Prominent Georgian historian, diplomat and politician Prince Zurab Davidovich Avalov (Avalishvili) in his book outlined the history of the independent Georgian Democratic Republic, which in 1918 found itself at a crossroads between the West and Soviet Russia. The author, a direct participant in the events of the era, reflected the process of "self-adjustment of a young viable democracy" and the emergence of an independent Georgian state, noting that during this period the country was close to international recognition of its independence, and also described the collapse in 1921 of the institution of representative democracy of Georgia under the onslaught of Soviet policy and Georgia's entry into the USSR.