Kutaisi is a relatively small city in Georgia, but it's one that had quiet an important role during the Soviet Union. Like many small towns and cities, its primary function was its industrial output, and with that came a large amount of factories throughout the outskirts of its residential districts. Due to the various industries it pursued, from ceramics to clothing, the Soviets saw the importance in ensuring the people of the city felt catered to. It comes as no surprise that a communist rule would try to appeal to its workers, highlighting them and glorifying their efforts. A happy worker, even in capitalism, is usually a more productive worker, after all. The city holds a lot of really beautiful mosaics that sit by the sides of those former factories, but it also has a beautiful number of Soviet era monuments in the central areas of the city where its cafes, restaurants, and more cultural buildings are found. The Glory to Labour monument was found right in the heart of Kutaisi, just a little walk away from the city's Opera House, and also rather close to the City Hall.
Soviet monuments tend to variety in their designs, and this was the first time I had seen one of quite large scale that also took advantage more of three-dimensional space. The monuments I have seen elsewhere have usually been mosaics or simple monuments to specific people featuring a sculpture of their heads or entire bodies in a particular pose. This one did have some statues, but it was something that felt a bit more interactive in the sense that you could walk around and through it, looking at the little bits of text in both Georgian and Russian for context. What was more surprising here was that, while it was in really poor condition from pieces crumbling off, one statue missing, and graffiti from the less caring fools, Kutaisi had not rejected its Soviet past much like the larger cities. Soviet rejection is something of a hot topic within Tbilisi, with much of its soviet symbolism having been destroyed or removed from buildings over the years. Personally, I'm not much of a fan of such behaviour and believe historical preservation is important regardless of emotion. It was a great surprise to see that the monument was left mostly untouched, to the point in which the Soviet star and hammer and sickle were still present.
That's a larger rarity these days in many former Soviet republics, unless you do run more into the more remote locations where fewer would care for it. Usually left ignored and to rot. In some cases, that is how this monument had turned out. Certainly neglected to a sad fate, but a positive that history remained. On the back of one of the walls it was stated that the monument was in honour of the people, primarily the workers. A monument that celebrated the labour worker and the people of Kutaisi. That aforementioned industrial importance of the city meant it had to be celebrated. Their names were written, with the years of construction added. It was a really creative space that felt like walking through an art exhibition despite its condition. Somewhat like roaming through something rather abstract, odd shapes and stairways that led to nothing other than the statue. Each one being someone different. You could feel the power it conveyed, the industrial might and the importance of the people. Built in 1980, it lasted just over a decade before the Soviet Union had properly collapsed and Georgia would demand its independence from it. From that point, the cracks had already began to form. No surprise that the Union would still pour money and effort into appealing to its people.
While I stumbled across the monument a little late in the day, I can imagine that it looks absolutely beautiful under snow or during the daytime, where the sun is just hitting the monument around sunset. That golden hour sunlight looked incredible on the surrounding dated architecture that I had previously seen, so it's something I'd recommend trying to run into around that sort of time of day if you're ever in Kutaisi. It's a shame I didn't get to capture it in a more artistic manner like that, part of me wanting to capture that old stone look on 35mm film with the grain it provides. But I was still happy to capture the beauty of it all on digital anyway. It's not something you'll spend a whole lot of time at, and if you don't speak Georgian or Russian then reading the information will be a bit of a difficulty. Especially in a font that most translators won't register. Just across the street are a few great cafes at least, so I do recommend spending some time in those if you're in the area and want something more to do than just run into one monument. It's certainly worth the visit if you're a fan of architecture and art, however.
And one thing to consider if you are around the area: it probably won't be sticking around for much longer with the laws against communist symbols in Georgia, as well as the gradual decay and neglect of the monument over the years. It lives on borrowed time. And you're probably best looking it up online for deeper context, as there's next to no information at the actual monument, given the decay over time.
Hello friend, it's a pleasure for me to greet you! Hey, I like the way you talk about this place, in your words you convey that you really liked being here and that you enjoyed this monument; no wonder, it looks great, although you say it has some details of deterioration, there is something magical in its design and location. I feel it is a city you can explore and feel good in the process, I would have loved to see these photos with some snow, it really must look great. Thanks so much for sharing them, hope you come back here soon 🙏
Yeah I'm really hoping I can catch some snow here soon! It doesn't seem to snow much around Tbilisi or Kutaisi, seems like it's in very select places throughout the country. Quite a warm winter over all. Really hoping I can see some in some of these areas and capture these monuments in a very different environment.
