Since the early 19th century Tbilisi started to grow economically and politically. New buildings in European style were built throughout the city. New roads and railways were built to connect Tbilisi and other Russian cities, such as Batumi, Poti, Baku, and Yerevan. In 1850, Tbilisi once again flourished as a major commercial and cultural center. Many Poets and artists have worked here (Ilia Chavchavadze, Akaki Ttsareteli Jacob Godebashvili, Alexander Griboyedov). The city was tied Alexander Pushkin, Leo Tolstoy, Mikhail Lermontov, the Romanov family. For over a century of political, economic and cultural role of Tbilisi with its ethnic, confessional and cultural diversity (Armenians, Georgians and Russian included 38.1, 26.3 and 24.8 percent of the population respectively in 1897) was significant not only for Georgia but for the whole Caucasus. After the 1917 Revolution the city served as a disposition of the interim government, which established in the spring of 1918, short of an independent federation with its capital, Tbilisi.
Since then, Tbilisi functioned as the capital of a democratic Republic of Georgia until 25 February 1918 to 919 1921.S city was also the basis of German and British military headquarters. When the national government in Tbilisi was founded in 1918 State University, which banned the Imperial Russian authorities for several decades. February 25, 1921, the Bolshevik Russian 11th Red Army invaded Georgia and declared Soviet rule. In 1921, the democratic republic of Georgia was occupied by Soviet Bolshevik forces from Russia, and until 1991 Tbilisi was the capital of the Transcaucasian SSR status (which included Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia), and later as the capital of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic.