- Runglish: Russian-English pidgin.

Writing system

Alphabet

Runglish publication describing the "Slavonic" language.]] Russian is written using a modified version of the Cyrillic (кириллица) alphabet, consisting of 33 letters. The following table gives their majuscule forms, along with IPA values for each letter's typical sound: Old letters that have been abolished at one time or another but occur in this and related articles include or , і , and or . The yers ъ and ь were originally pronounced as ultra-short or reduced , (conventional transcription, not IPA). For information on an informal approach on transliterating Russian into English, see the article Transliteration of Russian into English.

Orthography

Russian spelling is reasonably phonetic in practice. It is in fact a balance among phonetics, morphology, etymology, and grammar, and, like that of most living languages, has its share of inconsistencies and controversial points. The current spelling follows the major reform of 1918, and the final codification of 1956. An update proposed in the late 1990's has met a hostile reception, and has not been formally adopted. The punctuation, originally based on Byzantine Greek, was in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries reformulated on the French and German models.

Sounds

The phonological system of Russian is inherited from Common Slavonic, but underwent considerable modification in the early historical period, before being largely settled by about 1400. The language possesses five vowels, which are written with different letters depending on whether or not the preceding consonant is palatalized. The consonants typically come in plain vs. palatalized pairs, which are traditionally called hard and soft. (The 'hard' consonants are sometimes said to be velarized, but this is only the case for /l/.) The standard language, based on the Moscow dialect, possesses heavy stress and moderate variation in pitch. Stressed vowels are somewhat drawled, while unstressed vowels (except /u/) tend to be reduced to an unclear schwa. Russian syllable structure can be quite complex with both initial and final consonant clusters of up to 4 consecutive sounds. Using a formula with V standing for the nucleus (vowel) and C for each consonant the stucture can be described as follows: (C)(C)(C)(C)V(C)(C)(C)(C)

Consonants

Russian is notable for its distinction based on palatalization of most of the consonants. While /k/, /ɡ/, /x/ do have palatalized allophones , only might be considered a phoneme, though it is marginal and generally not considered distinctive. It should be noted that palatalization is a phonological concept, and not all 'soft' consonants are phonetically palatalized. The velar and labial consonants are truly palatalized, which means that the center of the tongue is raised during and after the articulation of the consonant. The coronal stops, however, are phonetically laminal. In addition, in the case of /t/ and /d/, the tongue is raised enough to produce frication, thus making affricate-like. (There is no contrast between frication and no frication, though, as /ts/ is never palatalized.) are postalveolar with a flat tongue (laminal retroflex).

Grammar

Russian has preserved an Indo-European synthetic-inflexional structure, although considerable levelling has taken place. Russian grammar encompasses
- a highly synthetic morphology
- a syntax that, for the literary language, is the conscious fusion of three elements:
  - a polished vernacular foundation;
  - a Church Slavonic inheritance;
  - a Western European style. The spoken language has been influenced by the literary, but continues to preserve characteristic forms. The dialects show various non-standard grammatical features, some of which are archaisms or descendants of old forms since discarded by the literary language.

Vocabulary

Western European See History of Russian language for an account of the successive foreign influences on the Russian language. The total number of words in Russian is difficult to reckon because of the ability to agglutinate and create manifold compounds, diminutives, etc. (see Word Formation under Russian grammar). The number of listed words or entries in some of the major dictionaries published during the last two centuries, and the total vocabulary of Pushkin, are as follows: Philologists have estimated that the language today may contain as many as 350,000 to 500,000 words. (As a historical aside, Dahl was, in the second half of the nineteenth century, still insisting that the proper spelling of the adjective русский, which was at that time applied uniformly to all the Orthodox Eastern Slavic subjects of the Empire, as well as to its one official language, be spelled руский with one s, in accordance with ancient tradition and what he termed the "spirit of the language". He was contradicted by the philologist Grot, who distinctly heard the s lengthened or doubled.)

The language of abuse and invective

Main article: Mat (language) Apparently, the ability to curse effectively has always been recognized as a form of art not only in certain quarters of society, but even by the more conservative-minded literati. For example, as far back as in the nineteenth-century naval yarns of Staniukovich, "artistic invective" (артистическая ругань ) keeps coming out of the sailors' mouths, though it is never spelled out. The ability to agglutinate has produced the so-called "three-decker curse" (трёхэтажный мат ).

Proverbs and sayings

Main article: Russian proverbs, Russian sayings Russian language is replete with many hundreds of proverbs (пословица ) and sayings (поговоркa ). These were already tabulated by the seventeenth century, and collected and studied in the nineteenth and twentieth, with the folk-tales being an especially fertile source.

