Republic of Abkhazia

Republic of Abkhazia Аԥсны Аҳәынҭқарра Республика Абхазия
Flag Coat of arms
Capital and largest city	Sukhumi
Official languages	Abkhazian Russian
Area
• Total	3,900 km²
Population
• 2020 census	244,926

Abkhazia, officially the Republic of Abkhazia, is a partially recognized state in the Caucasus, in the northwestern part of Georgia on the Black Sea coast. It was an autonomous oblast in the Georgian SSR until 1990, when it declared independence. Abkhazia is 8,700 km long and its capital is Sukhumi.

History

Early history

The territory of the present day Abkhazia was already inhabited by humans in the Paleolithic period. The Paleolithic sites of Abkhazia are recognized as one of the most ancient settlements of the Stone Age in the former Soviet Union. Highly developed forms and techniques of the bronze Koban culture and numerous other archeological finds testify to the development of agriculture and animal husbandry among the local population, as well as to the allocation of metallurgy craft into an independent branch of production. Bagrat united Georgia and Abkhazia in 1008.

Political disintegration of Georgia at the turn of the 15-16th centuries led to the separation of the Abkhazian principality led by the ruling house of Shervashidze. In the feudal struggle against the Dteilian ruling princes of Dadiyash the Abkhazian princes at the beginning had a clear success, moving the borders of their principality from the Kodor River to the Inguri River during the 18th century.^{[citation needed]}

Ottoman rule

The Turkish rule, which was established in Abkhazia itself in the 17th and 18th centuries. was the darkest period in its history. Turkish dominance was accompanied by a severe economic and cultural decline of Abkhazia, which turned back to primitive times in the field of foreign trade, which took the form of an exclusively natural exchange, and the main subject of export became prisoners. The slave trade, intensively cultivated by the Turks, depleted the country, which was churning out many thousands of men, women and children. The main stronghold of Turkish aggression was the ancient city of Tskhumi (Sukhumi), captured by the Turks.

The Turks forcibly imposed Islam and the Turkish language on the population. The majority of the Abkhaz, however, explicitly or implicitly professed Christianity and were united in a single church organization with the whole of Western Georgia. At this time, the Abkhaz principality was involved in an all-Georgian feudal struggle. The Turkish rule in Abkhazia caused frequent violent uprisings of the Abkhaz people against the invaders. There were rebellions in 1725, 1728, 1733, 1771 and other years. At that time Abkhazians acted together with the brotherly Georgian people. Russian Cossacks helped them in their struggle against the Turkish yoke.^{[citation needed]}

Russian rule

The threat of enslavement by the Sultan Turkish encouraged the rulers of Abkhazia to seek help and protection of Russia, following the example of the Georgian tsars. As far back as 1770 the Abkhazian ruler Zurab Shervashidze had been negotiating with the Russian expeditionary force sent to Russia by Catherine II. Levan's successor Kelesh-bey Shernashidze was also a supporter of the Russian orientation. Immediately after the annexation of Mingrelia bordering Russia (1804) he communicated with the Russian command, expressing his desire to become a subject of Russia. In response to this move the Turkish squadron of attacked Sukhumi. However, 25 thousand men were gathered into the militia and seized the Sukhumi fortress and repulsed the attack (1806). Then the sultan's agents organized a conspiracy and in 1808 Kelesh-bey was killed by the conspirators who captured Sukhumi fortress which was given to the Turks. His son Sefer-bey Shervashidze asked for help from the Russian nobility and was recognized by it as the last prince of the Abkhazian possessions under the patronage of Russia (1810). A year later a Russian landing party knocked the Turks out of the Sukhumi fortress and occupied it. Turkey, unwilling to accept the passing of Abkhazia to the Russian protectorate, on several occasions (1813, 1821, 1824) tried to capture Sukhumi but was unsuccessful.