I so want to visit this country and it came into my radar that Georgia allows foreigner to buy their passport though some sort of investment. While it looks somber and dark considering its history, I love some of it that you shared here and I find that extremely cool. Oh, and I still remember that sheep picture which apparently was a dog🤣
It's not a place you'd want to live in if you want to live in Batumi or Tbilisi. Living standards are genuinely horrific. Tbilisi is the worst city I've ever been to from noise to food quality.
In major supermarkets you see fruit fall on the floor and they just pick it up and place it back in the baskets. Said fruit and vegetables will be riddled with insects and you won't even notice until you're home and slice into them. The roads are a nightmare where idiots are on their phones all the time not paying attention, so people speed through green lights and will yell at you if they almost kill you as apparently it's your fault for crossing. Endless car horns all day and night. Noise pollution like no other, hearing cars speed through the streets at 4am with backfiring exhausts.
The people in Tbilisi (in Kutaisi people were lovely) are shit. The rudest, unwelcoming people imaginable. You'll try to ask someone in a shop where something is and again they'll be on their phones and totally ignore you. It's a push & shove society in which nobody cares for others. It's genuinely rare that I have a good interaction with a Georgian in Tbilisi. I didn't even mention the crime; I see so many people fighting in the streets, so many people getting arrested witnessed from my balcony at all hours. Georgia was considered the USSR's crime capital. I see it.
Oh, and there is NOTHING to do. It's very expensive for literally zero aspects of culture and events. Book shops are pretty much nonexistent in Tbilisi, the same with art shops. No real cinemas. Just 3 of them in the newly built malls and they show maybe 3 or 4 films all in Georgian. Coffee culture would drive you (yes, you specifically) utterly insane with how bad the coffee is in the majority of places.
The Soviets did a lot of good for Georgia too. The country still massively relies on everything they built here. The metro here is the same old line, same old trains. And the Soviets were also Georgians themselves.
Anyway, yeah, I wouldn't look at that opportunity and jump at it if there are other countries with the same offers. Might be nice to have a place to rent out to someone else or use for brief stays, but Tbilisi and Batumi aren't places you want to be in. I was actually planning to move back to Armenia because of all of this. But I went to Kutaisi and saw how nice everyone was and how much cheaper it was. As well as cafe culture, things to see and do, etc. So the plan is to now move to Kutaisi in the upcoming months for another year.
It is amazing how we human beings deny our own history. I think we should leave these dying places there, and I say dying because for the city they represent its own decline.
To destroy them so as not to recognize what happened or happened is Dantesque. It obliterates a painful and damaging era. The horror must be there in its attempt at beautiful expression to remember the damage caused to humanity. To deny the facts is to deny oneself.
It is inevitable. Everything that happened in that era was Dantesque, but traces of the damage must be left so that people know that it was a sad time that should not grow or be lived again.
Yeah it's a tragedy. Armenia had a ton of abandoned Soviet things, but they weren't rejecting that history or trying to remove it. Even in the middle of nowhere you'd see a road sign that points to Yerevan with a big hammer and sickle at the top of it. It must've been there since the 70s at least.
It's really evident in Tbilisi. It's riddled with decay and far more destruction of that history. Kutaisi was different, much better preservation of its old buildings, ranging from the 1800s that looked brand new. In Tbilisi you'll see a building that says 1903 or something and it'll look like the wind will bring it down any moment. Massive cracks in the walls, lopsided windows, etc.
I understand the banning of the great hammer and sickle in Europe. If a city does not reject its past, it means that it understands its process and the pain inflicted at that time. The idea is that one should cohabit with that scenario of the past. Incidentally, in urban planning, this is called culturalism, which is intermingled with the development trend itself: urban progressivism. This is something that Françoise Choay claims.
It is very sad that Tbilisi is in this state. Reality surpasses fiction. It is single-mindedness to erase the past, it always takes its toll. I say it from my own experience, people should know how everything has risen and why it is there.
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