History and examples

See also: Reforms of Russian orthography The history of Russian language may be divided into the following periods.
- Origins
- The Kievan period (9th-11th centuries)
- Feudal breakup (12th-14th centuries)
- The Moscovite period (15th-17th centuries)
- Empire (18th-19th centuries)
- Soviet period and beyond (20th century) See also:
- Examples of literary language (12-20th century) Judging by the historical records, by approximately 1000 AD the predominant ethnic group over much of modern European Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus was the Eastern branch of the Slavs, speaking a closely related group of dialects. The political unification of this region into Kievan Rus, from which both modern Russia and Ukraine trace their origins, was soon followed by the adoption of Christianity in 988-9 and the establishment of Old Church Slavonic as the liturgical and literary language. Borrowings and calques from Byzantine Greek began to enter the vernacular at this time, and simultaneously the literary language began to be modified in its turn to become more nearly Eastern Slavic. Dialectal differentiation accelerated after the breakup of Kievan Rus' in approximately 1100, and the Mongol conquest of the thirteenth century. After the disestablishment of the "Tartar yoke" in the late fourteenth century, both the political centre and the predominant dialect in European Russia came to be based in Moscow. There is some consensus that Russian and Ukrainian can be considered distinct languages from this period at the latest. The official language remained a kind of Church Slavonic until the close of the seventeenth century, but, despite attempts at standardization, as by Meletius Smotrytsky c. 1620, its purity was by then strongly compromised by an incipient secular literature. The political reforms of Peter the Great were accompanied by a reform of the alphabet, and achieved their goal of secularization and Westernization. Blocks of specialized vocabulary were adopted from the languages of Western Europe. By 1800, a significant portion of the gentry spoke French, less often German, on an everyday basis. The modern literary language is usually considered to date from the time of Alexander Pushkin in the first third of the nineteenth century. The political upheavals of the early twentieth century and the wholesale changes of political ideology gave written Russian its modern appearance after the spelling reform of 1918. Political circumstances and Soviet accomplishments in military, scientific, and technological matters (especially cosmonautics), gave Russian a world-wide if occasionally grudging prestige, especially during the middle third of the twentieth century. Since the collapse of 1990-91, fashion for ways and things Western, economic uncertainties and difficulties within the educational system have made for inevitable rapid change in the language. Russian today is a tongue in great flux.

References

The following serve as references for both this article and the related articles listed below that describe the Russian language:

In English


- B. Comrie, G. Stone, M. Polinsky, The Russian Language in the Twentieth Century, 2nd. ed. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1996
- W.K. Matthews, Russian Historical Grammar, London, University of London, Athlone Press, 1960
- T.R. Carleton, Introduction to the Phonological History of the Slavic Languages, Columbus, Ohio : Slavica Publishers, 1991
- A. Stender-Petersen, Anthology of old Russian literature, New York, Columbia University Press, 1954

In Russian


- Иванов В.В. Историческая грамматика русского языка. "Просвещение", М., 1990.
- Цыганенко Г. П. Этимологический словарь русского языка. Киев, 1970.
- Т. Н. Михельсон, Рассказы русских летописей XV–XVII веков. М., 1978
- Н.М. Шанский, В.В. Иванов, Т.В. Шанская. Краткий этимологический словарь русского языка. М. 1961.
- А. Шицгал, Русский гражданский шрифт, "Исскуство", Москва, 1958, 2-e изд. 1983.
- Л. П. Жуковская, отв. ред. Древнерусский литературный язык и его отношение к старославянскому. М., «Наука», 1987. Many further references are listed in the books above.

See also

Language description


- Russian alphabet
- Russian grammar
- Russian orthography
- Russian phonetics
- History of Russian language

Related languages


- East Slavic languages
- Church Slavonic language
- Great Russian language
- Old Church Slavonic language
- Old Russian language

Other


- List of Russian language topics
- List of English words of Russian origin
- Russian literature
- Russian humour
- Russian proverbs
- Reforms of Russian orthography
- Transliteration of Russian into English
- Volapuk encoding
- Non-native pronunciations of English
- List of commonly confused homonyms in Russian
- Common phrases in different languages
- Runglish

External links


- [http://www.declan-software.com/russian Russian language learning software]
- [http://www.russianlessons.net/ Online Russian language lessons]
- [http://www.dicts.info/dictlist1.php?k1=81 All free Russian dictionaries]
- [http://overstuffed-closet.net/russian The Russian Language Fanlisting]
- [http://www.speakrus.ru/dict/ Free downloadable vocabularies of the Russian language]
- [http://RusWin.net Cyrillic (Russian)]
- [http://www.masterrussian.com MasterRussian.com - vocabulary words and phrases, tips, hand-picked links]
- [http://www.ifstudio-translations.com/ Free Russian translations.]
- [http://tinyurl.com/5lhlp Vasmer's Etymological Dictionary of Russian language]
- [http://www.masterrussian.net/mforum Russian Language Forum. A large community interested in Russian]
- [http://www.gramota.ru "GRAMOTA". An educational/reference site on the Russian language, supported by the Russian government. (In Russian)]
- [http://www.lib.ru "Moshkov's library". A large collection of classical and modern Russian e-texts. (In Russian)]
- [http://www.languagehelpers.com/Russian/TheRussianAlphabet.html Russian alphabet with sound (languagehelpers.com)]
- [http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/russian/language/ Reference Grammar]
- [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/Russian-english/ Russian - English Dictionary]
- [http://www.lorem-ipsum.info/_russian Generator for Russian typographical filler text]
- [http://www.andaman.org/book/reprints/weber/rep-weber.htm G. Weber, "Top Languages"]
- [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=rus SIL Ethnologue Report for Russian]
- [http://www.linguarus.com Russian for Everybody (Self-Learning)]
- [http://www.applelanguages.com/en/learn/russian.php Russian courses]
- [http://dmoz.org/Science/Social_Sciences/Linguistics/Languages/Natural/Indo-European/Slavic/Russian/ ODP Russian Language category]
- [http://www.language-usa.com/ Russian Translation USA]
- [http://runglish1.narod.ru Runglish]
- [http://www.orlandorussians.com/ Russian Language Groups in America]
- [http://www.russki-mat.net/ Multilingual Russian slang dictionaries]
- [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/Russian-english/ Russian English Dictionary] from [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org Webster's Online Dictionary] - the Rosetta Edition Category:Languages of Belarus Category:Languages of Finland Category:Languages of Russia Category:Languages of Ukraine Category:Languages of Kazakhstan Category:Languages of Georgia Category:Languages of Armenia Category:Languages of Azerbaijan Category:Languages of Turkmenistan Category:Languages of Uzbekistan Category:Languages of Moldova Category:Languages of Tajikistan Category:Languages of Kyrgyzstan Category:Languages of Estonia Category:Languages of Latvia Category:Languages of Lithuania Category:Languages of China Category:Languages of Mongolia Category:Languages of Afghanistan Category:Languages of Bulgaria Category:Russian language Category:East Slavic languages ko:러시아어 ms:Bahasa Russia ja:ロシア語 simple:Russian language th:ภาษารัสเซีย

