Gori (Georgian: გორი [ˈɡoɾi]) is a city in eastern Georgia, which serves as the regional capital of Shida Kartli.

Gori is also known as the birthplace of communist revolutionary and Soviet politician Joseph Stalin, ballistic missile designer Aleksandr Nadiradze, and philosopher Merab Mamardashvili.

Gori is located 86 kilometres west of Georgia's capital Tbilisi, at the confluence of the rivers Mtkvari and Greater Liakhvi, 588 meters (1,929 ft) above sea level.

According to medieval Georgian chronicles, the town of Gori was founded by King David IV (r. 1089–1125) who settled refugees from Armenia there.

[5] However, the fortress of Gori (Goris-Tsikhe) appears to have been in use already in the 7th century, and archaeological evidence indicates the existence of an urban community in Classical Antiquity.

With the downfall of the medieval Georgian kingdom, Gori – strategically located at the crossroads of major transit routes – was frequently targeted by foreign invaders, and changed its masters on several occasions.

By the end of that century, Gori briefly passed to the Ottomans through the 1578–90 Ottoman–Persian War, and became their major outpost in Georgia until being recovered by the Georgians under Simon I of Kartli after heavy fighting in 1599.

An important industrial center in Soviet times, Gori suffered from an economic collapse and the outflow of the population during the years of a post-Soviet crisis of the 1990s.

[9][10] Human Rights Watch (HRW) claimed that Russian forces had indiscriminately deployed cluster bombs in civilian areas around Gori.

According to HRW, on August 12 Russian forces dropped cluster bombs in the centre of Gori, killing 11 civilians and wounding dozens more.

The monument was a source of controversy in a newly independent Georgia in the 1990s, but for several years the post-communist government acceded to the Gori citizens' request and left the statue untouched.