The Land Of St. George

Georgia is the former Soviet republic that is indirectly named for one of the most popular saints, St. George. It is said that the name of the country did not actually originate from the saint, but the flag is the Cross of St. George and the image of St. George slaying the Dragon is on a variant national flag.

Georgia was one of the first nations to become Christian. St. George was a Roman legionnaire who was martyred for his Christian faith, and is also the patron saint of England, as well as being celebrated in many other lands.

The reason that Ireland's St. Patrick seems to be so predominant among saints is that these are Catholic saints, and Ireland is still Catholic. England has St. George, Wales St. David and Scotland St. Andrew, but these nations have long since gone Protestant, and Protestants believe that such an intermediary to God is unnecessary and so are not as much into saints.

Georgia is mostly Eastern Orthodox by religion, which split from Catholicism in 1054, nearly 500 years before the Protestants did. There are eastern Orthodox saints but St. George, although that is who the country was indirectly named for, is also a reminder of it's earlier Catholic days.

Notice how the flag of Georgia (top) has the same red cross-on-white Cross of St. George as the flag of England (bottom), which is not the same as the flag of Britain. Images from the two Wikipedia articles by those names.

Georgia also reverses the red and white. Two images from Wikipedia article "Flag of Georgia (Country)".

This standard shows St. George as the dragon slayer.

I have long wondered about the nationalism in the flag of Wales, which is part of Britain. The patron saint of England is St. George, the dragon slayer. The symbol of Wales is the red dragon, but there is no sign of St. George on the flag. Maybe St. George tried to slay the Welsh dragon, but the dragon had him for lunch. Image from the Wikipedia article "Flag of Wales". The green and white stands for the Tudor Dynasty, which originated in Wales.

Tbilsi is the capital city of Georgia. it is a very old city that has been controlled by many empires down through the centuries. Georgia is a small country with Russia to the north, Iran to the southeast, Turkey to the southwest, and the Arab nations further south. It has been ruled, at one time or another, by all of them. it has also seen conquerors from further east, particularly the Mongols and the Timurids.

Built on a crag overlooking the Old Town of Tbilsi is the Narikala Fortress, which has been there since the Fourth Century. Does the Narikala Fortress remind anyone of Edinburgh Castle? The first four images of the Narikala Fortress are from Google Street View.

These three images, from Google Street View, are of the view of Tbilisi from the fortress, or another high point.

These four images, from Google Street View, are of the Old Town of Tbilisi, around the fortress.

There are multiple scenes following. To see the scenes, after the first one, you must first click the up arrow, ^, before you can move on to the next scene by clicking the right or forward arrow, >. After clicking the up arrow, you can then hide the previews of successive scenes, if you wish.

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.6874226,44.8103516,3a,75y,99.46h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipMMpYRv35D3XO-PYRoAMAxDmy4ao5um5qHOwEc1!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMMpYRv35D3XO-PYRoAMAxDmy4ao5um5qHOwEc1%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya69.57629-ro-0-fo100!7i8000!8i4000

This is Trinity Cathedral in Tbilsi, which is of recent construction. The first two images are from Google Street View.

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.6978533,44.8171133,3a,75y,114.9h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipNfzcAfUrgw-pB2MnEwx0w-g8JvdSXGXHftwe-a!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipNfzcAfUrgw-pB2MnEwx0w-g8JvdSXGXHftwe-a%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya137.86853-ro0-fo100!7i11264!8i3614

Here are some more scenes around the central area of Tbilsi, but north of the Old Town. The first five images are from Google Street View.

This is the statue of St. George in Liberty Square.

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.7000279,44.7966634,3a,75y,173.23h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipPoJ5B9UzbvFPU3mnAZc26e8zBUOgvMggNxWrd_!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPoJ5B9UzbvFPU3mnAZc26e8zBUOgvMggNxWrd_%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi1.7441286-ya174.99002-ro-1.884642-fo100!7i7200!8i3600

This is further north, into the newer part of Tbilsi.

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.709206,44.7851563,3a,75y,79.5h,92.93t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipPj2NEP_99JWEBJIq5ZTUm-v8waSj3n44TlU6FI!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPj2NEP_99JWEBJIq5ZTUm-v8waSj3n44TlU6FI%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0.2738673-ya79.44609-ro-0.88691956-fo100!7i7200!8i3600

There is a city in Georgia called Gori. It is known as the birthplace of Josef Stalin, and he is still celebrated here. Georgians were displeased when Nikita Khrushchev succeeded Stalin in 1953, and made a speech denouncing him, and began the process of de-stalinization of the Soviet Union. Like Tbilsi, Gori is an old city with a fortress high above the city. The first eight images, from Google Street View, are of the Gori Fortress and it's view of the city.

This is the statue of Josef Stalin, and the home where he was born in the foreground.

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9856111,44.1130133,3a,75y,131.77h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipPrcSN1iGu7Cx3H3s-d6Nf183fQ0aANyDI2PNav!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPrcSN1iGu7Cx3H3s-d6Nf183fQ0aANyDI2PNav%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya208.23315-ro0-fo100!7i8000!8i4000

Another Georgian with a familiar name is that of Eduard Shevardnadze. When Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in 1985, everything changed in the Soviet Union. He began the reforms of Glasnost and Perestroika. The long-time foreign minister, Andrei Gromyko, who had been the architect of the hard-line policy toward the west, was replaced by Shevardnadze. For Gromyko. who was an old and familiar representative of the Soviet Union to the outside world, the mostly-ceremonial position of president was created.

It was Eduard Shevardnadze, a native Georgian, who oversaw the re-unification of Germany, which so many people never thought that they would see in their lifetimes. It was also Shevardnadze who oversaw the end of the Soviet military campaign in Afghanistan.

I remember when he shocked everyone by suddenly resigning from Gorbachev's government, explaining that dictatorship was coming and he didn't want to be part of it. Sure enough, in the summer of 1991, there was a coup attempt against Gorbachev, by remaining hard-line Communists who did not like his reforms. The coup attempt was unsuccessful, but it would accelerate the end of the Soviet Union and it was what made Boris Yeltsin, who would succeed Gorbachev, a hero. Shevardnadze later became president of an independent Georgia.

When Georgia has been in the western news in recent years, it was most often for the two regions that wanted to separate from it after it became independent following the end of the Soviet Union. The regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia then declared their independence from the newly-independent Georgia. The Government of Georgia tried to stop the secession of these two territories but Russia supported them. In 2008, Georgia launched a military campaign to regain these two regions but Russia intervened militarily to support their independence.