Figure 1.--These portrait taken about 1900 shows a father and his two children. The father wears a Cossock coat. Notice the fezes the children wear--a Turkish influence. I have never seen a girl wearing a fez before. Except for the fezes, the children wear Europea style clothes.

The Caucuses were a border region of the Roman Empire. The Caucasus during the Medieval era became the mountaneous borderland between Europe and Asia affected by successive waves of migration. The Cauauses were incorprated into the Ottomon Empire. Gradually the Russian Tsars moved into the Caucusses. The Tsar annexed The kingdom of Georgia in 1801. The Caucasian people fought for the next half and their struggle was admired thrughout Europe. Finally the Tsarist forces in 1859 captured Shamyl, the prophet chief of the Muslim Lesghian tribe. This shattered the resistance of the Caucasians people and by 1870 Georgia and the rest of the Caucusses was under the Tsar's control. As many as 0.5 million people refussed to submit to Tsarist rule and Orthodox Christianity. These people including Circassians and Abkhasians, migrated to mostly Ottomon territories in Asia Minor or Europe. The ancient tribal divisions of the country - Imeritia, Svanetia, Mingrelia, etc. disappeared under Tsarist rule. Large areas were depopulated. Georgian nationlist asperations resulted in revolutions which were supressed by Tsarist and Bolshevick forces. Perhaps the most famous Georgin was Josef Stalin. Stalin helped establish Georgia as one of the Soviet Republics, but dealt brutally with any nationlist sentiment. Ethnic dress show both Cossock and Turkish influences.

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Created: March 3, 2003
Last updated: March 3, 2003