1895

1895 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar).

Events

January


- January 5 - Dreyfus Affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island.

February


- February 11 - The lowest ever UK temperature of -27.2°C (measured as -17°F) was recorded at Braemar in Aberdeenshire. This record was equalled in 1982.
- February 14 - First showing of Oscar Wilde's last play The Importance of Being Earnest (St. James' Theatre in London).

March


- March 1 - William L. Wilson is appointed United States Postmaster General
- March 3 - In Munich, bicyclists have to pass a test and display license plates

April


- April 6 - Oscar Wilde is arrested after losing a libel case against the Marquess of Queensberry.
- April 14 - a major earthquake severely damages Ljubljana, Slovenia.
- April 17 - The Treaty of Shimonoseki (also known as Treaty of Maguan) was signed between China and Japan. This marks the end of the first Sino-Japanese War, and the defeated Qing Empire is forced to renounce its claims on Korea and to concede the southern portion of the Fengtien province, Taiwan and the Pescadores Islands to Japan.

May


- May 25 - Playwright, poet and novelist Oscar Wilde is convicted of "sodomy and gross indecency" and sentenced to serve two years in a London prison.

June


- June 11 - Britain annexes Togoland
- June 28 - Union of Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador begins (ends in 1898).

July


- July 15 - Archie MacLaren scores County Championship record innings of 424 for Lancashire against Somerset at Taunton.

August


- August 19 - American frontier murderer and outlaw, John Wesley Hardin, is killed by an off-duty policeman in a saloon in El Paso, Texas.
- August 29 - The sport of rugby league is formed at a meeting in the George Hotel, Huddersfield, England.

September


- September 3 - The first professional football game is played, in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, between the Latrobe YMCA and the Jeannette Athletic Club. (Latrobe won the contest 12-0.).
- September 18 - Booker T. Washington delivers the Atlanta Compromise Speech.

November


- November 5 - George B. Selden is granted the first U.S. patent for an automobile.
- November 8 - Wilhelm Röntgen discovers a type of radiation later known as X-rays.
- November 27 - At the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris, Alfred Nobel signs his last will and testament, setting aside his estate to establish the Nobel Prize after he dies (he died of a cerebral hemorrhage on December 10, 1896).

December


- December 28 - Auguste and Louis Lumiere display their first moving picture film in Paris

Unknown date


- Dundela FC were formed in Belfast, Northern Ireland
- Konstantin Tsiolkovsky proposes a space elevator
- Most recent major earthquake in the New Madrid Fault Zone
- Grace Chisholm Young, the first woman awarded a doctorate at a German university
- W.E.B. Du Bois becomes the first African American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard University
- Duck Reach Power Station opens

Births

January-March


- January 1 - J. Edgar Hoover, American Federal Bureau of Investigation director (d. 1972)
- January 15 - Artturi Ilmari Virtanen, Finnish chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1973)
- January 21 - Cristobal Balenciaga, Spanish-French couturier (d. 1972)
- January 24 - Eugen Roth, German writer (d. 1976)
- January 30 - Wilhelm Gustloff, German-born Swiss Nazi party leader( d. 1936)
- February 2 - George Halas, American football player, coach, and co-founder of the National Football League (d. 1983)
- February 6 - Babe Ruth, baseball player (d. 1948)
- February 14 - Max Horkheimer, German philosopher and sociologist (d. 1973)
- February 15 - Earl Thomson, Canadian athlete (d. 1971)
- February 21 - Carl Peter Henrik Dam, Danish biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1976)
- March 3 - Ragnar Anton Kittil Frisch, Norwegian economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1973)
- March 3 - Matthew Ridgway, Commander of NATO, United States Army Chief of Staff (d. 1993)
- March 12 - William C. Lee, U.S. general (d. 1948)
- March 17 - Shemp Howard, American actor and comedian (d. 1955)
- March 20 - Robert Benoist, French race car driver and war hero (d. 1944)
- March 29 - Ernst Jünger, German author (d. 1998)

April-June


- April 1 - Alberta Hunter, American singer (d. 1984)
- April 3 - Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Italian composer (d. 1968)
- April 9 - Mance Lipscomb, American singer (d. 1976)
- April 15 - Clark McConachy, New Zealand snooker and billiards player (d. 1980)
- April 20 - Emile Christian, American musician (d. 1973)
- April 28 - Spencer W. Kimball, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1985)
- April 29 - Malcolm Sargent, English conductor (d. 1967)
- May 6 - Rodolfo Valentino, Italian actor (d. 1926)
- May 8 - Fulton J. Sheen, American Catholic archbishop and television personality (d. 1979)
- May 12 - William Giauque, Canadian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1982)
- May 15 - William D. Byron, U.S. Congressman (d. 1941)
- May 30 - Nikolai Bulganin, Premier of the Soviet Union (d. 1975)
- May 30 - Maurice Tate, English cricketer (d. 1956)
- June 10 - Hattie McDaniel, American actress (d. 1952)

