The capital and largest city of Georgia, in the southeast part of the country on the Kura River. An ancient city astride trade and migration routes between Europe and Asia Minor, it was the capital of an independent Georgian state from 1122 to 1236 and was held by Mongols, Persians, and Turks before coming under Russian control in 1801. Tbilisi was the capital of the Transcaucasian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (1922-1936) and the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic (1936-1991).