"Warm spring" - this is how the name of the Georgian capital is translated. Tiflis is modern Tbilisi, a city with more than a million inhabitants and a history of 1500 years.
Ancient history of the city
A very interesting legend is connected with the foundation of old Tiflis. It is believed that back in the 5th century, during the reign of King Vakhtang Gorgasali, the hills on the banks of the Kura were covered with impenetrable forests. It was in these forests that the Georgian king hunted, having shot a pheasant, which, being wounded, fell into a thermal spring and boiled. After this incident, the king ordered the founding of the city of Tiflis in Georgia, whose name translates as "warm spring".
This legend, of course, is beautiful, but it is not confirmed by archaeologists, since Byzantine baths of the l-lll centuries and foundations laid in the V-lll centuries BC were discovered in different parts of the city.
In addition, the city of Tbldu, to which the name of modern Tbilisi may go back, is found on ancient Roman military maps. Thus, the story ofthe foundation of the city by the Georgian ruler can be interpreted as a story about the expansion of an already existing settlement.
Crossroads of cultures
By the beginning of the 5th century AD, the region where the city of Tiflis is located turned into an arena of struggle between the Persian and Byzantine empires. The Sasanian dynasty won the fight, and for a long time the city was in the hands of the Persians, and the Georgian kingdom was abolished. In 627, Tbilisi was sacked by the allied Byzantine-Khazar army.
In the Vlll century, a new disaster in the face of the Arab conquerors fell upon the Caucasus. In 737, the troops of Marwan ll entered the city, who established a new judicial system and administration in the vast territories of the Caucasus. However, most Georgians at that time converted to Islam, making Tiflis a predominantly Muslim city.
However, peace in the region did not last long, as this time the competition unfolded between the Arab Caliphate and the Khazar Khaganate, which again invaded Georgian lands in 737. Such serious and prolonged conflicts over the city were due to the fact that it is located at the crossroads of trade routes leading from the Transcaucasus to the Caspian region, Asia Minor and the Black Sea region.
Georgian reconquista
At the beginning of the XIII century, the Arab Caliphate weakened enough for the inhabitants of its national outskirts to feel the ability to start a liberation struggle. Georgians were no exception.
In 1122 a long struggleof the local population with the Seljuks, which was attended by more than 60,000 Georgians, ended with the entrance of the Georgian king David to Tbilisi. After this victory, he decided to move the residence of the monarch from Kutaisi. Since then, Tiflis has been the capital of the Georgian state.
After the lands of the Orthodox kingdom were liberated from foreign domination, a period began that went down in history as the Golden Age of Georgia, thanks to the flourishing of literature and architecture. By the end of the XIII century, the population of Tbilisi reached 100,000 people, which made it not only the largest city in the Caucasus, but also one of the most important centers of the entire Orthodox world.
Mongol invasion and after
However, nothing lasts forever, and by the beginning of the Xlll century, the Georgian revival was interrupted by the beginning of the Mongol conquest. In 1236, Georgia suffered a final crushing defeat from the Mongol troops and for a long time fell into a semi-dependent position from the great empire.
Despite the fact that in the 1320s the conquerors were expelled from the country, a long period of instability began, exacerbated by the plague that broke out in Tbilisi in 1366. The population of the city was greatly reduced, and its importance for the culture of that time fell.
The retreat of the Mongols did not lead to the desired liberation, as the Persians tried to take their place, then the rulers of the Golden Horde and other competing states that formed on the expanses of the Mongol Empire.
During the period from the end of the XlV to the XVlll century, the city repeatedlyfell under the rule of the interventionists and was completely destroyed twice.
Tbilisi under Safavid rule
At the beginning of the 15th century, the lands where the city of Tiflis is located, as well as the regions of Kartli and Kakheti, fell under the rule of the Iranian Shah's Safavid dynasty. The regional capital houses a very impressive military garrison, and its architecture has undergone significant changes.
Despite the fact that the Georgian kings had some success in the fight against the Iranians, they failed to achieve full independence. For several centuries, the city of Tbilisi became the center of a vassal kingdom, but it also received peace and opportunities for growth.