July-September


- July 8 - Igor Tamm, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1971)
- July 10 - Carl Orff, German composer (d. 1982)
- July 12 - Kirstin Flagstad, Norwegian soprano (d. 1982)
- July 12 - Buckminster Fuller, American architect (d. 1983)
- July 24 - Robert Graves, English writer (d. 1985)
- July 25 - Yvonne Printemps, French singer and actress (d. 1977)
- August 16 - Liane Haid, Austrian actress (d. 2000)
- September 7 - Sir Brian Horrocks, British general (d. 1985)
- September 11 - Vinoba Bhave, Indian religious leader (d. 1982)
- September 24 - André Frédéric Cournand, French-born physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1988)
- September 29 - J.B. Rhine, American parapsychologist (d. 1980)

October-December


- October 2 - Bud Abbott, American actor (d. 1974)
- October 4 - Buster Keaton, American actor and film director (d. 1966)
- October 8 - King Zog of Albania (d. 1961)
- October 19 - Lewis Mumford, American historian (d. 1990)
- October 21 - Edna Purviance, actress (d. 1958)
- October 22 - Rolf Nevanlinna, Finnish mathematician (d. 1980)
- October 25 - Levi Eshkol, Prime Minister of Israel (d. 1969)
- October 30 - Gerhard Domagk, German bacteriologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (declined) (d. 1964)
- October 30 - Dickinson W. Richards, American physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1973)
- October 31 - Basil Liddell Hart, military historian (d. 1970)
- November 5 - Walter Gieseking, German pianist (d. 1956)
- November 15 - Antoni Słonimski, Polish poet and writer (d. 1976)
- November 16 - Paul Hindemith, German composer (d. 1963)
- November 25 - Wilhelm Kempff, German pianist (d. 1991)
- November 29 - Busby Berkeley, American film director and choreographer (d. 1976)
- December 2 - Harriet Cohen, English pianist (d. 1967)
- December 14 - Paul Eluard, French poet (d. 1952)
- December 14 - King George VI of the United Kingdom (d. 1952)
- Tuanku Abdul Rahman ibni Almarhum Tuanku Muhammad, King of Malaysia (d. 1960)

Deaths


- January 9 - Aaron Lufkin Dennison, American watchmaker (b. 1812)
- January 10 - Benjamin Godard, French composer (b. 1849)
- February 2 - Archduke Albert, Austrian general (b. 1817)
- February 20 - Frederick Douglass, American ex-slave and author (b. 1818)
- March 2 - Berthe Morisot, French painter (b. 1841)
- March 10 - Charles Frederick Worth, English-born couturier (b. 1826)
- May 19 - José Martí, Cuban independence leader (b. 1853)
- May 21 - Franz von Suppé, Austrian composer (b. 1819)
- June 29 - Sir Thomas Henry Huxley, English biologist (b. 1825)
- August 5 - Friedrich Engels, German socialist philosopher (b. 1820)
- August 22 - Luzon B. Morris, American politician (b. 1827)
- September 28 - Louis Pasteur, French microbiologist and chemist (b. 1822)
- October 8 - Empress Myeongseong (Queen Min), last Korean empress (b. 1851)
- October 25 - Charles Hallé, German-born pianist and conductor (b. 1819)
- November 27 - Alexandre Dumas, fils, French author and playwright (b. 1824)

Date unknown


- Green Clay Smith, American politician (b. 1826). Category:1895 ko:1895년 ms:1895 simple:1895 th:พ.ศ. 2438

1913

1913 (MCMXIII) is a common year starting on Wednesday. (click on link for calendar)

Events

January-March


- January 30 - House of Lords rejects Irish Home Rule Bill
- February 1 - New York City's Grand Central Terminal opens as the world's largest train station.
- February 3 - The 16th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified authorizing the Federal government to impose and collect income tax.
- February 3 - Trial of the remnants of the Bonnot gang begins.
- February 17 - The Armory Show opens in New York City. It displays works of artists who are to become some of the most influential painters of the early 20th century
- February 27 - Freezing weather stops everything in Balkans
- March - Outpouring of monarchist sentiment in Russia when the House of Romanov celebrate the 300th anniversary of their succession to the throne
- March 4 - End of term for President of the United States William Howard Taft. He is succeeded by Thomas Woodrow Wilson.
- March 12 - Canberra becomes the federal capital of Australia
- March 13 - Mexican Revolution - Pancho Villa returns to Mexico from his self-imposed exile in USA
- March 18 - George I of Greece is assassinated.
- March 20 - Sung Chiao-jen, a founder of the Chinese nationalist party (KMT) is wounded in an assassination attempt and dies 2 days after.
- March 25 - Venustiano Carranza announces his Plan of Guadaloupe and begins his rebellion against Victoriano Huerta's government as the head of "Constitutionals"
- March 26 - Balkan War: Bulgarian forces take Adrianople.

