George Papashvily and his younger brother David were the two sons of Vanno and Iamze Papashvily, who were farmers in the village of Kobiaantkari, Dusheti District, Mtskheta-Mtianeti region of the modern Republic of Georgia, which was then under the rule of the House of Romanov. According to his autobiographical first book, Papashvily apprenticed as a swordmaker and ornamental leatherworker. After serving as a sniper with the Imperial Russian Army during World War I, he returned to the newly independent Democratic Republic of Georgia. Papashviliy fought in the Georgian Army under the command of General Giorgi Kvinitadze against the 1921 Red Army invasion] and, after defeat on the battlefield and the Soviet annexation of his country, he fled to Istanbul, Turkey, where he lived for two years. Papashvily immigrated to the United States circa 1923-1924, and lived and worked there for the rest of his life. Papashvily succeeded both as a sculptor and as an author; he was also a gifted engineer and inventor.