Tbilisi District
Tbilisi District, an administrative-territorial unit in the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic. It was created on August 21, 1929 by the Decree of the Central Executive Committee of Georgia and the Council of People's Commissars of the Georgian SSR of July 11, 1929 on a new administrative-territorial division. It included Kvemo Kartli (the northern part of the former Tbilisi uezd, the southern part of Kvemo Kartli, Borchaly uezd), Garekakheti, a small section of Shida Kartli — Mtskheta district, the former Dusheti uezd and the central part of the former Tianeti uezd — the Ertso-Tianeti territory.
146,895 households and 613,189 people lived in Tbilisi District. In terms of national composition, the Tbilisi District looked like this: Georgians – 254,408, Armenians – 148,482, Turks (Azerbaijanis) – 72,986, Russians – 55,719, Greeks – 31,512, Germans – 14,413, other people – 41,259.
The system of dividing the country into districts did not work out, since it did not correspond to the new socio-economic challenges of the so-called communist "Great Transformation". In accordance with the decisions of the 16th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party, on June 15, 1930, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Georgia issued a resolution on the abolition of districts and uezds in Georgia and the division of the country into new administrative-territorial units — raions. In early October 1930, Tbilisi District was abolished.
On November 5, 1951, Tbilisi District was re-established with the following composition: Tbilisi (remaining a city of republican subordination), the cities of Gori, Rustavi, and the raions of Adigeni, Akhaltsikhe, Akhalkalaki, Akhmeta, Aspindza, Bogdanovka, Bolnisi, Borjomi, Gardabani, Gori, Gurjaani, Dmanisi, Dusheti, Kazbegi, Kareli, Kaspi, Javakheti, Kvareli, Lagodekhi, Marneuli, Mtskheta, Sagarejo, Sighnaghi, Telavi, Tetritskaro, Tianeti, Khashuri, Tsalka and Tsiteltskaro.
Tbilisi District covered the entire East Georgia and two regions of South Georgia (Samtskhe-Javakheti). The restored Tbilisi District could not exist for more than a year, the division of the republic into districts (Tbilisi and Kutaisi) clearly did not justify itself, they represented redundant administrative units. In April 1953, Tbilisi District was abolished.
Literature: საქართველოს ისტორია XIX ს. 90-იანი წლებიდან დღემდე, თბ., 1984.
Z. Tsintsadze