April-August


- April 8 - Passing of the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, dictating the direct election of senators.
- April 24 - Woolworth Building opening ceremony.
- May 13 - Igor Sikorsky becomes the first person to pilot a four engine aircraft.
- May 14 - New York Governor William Sulzer approves the charter for the Rockefeller Foundation which begins operations with a $100,000,000 donation from John D. Rockefeller.
- May 29 - Igor Stravinsky's ballet score The Rite of Spring is premiered in Paris
- May 30 - First Balkan War: A peace treaty is signed in London ending the war.
- June - First edition of the Christian Esoteric magazine Rays from the Rose Cross in the United States; still issued bimonthly till today.
- June 4 - Emily Davison, a suffragette, runs out in front of the king's horse, Anmer, at the Epsom Derby. She is trampled and dies a few days later, never having regained consciousness.
- June 15 - Bud Bagsak Massacre: US troops under General John 'Black Jack' Pershing kill at least 2,000 relatively defenceless men, women and children, Bud Bagsak, Philippines.
- June 24 - Joseph Cook becomes the 6th Prime Minister of Australia.
- July 3 - Commemeration of the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg draws thousands of United States Civil War veterans and their families to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
- July 10 - Death Valley, California hits 134 °F (~56.7 °C) which is the highest temperature recorded in the United States (as of 2004).
- August 4 - In China, province of Chungking declares independence. Chinese republican forces crush the rebellion in a couple of weeks
- August 13 - Invention of stainless steel by Harry Brearley in Sheffield.
- August 15 - Start of Dublin Lockout, all trade union members dismissed
- August 20 - 700 feet above Buc, France, parachutist Adolphe Pegond becomes the first person to jump from an airplane and land safely.

September-December


- September 23 - French aviator Roland Garros flies over the Mediterranean
- September 29 - Rudolf Diesel disappears en route to Britain
- September 29 - Pancho Villa is elected commander of the "Northern Division" of the Constitutionals
- October 1 - Villa's troops take Torreon after a three-day battle when government troops retreat
- October 10 - US President Woodrow Wilson triggers the explosion of the Gamboa Dike thus ending construction on the Panama Canal.
- October 19 - Founding of the DLRG (German Life Saving Society)
- November 5 - The insane king Otto of Bavaria is deposed by his cousin, Prince Regent Ludwig, who assumed the title Ludwig III.
- November 6 - Mohandas Gandhi is arrested while leading a march of Indian miners in South Africa.
- November 7- November 12 - The Great Lakes Storm of 1913 kills over 250.
- December 1 - Ford Motor Company introduces the first moving assembly line, reducing chassis assembly time from 12½ hours in October to 2 hours, 40 minutes (although Ford was not the first to use an assembly line, his successful adoption of one did spark an era of mass production).
- December 1 - Greece annexes Crete
- December 12 - Emperor of Ethiopia Menelik II dies and is succeeded by his grandson Iyasu V of Ethiopia.
- December 12 - Vincencio Peruggia tries to sell Mona Lisa in the Florence and is arrested
- December 30 - Italy returns Mona Lisa to France
- December 23 - Federal Reserve is created Woodrow Wilson

Unknown Dates


- Female suffrage in Norway
- British steamship Calvadas disappears in the Marmora Sea with 200 hands
- First crossword puzzle appears in the World newspaper
- Black Chamber, forerunner of NSA, founded
- de Sitter: speed of light is independent of speed of source
- Sagnac: speed of light depends on speed of rotating platform
- Painting September Morn creates a national sensation in U.S.
- Camel Cigarettes were introduced
- Ela Hockaday founds The Hockaday School
- First publication of Journal of Ecology
- National Temperance Council founded to promote temperance movement

Births

January-February


- January 2 - Anna Lee, English actress (d. 2004)
- January 6 - Edward Gierek Polish polititian, (d. 2001)
- January 6 - Loretta Young, American actress (d. 2000)
- January 9 - Richard M. Nixon, President of the United States (d. 1994)
- January 15 - Lloyd Bridges, American actor (d. 1998)
- January 18 - Danny Kaye, American actor (d. 1987)
- January 22 - Carl F. H. Henry, American theologian and publisher (d. 2003)
- January 24 - Norman Dello Joio, American composer
- January 25 - Witold Lutosławski, Polish composer (d. 1994)
- January 29 - Peter von Zahn, German journalist and writer (d. 2001)
- February 2 - Poul Reichhardt, Danish actor (d. 1985)
- February 4 - Rosa Parks, American civil rights activist (d. 2005)
- February 6 - Mary Leakey, British anthropologist (d. 1996)
- February 13 - George Barker, British poet (d. 1991)
- February 14 - Mel Allen, American sports reporter (d. 1996)
- February 14 - Jimmy Hoffa, American labor leader (disappeared) (d. 1975)
- February 25 - Jim Backus, American actor (d. 1989)
- February 25 - Gert Fröbe, German actor (d. 1988)
- February 27 - Paul Ricoeur, French philosopher (d. 2005)
- February 27 - Irwin Shaw, American writer (d. 1984)

