Balkar woman from the village of Bezengi. Kabardino-Balkar Autonomous Oblast, 1932. Photo: Walter Saalfeld

Portrait of a Gurian princess. Tiflis Governorate, 1890s. Photo: Dmitry Ermakov (1845-1916) Gurians are an ethnographic group of Georgians.

Sale of cradles at the city market. Kutaisi, Georgian SSR, 1987. Photo: Anatoly Sirota

"The Glacier", 1900s. Artist: Ilya Zankovsky (1832-1919)

Students of the Georgian Institute of Subtropical Agriculture - Ermiyas Mamo from Ethiopia and Etienne Giyimadi from Benin - are observing the growth of tangerine bushes at the Eshera training and experimental complex. Abkhaz ASSR, August 1, 1986.

Portrait of a Nogai woman in traditional dress, Karachay-Cherkessia. Photo: Arsen Alaberdov

"The Battle of Aya-Kaka", 1970s. Artist: Hadji Kambulatov (1940-1997) The Battle of Aya-Kaka, an episode of the Russian Civil War: on August 24-25, 1919, in the Aya-Kaka Gorge (Dagestan), Dargin insurgents ambushed and defeated a punitive detachment of General Denikin's Volunteer Army under the command of Colonel Lavrov.

Baku, Azerbaijan, 1992. Photo: Ian Berry / Magnum Photos

"Among the Circassians," illustration from the adventure story collection Rettung aus Gefahren: Erzählungen für die reifere Jugend von einem ihrer Freunde (Rescue from Danger: Tales for Older Youth by One of Their Friends). Nuremberg, 1858. Artist: Peter Carl Geissler (1802-1872)

Officers of the Danish UN mission contingent Captain Kai Laursen and Major Thomas Rosenquist at the Tbilisi airport before departing for Copenhagen. June 6, 2000. Previously captured in the Kodori Gorge while conducting peacekeeping duties, the officers were released without ransom following negotiations with the National Security Council of Georgia. The kidnappers had initially demanded 4 million Danish kroner for their release.

The Cathedral of Poti, Georgia, in 1907 and today. An example of the Neo-Byzantine style in western Georgia, designed by architects Alexander Zelenko and Robert Marfeld. In 1923, following the annexation of Georgia by Soviet Russia, the Communist government converted the cathedral into a theatre. In 2005, the cathedral was returned to the Georgian Orthodox Church and restored under President Mikheil Saakashvili.

Paltasar (Chechen: sorcery, divination). Artist: Aslan Bugaev

Zubaidat Umalaeva, a ceramic master from the Lak village of Balkhar. Dagestan ASSR, 1977.

"Russia at the Threshold of the Balkans," 1876. Artist: Mikhail Mikeshin The illustration reflects the public enthusiasm and Pan-Slavic sentiments in the Russian Empire in support of the Balkan peoples on the eve of the official declaration of war against the Ottoman Empire in April 1877.

Independence referendum ballot. Georgia, March 31, 1991. The referendum was called by the Supreme Council of Georgia under the leadership of Zviad Gamsakhurdia. More than 99% of voters voted “Yes.” Georgia became the fourth Soviet republic (after the Baltic states) to hold a referendum on independence from the USSR.

Pomegranate seller at the Central Market. Yerevan, Armenian SSR, 1976. Photo: Frank Baumgart