Military assistance from Russia saved Abkhazia from the threat of absorption by the Sultan's Turkey and created the preconditions for the expansion of the economic ties with the neighboring districts of Zanzibar, Georgia and the Black Sea ports of Russia. In 1832, a customs outpost was established in Ukhumi, and a trading port was opened in 1846. At the same time, the drying of swamps in the vicinity of the city began, a botanical garden was arranged, measures were taken to improve local viticulture. Armenia was drawn more and more into market ties. Tsarism, which, relying on the local feudal nobility, consolidated and expanded its exploitative rights. In 1846, the Abkhaz ruler Mikhail, with the approval of the tsarist government, officially announced the established the "nobility's police" to deal with recalcitrant serfs.

While opposing the military-feudal methods of the policy of tsarism and the arbitrariness of the landlords, the Abkhaz people at the same time saw in Russia a powerful ally in the struggle against the Turkish invaders. During the Russo-Turkish War of 1828-29, a detachment of the Abkhazian cavalry took part as part of the Georgian militia.^{[citation needed]}

Soviet era

Georgia, including Abkhazia, broke away from Russia after the February Revolution and became a German puppet state until being liberated by the Red Army in 1921. In 1989, 30,000 people gathered in Sukhumi in an effort to make Abkhazia its own Soviet republic instead of being an ASSR of Georgia. In 1990, the Supreme Soviet of Abkhazia declared supremacy of Abkhaz laws over Georgian laws. While the rest of Georgia boycotted the 1991 Soviet referendum, 98.5% of the Abkhaz population voted to stay part of the Soviet Union.

Capitalist era

Abkhazia officially declared independence from Georgia in July 1992. Georgia responded by sending national guard units of mafia members and former prisoners to attack Abkhazia.

Geography

Abkhazia is mostly located on the southern spurs of the Main Caucasus Range and in smaller parts on the low-lying coast of the Black Sea. The lowland coast stretches as a strip of unequal width, bridged by mountain spurs. Farther from the sea lowlands (especially on the east coast) turns into hilly foothills. The east is narrow and reaches a considerable width in the South-Eastern part. The Great Caucasus Range stretches along the northern boundary of the Republic in the form of an inexhaustible curtain wall which reaches 3,300-4,000 m. The Main Caucasian Range reaches 3,300-4,000 m. Its peaks are covered with eternal snows and glaciers.

In Abkhazia we can distinguish areas: a humid subtropical climate in the lowlands and mountain slopes up to 500-600 m altitude (winter in the higher parts is relatively colder), a moderately cold climate - up to a height of 2,000 m, cold climate - at an altitude of 2,000-3,000 m; still higher - a climate of eternal snow.

All Abkhazian rivers belong to the Black Sea basin. They are fast mountain rivers, which flow in narrow gorges, often with steep slopes. The largest of them are Bzyb (100 km) and Kodori. Of the lakes, the most interesting are the mountain lakes, such as Ritsa and Smaller Ritsa. The lake Rina is one of the most beautiful places of the republic and attracts many tourists and excursionists.

Subtropical podzols and their varieties with different degrees of podzolization are widespread in the eastern and piedmont parts. Red soils and yellow soils occupy some small areas of foothills. Above yellow and red soils there is a zone of lightly asolized brown mountain forest soils. A large area in the same zone is occupied by low carbonate-rich soils. At about 700-1,900 m begins a zone of mountain-meadow soils typical for the subalpine zone, to be replaced in places at an altitude of 2,300-2,500 m by mountain-meadow peaty soils of the alpine zone. Swampy soils occur in the southern part of the coastal strip.

The rich flora of A. contains 2,000 plant species, of which 367 are endemic to Western Georgia. In the forests of A. there are: bear, wild cat, lynx, wood marten, roe deer; in the lowlands - jackal. Among reptiles - the red viper, various types of lizards, and among amphibians - frogs (a number of species), the Asia Minor newt.^{[citation needed]}