March-June


- March 1 - Richard S.R. Fitter, British writer (d. 2005)
- March 4 - John Garfield, American actor (d. 1952)
- March 13 - William Casey, American Central Intelligence Agency director (d. 1987)
- March 13 - Sergey Mikhalkov, Russian writer and lyricist
- March 18 - René Clément, French film director (d. 1996)
- March 21 - George Abecassis, English race car driver (d. 1991)
- March 29 - R. S. Thomas, Welsh poet (d. 2000)
- March 30 - Richard Helms, American Central Intelligence Agency director (d. 2002)
- March 30 - Frankie Laine, American singer
- April 3 - Per Borten, Premier of Norway (d. 2005)
- April 27 - Philip Hauge Abelson, American physicist, writer, and editor (d. 2004)
- May 1 - Louis Nye, American comedian and actor (d. 2005)
- May 1 - Walter Susskind, Czech conductor (d. 1980)
- May 8 - Saima Harmaja, Finnish poet (d. 1937)
- May 11 - Robert Jungk, Austrian journalist (d. 1994)
- May 13 - William R. Tolbert, Jr., Liberian president (d. 1980)
- May 16 - Woody Herman, American musician and band leader (d. 1987)
- May 20 - William Hewlett, American businessman (d. 2001)
- May 26 - Peter Cushing, English actor (d. 1994)
- May 29 - Tony Zale, American boxer (d. 1997)
- June 10 - Tikhon Khrennikov, Russian composer
- June 11 - Vince Lombardi, American football coach (d. 1970)
- June 18 - Robert Mondavi, American wine maker
- June 25 - Cyril Fletcher, British comedian (d. 2005)
- June 28 - Franz Antel, Austrian filmmaker

July-October


- July 12 - Willis Lamb, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- July 14 - Gerald Ford, 38th President of the United States
- July 18 - Red Skelton, American comedian (d. 1997)
- July 22 - Gorni Kramer, Italian bandleader and songwriter (d. 1995)
- August 8 - John Facenda, American broadcaster and sports announcer (d. 1984)
- August 10 - Wolfgang Paul, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1993)
- August 16 - Menachem Begin, Prime Minister of Israel, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1992)
- August 17 - Rudy York, baseball player (d. 1970)
- August 19 - Richard Simmons, American actor (d. 2003)
- August 20 - Roger Wolcott Sperry, American neurobiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1994)
- August 28 - Robertson Davies, Canadian novelist (d. 1995)
- August 28 - Richard Tucker, American tenor (d. 1975)
- August 30 - Richard Stone, British economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1991)
- September 4 - Stanford Moore, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1982)
- September 5 - Frank Thomas, American animator (d. 2004)
- September 12 - Jesse Owens, American athlete (d. 1980)
- September 14 - Jacobo Arbenz, President of Guatemala (d. 1971)
- September 15 - John N. Mitchell, United States Attorney General and convicted Watergate criminal (d. 1988)
- September 19 - Frances Farmer, American actress (d. 1970)
- September 29 - Trevor Howard, English actor (d. 1988)
- September 29 - Stanley Kramer, American film producer, director, and writer (d. 2001)
- September 29 - Silvio Piola, Italian footballer (d. 1996)
- September 30 - Bill Walsh, American movie producer and writer (d. 1975)
- October 10 - Claude Simon, French writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2005)

November-December


- November 2 - Burt Lancaster, American actor (d. 1994)
- November 5 - Vivien Leigh, British actress (d. 1967)
- November 7 - Albert Camus, French writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1960)
- November 9 - Hedy Lamarr, Austrian actress (d. 2000)
- November 10 - Álvaro Cunhal, Portuguese politician (d. 2005)
- November 13 - Alexander Scourby, American actor (d. 1985)
- November 15 - Arthur Haulot, Belgian journalist (d. 2005)
- November 21 - John Boulting, English film director (d.1985)
- November 21 - Roy Boulting, English film director and producer (d. 2001)
- November 22 - Benjamin Britten, English composer (d. 1976)
- December 6 - Eleanor Holm, American swimmer (d. 2004)
- December 10 - Morton Gould, American composer (d. 1996)
- December 18 - Alfred Bester, American author (d. 1987)
- December 18 - Willy Brandt, Chancellor of Germany, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1992)

Deaths


- January 1 - Alfred von Schlieffen, German field marshal (b. 1833)
- January 2 - Léon Teisserenc de Bort, French meteorologist (b. 1855)
- February 26 - Felix Draeseke, German composer (b. 1835)
- March 10 - Harriet Tubman, American anti-slavery activist (b. 1820)
- March 22 - Sung Chiao-jen, Chinese revolutionary (b. 1882)
- March 31 - J.P.Morgan, American financier and banker (b. 1837)
- June 5 - Chris von der Ahe, German-born brewer and baseball owner
- July 3 - Horatio Nelson Young, American naval hero (b. 1845)
- July 29 - Tobias Michael Carel Asser, Dutch jurist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1838)
- October 5 - Hans von Bartels, German painter (b. 1856)
- November 7 - Alfred Russel Wallace, Welsh biologist (b. 1823)
- December 12 - Menelik II, Emperor of Ethiopia (b. 1844)

Month/day unknown


- John S. Billings, M.D., American military and medical leader (b. 1838)

Nobel Prizes


- Physics - Heike Kamerlingh-Onnes
- Chemistry - Alfred Werner
- Medicine - Charles Robert Richet
- Literature - Rabindranath Tagore
- Peace - Henri La Fontaine Category:1913 ko:1913년 ms:1913 ja:1913年 simple:1913 th:พ.ศ. 2456

Tiflis

Tbilisi (Georgian თბილისი) — is the capital city of the country Georgia, located on the shore of Kura (Mtkvari) river, at . Tbilisi is also known by its former Turkish name Tiflis. The city covers an area of 350 km² (135 square miles) and has more than 1.345 million inhabitants. Tbilisi is a significant industrial, social, and a cultural center and is emerging as a major transit route for global energy/trade projects (see Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline). The city is located along one of the historic Silk Road routes and plays an important role as a trade/transit center due to its strategic location at the crossroads between Russia's North Caucasus, Turkey, and the Transcaucasian republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan. In recent times, Tbilisi is known for the peaceful Rose Revolution which took place around the city's Freedom Square and nearby locations, after falsified parliamentary elections of 2003 led to the resignation of the Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze.

