workersunit 1
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workersunit 1 *
This striking example of Soviet housing architecture was found in a small city called Chiatura, located in the southern foothills of the Greater Caucasus, on the second day after we had left Kutaisi. Chiatura is Georgia’s oldest mining town, and its workers played an important role in the early stages of the October Revolution. The city had drawn us in with rumours of its legendary, though ageing, cable car system, which connected the mines directly to the workers' apartments.
By the time we arrived, daylight was already fading. Numerous Soviet-era workers' housing units were clinging to the steep mountainsides along the road. We parked our car in the valley and headed toward the most intriguing structure of all—a striking blue building perched above the town’s eastern edge.
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After a six-minute ride from the newly modernised cable car station in the city centre—and a brief stop at a small amusement park—we found ourselves at the foot of the building we had come to see. A group of people were having a barbecue on the scruffy patch of grass out front, casting the occasional sidelong glance in our direction. Since the building had no entry door, I took the opportunity to step into a dark corridor that led to one of its two shadowy staircases.
My friend, who had been bitten by a stray dog a few days earlier and was still suffering from the side effects (his butt hurt so much he could barely lift his legs) of a rabies vaccine, waited outside. Naturally, not speaking either Georgian or Russian, I wasn’t eager to cross paths with anyone. How would I even explain what I was doing there?
The staircase was pitch-black and crumbling. The elevator looked like it hadn’t worked in 40 years. Up to the 10th floor, the building was inhabited, with four flats on each level. Everything above was vacant and decaying.
