Georgia (Nation)

Georgia, a country in the Caucasus, was a part of the Soviet Union until it gained independence in 1991. With a population of 4.73 million, it has a female life expectancy of 79.9 years. The birth rate is 10.4 per 1,000, and the infant mortality rate is 18 per 1,000 live births. The 2004 estimated divorce rate was 0.42 divorces per 1,000 marriages.

Traditionally, people married young and had children soon after marriage. Stalin's mother, Ekaterina, was 15 when she wed Vissarion Djugashvili, and was 20 when the future Soviet dictator was born in 1879—her fourth child, the three older children having already died as infants. In Georgian society at the time, few women, and even fewer mothers, had careers. They were involved in looking after ...