Nationalization and sociocultural, economic, and political indigenization proceeded much further in Transcaucasia than in Central Asia. Transcaucasia retains geopolitical significance for Russia today for much the same reason as in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Georgia's annexation began as a voluntary accession to Russia as a protectorate to thwart incursions from Persia and Turkey, and was followed by formal annexation of eastern Georgia in 1801. The growing strength of the indigenous languages is reflected in the linguistic derussification that indigenes experienced between 1959 and 1989. Russification processes in Transcaucasia were mostly limited to the urban/industrial centers. Local Russians lost status during the brief period of Transcaucasian independence. Nationalist elites in Transcaucasia have been more exclusionary and more successful in gaining political power. The emigration is greater in Transcaucasia than in Central Asia both because inter-national conditions are worse and because the governments themselves are much more nationalistic.