At the end of the eighteenth century, the Georgians decided to get out of Persian rule and made the important decision to unite with Russia.
Unification with Russia
The end of Iranian domination was put in 1801, after the Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti with its capital in Tiflis was annexed to the Russian Empire.
From now on, Tiflis is the center of a vast region in the very center of Transcaucasia, an important transport hub and stronghold of the military power of a huge empire in the Caucasus. After the establishment of Russian power in Tbilisi, the city began to grow rapidly, increasing its weight both economically and politically.
Wishing to connect Tbilisi with Batumi, Baku, Poti and Yerevan, the imperial authorities began intensive construction of roads, including railways. By the middle of the nineteenth century, Tiflis is an indispensable point of any trip to the Caucasus. Griboyedov visited this city,Pushkin, Lermontov, Leo Tolstoy.
It was in tsarist times that Golovin Avenue, which today bears the name of Rustaveli, became the main transport artery of the city. It housed the main administrative buildings and residences of the emperor's governors in Transcaucasia.
A brief period of independence
After the 1917 revolution, Tiflis became the center of an independent Transcaucasian federation. Thus, from May 28, 1918 to February 25, 1921, Tiflis is the capital of the independent Democratic Republic of Georgia, which ceased to exist after the 11th Bolshevik Army occupied Tbilisi as a result of prolonged fighting. From this moment begins the seventy-year period of Soviet power in Georgia and its capital, Tbilisi.
Soviet power
After the abolition of the Transcaucasian Federation, Tiflis became the official capital of the Transcaucasian SFSR, after the dissolution of which the city became the center of the Georgian SSR until 1991.
It was during the USSR that the city began to develop actively, numerous industrial enterprises, universities, and cultural institutions appeared. Thanks to serious investments in the infrastructure of the city, Tiflis has become one of the most important scientific, industrial and cultural centers not only in Transcaucasia, but in the entire USSR.
You can often meet the question of what city is Tiflis now? This question arose as a result of the official change of the Russian name of the city in 1936 from Tiflis to Tbilisi. Such changes were needed in order to bring the Russian name closer to the Georgian one, which sounds like Tbiliso.
In the 1970s, the historic center of the city was significantly redeveloped, and new residential areas appeared on its outskirts, connected to the old part by metro lines.
Post-Soviet Tbilisi
After gaining independence by Georgia, the city faced numerous problems related to the general political instability in the region caused by the Georgian-Ossetian and Abkhaz-Georgian conflicts.
From 1993 to 2003, corruption and crime spread to all levels of Georgian society. The city faced significant disruptions in transport communications, housing began to fall into disrepair, infrastructure too.
In 2003, the city became the center of a nationwide protest against corrupt government and electoral fraud, which led to the events that went down in history as the Rose Revolution. As a result, Eduard Shevardnadze resigned and was replaced by Mikheil Saakashvili.
After the change of power, noticeable changes began in the city. Numerous new buildings were built and the transport infrastructure was significantly reconstructed. After the reforms, the city has become an important tourist center, attracting hundreds of thousands of tourists from America, Europe and Russia every year.
Modern Tbilisi
Despite the fact that about 89% of the city's population are Georgians, about 100 different ethnic groups live in the capital of Georgia, including Russians, Ukrainians, Ossetians, Azerbaijanis, Germans, Jews and Greeks. At95% of the population identify themselves as Christians of various churches.
As for the economy, more than half of the national product is produced in Tbilisi. The predominant sectors of the economy are wholesale and retail trade, services and hospitality. Transport plays an important role.
Shota Rustaveli Airport serves annually 1,850,000 passengers arriving from several dozen countries. A significant part of the passenger traffic is made up of Russian tourists, whose number is growing every year due to the visa-free regime for Russians and the relatively low cost of flights and accommodation in Georgia.
Thus, the answer to the question of what kind of city is Tiflis may be that it is one of the oldest cities in the Caucasus, the capital of modern Georgia and an important economic and political center of Transcaucasia.
