The Supreme Council of the Republic of Georgia (Georgian: , sakartvelos respublikis uzenaesi sabcho) was the highest unicameral legislative body in Georgia elected in the first democratic, multiparty elections in the Caucasus on October 28, 1990, while the country was still part of the Soviet Union. The Council presided over the declaration of Georgia's independence from the Soviet Union in April 1991. The legislature split into rivaling factions and became defunct after a violent coup d'tat ousted President Zviad Gamsakhurdia in January 1992. A pro-Gamsakhurdia faction managed to convene for a few times in exile and again in Georgia during Gamsakhurdia's failed attempt to regain power later in 1993. The Supreme Council was succeeded after a brief parliamentary vacuum filled by the rule of the post-coup Military Council and then the State Council by the Parliament of Georgia elected in October 1992.
The Supreme Council of the Republic of Georgia was preceded by the Supreme Soviet of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic (July 1938November 1990), which in its turn was a successor of the Congress of Soviets of Georgia (February 1922July 1938).
The Chairmen of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet were nominal heads of the republic and the Chairmen of the Supreme Soviet were the presiding officers of the legislature. Zviad Gamsakhurdia was both acting head of the republic and presiding officer of the legislature as the Chairman of the Supreme Council.
The Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic (Georgian SSR; Georgian: საქართველოს საბჭოთა სოციალისტური რესპუბლიკა, romanized: sakartvelos sabch'ota sotsialist'uri resp'ublik'a; Russian: Грузинская Советская Социалистическая Республика, romanized: Gruzinskaya Sovetskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika) was one of the republics of the Soviet Union from its second occupation (by Russia) in 1921 to its independence in 1991. Coterminous with the present-day republic of Georgia, it was based on the traditional territory of Georgia, which had existed as a series of independent states in the Caucasus prior to the first occupation of annexation in the course of the 19th century. The Georgian SSR was formed in 1921 and subsequently incorporated in the Soviet Union in 1922. Until 1936 it was a part of the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, which existed as a union republic within the USSR. From November 18, 1989, the Georgian SSR declared its sovereignty over Soviet laws. The republic was renamed the Republic of Georgia on November 14, 1990, and subsequently became independent before the dissolution of the Soviet Union on April 9, 1991, whereupon each former SSR became a sovereign state.
Geographically, the Georgian SSR was bordered by Turkey to the south-west and the Black Sea to the west. Within the Soviet Union it bordered the Russian SFSR to the north, the Armenian SSR to the south and the Azerbaijan SSR to the south-east.
1990Oct, 28
The Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic holds the first multiparty legislature election in the country's history.
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Events on 1990
- 2Aug
Gulf War
Iraq invades Kuwait, eventually leading to the Gulf War. - 8Aug
Gulf War
Iraq occupies Kuwait and the state is annexed to Iraq. This would lead to the Gulf War shortly afterward. - 23Aug
Gulf War
Saddam Hussein appears on Iraqi state television with a number of Western "guests" (actually hostages) to try to prevent the Gulf War. - 28Aug
Kuwait
Iraq declares Kuwait to be its newest province. - 28Nov
Margaret Thatcher
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher resigns as leader of the Conservative Party and the prime ministry, and is succeeded as both by John Major.