The Russian language was compulsory when I was a kid and it was universally taught in the education system. It was a very important language especially if one wanted to work in certain fields like engineering or the social sciences due to a lack of access to literature in languages other that Russian. In addition, Russian was and remains today an essential language among ethnic Armenians and Azeris residing outside of Tbilisi, to say nothing of communication with citizens from former Soviet republics.