S4E14: Georgia's Existential Moment - Join EU or return to Russia's Orbit? History of a country caught at the crossroads of civilizations!

History Behind News Program

►Georgia is a country between two civilizations - Europe & Asia, and Islam and Christianity

►Until the Russians came, Georgia had maintained its status as an independent state. ►Georgia has punched above its weight under Russian and Soviet rule - prime example: Stalin, the most powerful Soviet leader, was Georgian!

In this conversation, Dr. Jones takes us from the ancient and Medieval history of Georgia, including its conflicts with Islamic empires and kingdoms, to its modern period of independence, and its struggle to realign itself with Europe.

🚩About My Guest:

Dr. Stephen Jones is the Director of the Program on Georgian Studies at the Davis Center of Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University. He is also a Professor of Modern Georgian History at Ilia State University in Tbilisi, Georgia. Dr. Jones is a foreign member of the Georgian Academy of Sciences and received an honorary doctorate from Tbilisi State University in 2012 and from Ilia State University in 2018.

He has written many books on Georgia’s history, including the following:

1st: Socialism in Georgian Colors: The European Road to Social Democracy, 1883-1917,

2nd: Georgia: A Political History Since Independence,

3rd: The Birth of Modern Georgia: The First Georgian Republic and Its Successors, 1918-2010, and

4th: War and Revolution in the Caucasus: Georgia Ablaze.

🚩Dr. Rafe Blaufarb's history of Napoleon: 🎧 ⁠https://bit.ly/HbN-S4E3

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