History

Eduard Shevardnadze

Early History

According to an old legend, the present-day territory of Tbilisi was covered by forests as late as the 5th century A.D. One widely accepted variant of the legend of Tbilisi's founding states that King Vakhtang I Gorgasali of Georgia went hunting in the heavily forested region with a falcon (sometimes the falcon is either substituted by a hawk or other small birds of prey in the legend). The King's falcon allegedly caught/injured a pheasant during the hunt, after which both birds fell into a nearby hot spring and died (from the burns received in the hot water). King Gorgasali became so impressed with the hot springs that he decided to cut down the forest and build a city on the location. The name "Tbilisi" derives from the Old Georgian word "Tpili", meaning warm. The name "Tbili" or "Tbilisi" (warm location) therefore was given to the city because of the area's numerous sulfuric hot springs that came out of the ground. Archaelogical studies of the region have revealed that the territory of Tbilisi was settled by humans as early as the 4th millennium B.C. The earliest actual (recorded) accounts of settlement of the location come from the second half of the 4th century A.D, when a fortress was built during King Varaz-Bakur's reign. Towards the end of the 4th century the fortress fell into the hands of the Persians after which the location fell back into the hands of the Kings of Kartli (Georgia) by the middle of the 5th century A.D. King Vakhtang I Gorgasali who is largely credited for founding Tbilisi (Gorgasali reigned in the middle and latter halfs of the 5th century) was actually responsible for reviving and building up the city and not founding it. The present-day location of the area which Gorgasali seems to have built up is spread out around the Metechi Square (Abanot-Ubani District).

Tbilisi Turns into a Capital

King Dachi I Ujarmeli (beginning of the 6th century A.D.) , who was the successor of Vakhtang I Gorgasali, moved the capital from Mtskheta to Tbilisi according to the will left by his father. It must be mentioned that Tbilisi was not the capital of a unified Georgian state at that time (therefore did not include the territory of Colchis) and was only the capital of Eastern Georgia/Iberia. During his reign, King Ujarmeli was also responsible for finishing the construction of the fortress wall that lined the city's new boundaries. Beginning from the 6th century, Tbilisi started to grow at a steady pace due to the region's favorable and strategic location which placed the city along important trade and travel routes between Europe and Asia. Asia

Foreign Domination

Tbilisi's favorable and strategic location did not necessarily bode well for Tbilisi's existence as Eastern Georgia’s/Iberia's Capital. Located strategically in the heart of the Caucasus between Europe and Asia, Tbilisi became an object of rivalry between the region's various powers such as Persia, The Byzantine Empire, Arabia, and the Seljuk Turks. The cultural development of the city was therefore heavily dependent on who ruled the city at various times. Even though Tbilisi (and Eastern Georgia in general) was able to maintain a certain degree of autonomy from its conquerors, the foreign domination of the city began in the latter half of the 6th century and lasted well into the 10th century A.D. From 570-580 A.D., the Persians took over Tbilisi and ruled it for about a decade. In the year 627 A.D., Tbilisi was sacked by the Byzantine/Khazar armies and later from 736-738, Arab armies entered the town under Marvan II Ibn-Muhammad. After this point, the Arabs established an Emirate in Tbilisi. It must be noted that the Arab domination brought a certain order to the region and introduced a more formal/modernized judicial system into Georgia. In 764, Tbilisi was once again sacked by the Khazars, which was still under Arab control. In the year 853 A.D., the armies of Arab leader Bugha Turk (Bugha the Turk) invaded Tbilisi in order to establish a Caliphate. The Arab domination of Tbilisi continued until about 1050 A.D, due to the fact that local Georgians were unsuccessful in their drive to expel the Arabs. In 1068, the city was once again sacked, only this time by the Seljuk Turks under Sultan Alf-Arslan.

Tbilisi as the Capital of a Unified Georgian State and the Georgian Renaissance

In 1122, after heavy fighting with the Seljuks that involved at least 60,000 Georgians and up to 300,000 Turks, the troops of the King of Georgia David the Builder entered Tbilisi. After the battles for Tbilisi concluded, David moved his residence from Kutaisi (Western Georgia) to Tbilisi, making it the capital of a unified Georgian State. From 12-13th centuries, Tbilisi became a dominant regional power with a thriving economy (with well-developed trade and skilled labor) and a well-established social system/structure. By the end of the 12th century (A.D.), the population of Tbilisi had reached 80,000. The city also became an important literary and a cultural center not only for Georgia but for the larger civilized world as well. During Queen Tamar's reign, Shota Rustaveli worked in Tbilisi while writing his legendary epic poem, "The Knight in Panther’s Skin". This period is widely known as "Georgia's Golden Age" or the Georgian Renaissance.

