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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Georgia
Index
At the end of 1991, the formal liquidation of the Soviet
Union was the surprisingly swift result of partially hidden
decrepitude and centrifugal forces within that empire. Of the
fifteen "new" states that emerged from the process, many had been
independent political entities at some time in the past. Aside
from their coverage in the 1989 Soviet Union: A Country
Study, none had received individual treatment in this series,
however. Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia: Country Studies
is the first in a new subseries describing the fifteen postSoviet republics, both as they existed before and during the
Soviet era and as they have developed since 1991. This volume
covers Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, the three small nations
grouped around the Caucasus mountain range east of the Black Sea.
The marked relaxation of information restrictions, which
began in the late 1980s and accelerated after 1991, allows the
reporting of nearly complete data on every aspect of life in the
three countries. Scholarly articles and periodical reports have
been especially helpful in accounting for the years of
independence in the 1990s. The authors have described the
historical, political, and social backgrounds of the countries as
the background for their current portraits. In each case, the
authors' goal was to provide a compact, accessible, and objective
treatment of five main topics: historical background, the society
and its environment, the economy, government and politics, and
national security.
In all cases, personal names have been transliterated from
the vernacular languages according to standard practice. Placenames are rendered in the form approved by the United States
Board on Geographic Names, when available. Because in many cases
the board had not yet applied vernacular tables in
transliterating official place-names at the time of printing, the
most recent Soviet-era forms have been used in this volume.
Conventional international variants, such as Moscow, are used
when appropriate. Organizations commonly known by their acronyms
(such as IMF--International Monetary Fund) are introduced by
their full names.
Autonomous republics and autonomous regions, such as the
Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic, the Ajarian Autonomous Republic,
and the Abkhazian Autonomous Republic, are introduced in their
full form (before 1991 these also included the phrase "Soviet
socialist"), and subsequently referred to by shorter forms
(Nakhichevan, Ajaria, and Abkhazia, respectively).
Measurements are given in the metric system; a conversion
table is provided in the Appendix. A chronology is provided at
the beginning of the book, combining significant historical
events of the three countries. To amplify points in the text of
the chapters, tables in the Appendix provide statistics on
aspects of the societies and the economies of the countries.
The body of the text reflects information available as of
March 1994. Certain other portions of the text, however, have
been updated. The Introduction discusses significant events and
trends that have occurred since the completion of research; the
Country Profiles include updated information as available; and
the Bibliography lists recently published sources thought to be
particularly helpful to the reader.
Data as of March 1994
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