Mongol Domination and the following Period of Instability

Renaissance Tbilisi's "Golden Age" did not last for more than a century. In 1236 A.D., after suffering crushing defeats to the Mongols, Georgia came under Mongol domination. The nation itself maintained a form of semi-independence and did not lose its statehood, but Tbilisi was strongly influenced by the Mongols for the next century both politically and culturally. In the 1320's, the Mongols were forcefully expelled from Georgia and Tbilisi became the capital of an independent Georgian state once again. An outbreak of the plague struck the city in 1366. From the late 14th until the end of the 18th century, Tbilisi came under the rule of various foreign invaders once again and on several occasions was completely burnt to the ground. In 1386, Tbilisi was invaded by the armies of Tamerlane (Timur). In 1444, the city was invaded and destroyed by Jahan Shah (the Shah of the town of Tabriz in Persia). From 1477 to 1478 the city was held by the Ak Koyunlu tribesmen of Uzun Hassan. In 1522 A.D., Tbilisi came under Persian control but was later freed in 1524 by King David X of Georgia. During this period, many parts of Tbilisi were reconstructed and rebuilt. From the 17-18th centuries, Tbilisi once again became the object of rivalry only this time between the Ottoman Turks and Persia. King Erekle of Georgia tried on several occasions, successfully, to free Tbilisi from Persian rule but in the end Tbilisi was burnt to the ground in 1795 by Shah Agha-Mohammad Khan. At this point, sensing that Georgia could not hold up against Persia alone, Erekle sought the help of Russia. Russia

Tbilisi Under Russian Control

Russia In 1801, after the Georgian kingdom of Kartl-Kakheti joined the Russian Empire, Tbilisi became the center of the Tbilisi Governance (Gubernia). From the beginning of the 19th century Tbilisi started to grow economically and politically. New buildings mainly of European style were erected throghout the town. New roads and railroads were built to connect Tbilisi to other important cities in Russia and other parts of the Transcaucasus (locally) such as Batumi, Poti, Baku, and Yerevan. By the 1850's Tbilisi once again emerged as a major trade and a cultural center. The likes of Ilia Chavchavadze, Akaki Tsereteli, Iakob Gogebashvili, Alexander Griboedov and many other statesmen, poets, and artists all found their home in Tbilisi. The city was visited on numerous occasions by and was the object of affection of Alexander Pushkin, Leo Tolstoy, Mikhail Lermontov, the Romanov Family and others. The Romanov Family established their residence (in Transcaucasia) on Golovin Street (Present-day Rustaveli Avenue). Throughout the century, the political, economic and cultural role of Tbilisi with its ethnic, confessional and cultural diversity was significant not only for Georgia but for the whole Caucasus. Hence, Tbilisi took on a different look. It acquired different architectural monuments and the attributes of an international city, as well as its own urban folklore and language, and the specific Tbilisuri (literally, belonging to Tbilisi) culture. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, Tbilisi became the capital of an independent Georgia.

Independence: 1918–1921

Georgia After the Russian Revolution of 1917, the city served as a location of the Transcaucasus interim government which established, in the spring of 1918, the short-lived independent Transcaucasian Federation with the capital in Tbilisi. It was here, in the former Caucasus Vice royal Palace, where the independence of three Transcaucasian nations – Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan – was declared on May 26 to 28 1918. Since then, Tbilisi functioned as the capital of the Democratic Republic of Georgia until February 25 1921. From 1918 to 1919 the city was also a home to the German and British military headquarters consecutively. Under the national government, Tbilisi turned into the first Caucasian University City after the Tbilisi State University was founded in 1918, a long-time dream of the Georgians banned by the Imperial Russian authorities for several decades. On 25 February 1925, the Bolshevist Russian 11th Red Army entered Tbilisi after a bitter fighting at the outskirts of the city and declared a Soviet rule.

Under Communist Rule

In 1921, the Democratic Republic of Georgia was occupied by the Soviet Bolshevik forces from Russia and until 1991, Tbilisi functioned first as the capital city of the Transcaucasian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic (which included Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia), and later as the capital of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic. During the Soviet rule, Tbilisi's population grew significantly and the city became more industrialized. The city was one of the most important political, social, and cultural centers of the Soviet Union along with Moscow, Kiev, and St. Petersburg. Tbilisi witnessed mass anti-Soviet demonstrations in 1956, 1978 and 1989, concluded with bloody crackdowns on the first and the last occasions.

After the Break-Up of the Soviet Union

Since the break-up of the Soviet Union, Tbilisi has experienced periods of significant instability and turmoil. After a brief Civil War which the city endured for two weeks from December 1991 – January 1992 (when pro-Gamsakhurdia and Opposition forces clashed with each other), Tbilisi became the scene of frequent armed confronations between various mafia clans and illegal business entrepreneurs. Even during the Shevardnadze Era (1993-2003), crime and corruption became rampant at most levels of society. Many segments of society became impoverished due to a lack of employment which was caused by the crumbling economy. Average citizens of Tbilisi started to become increasingly disillusioned with the existing quality of life in the city (and in the nation in general). Mass protests took place in November of 2003 after falsified parliamentary elections forced more than 100,000 people into the streets and concluded with the Rose Revolution. Since 2003, Tbilisi has experienced considerably more stability, decreasing crime rates, improving economy, and a booming tourist industry similar to (if not more than) what the city experienced during the Soviet times.

Geography

Soviet Tbilisi is located in Eastern Georgia within the Tbilisi Depression along both banks of the Kura (Mtkvari) River. The elevation of the city ranges from 380-600 meters above sea level (1246-1968 feet). To the north, Tbilisi is bounded by the Saguramo Range, to the east and south-east by the Iori Plain, to the south and west by various endings (sub-ranges) of the Trialeti Range. The relief of Tbilisi is quite complex. The part of the city which lies on the left bank of the Mtkvari (Kura) River extends for more than 30km (19 miles) from the Avchala District to River Lochini. The part of the city which lies on the right side of the Mtkvari River on the other hand is built along the foothills of the