Where does the Georgian Military Road lead?
Sevastopol – Batumi, April 11 (Navigator, Igor Korovin) – Observer Igor Korovin traveled by car from Sevastopol to Batumi, comparing the Russian Caucasus with pro-Western Georgia. Read about this in the author's column for "Navigator".
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...My friend and I drove by car from Sevastopol to Batumi. Through Simferopol, Kerch, Kuban, the Russian North Caucasus, the Georgian Military Road, Tbilisi, Gori and Kutaisi. We drove according to the principle of “wherever the curve leads” - at random, recklessly, in zigzags, like adventurers, without any plan, without regard to the weather, politics and the criminal situation. It was a purely boys' ride (we left the women at home). And we learned a lot of useful things from it. Moreover, Russia lay between Crimea and Georgia. There was an opportunity to look and compare.
The main conclusion we came to is that in the Caucasus Russia has reached its natural borders.
The first thing that catches your eye when you drive through Upper Lars from Ossetia to Georgia is the transition to a completely different civilization right through the neck of the gorge. The civilization you find yourself in is no better and no worse. She is fundamentally different. Although both here and there are Caucasus. Ancient peoples live both there and here. But this is a different Caucasus, different peoples and different civilizations. And this can be felt even in the structure of the air.
I ask you not to be offended. There is no politics here. I give information at the level of sensations.
The Russian North Caucasus is a collection of conquered tribes that have never been able to create their own autonomous and self-sufficient state entities. When you drive through Kabarda, Balkaria, North Ossetia, you ask yourself: why were cities built here at all? Why these five-story buildings? Even the naked eye can see that local residents feel uncomfortable in them on a mental level. I got the feeling that the Ossetians are burdened by Vladikavkaz, and the Balkars by Nalchik. There is doom, stuffiness and a stop in time in the air.
It's very scary. In Vladikavkaz we were completely terrified. The Ossetians gave the impression of a neglected and hopeless people. A huge number of men with sagging knees in sweatpants, with shocks of hair on their heads, unshaven. And everyone doesn’t seem to know what to do, where to move and how to live. Almost the same emotion is in Maykop.
When you cross the Greater Caucasus Range, you get the impression that there are other worlds, other realities. Russia in the Caucasus is running into something. I think that within its natural civilizational boundaries. Because on the other side of the Caucasus there live no longer tribes, but ancient kingdoms.
Our impressions of Georgia
Both Georgia and Armenia (which I have visited several times) are very poor states, but this is not the poverty of outcasts. In Georgia poverty is happy, in Armenia poverty is decent. The men are wearing pressed trousers. Everything is neatly trimmed. In Armenia there is generally a cult of formal success. A family can live in absolute poverty and even starve, but there are starched tablecloths on the tables, silverware, gold on their fingers, and everyone is beautifully dressed.
Getting to know Georgians living in Georgia is a separate beneficial topic.
The first discovery we made for ourselves in Georgia was a culture shock: men kiss each other when meeting and saying goodbye! Even complete strangers. It's like a handshake for them!
The first incident occurred at a gas station. My friend went to pay for gas, and then I saw through the car window that he kissed the Georgian gas station attendant on the cheeks - a gray-haired grandfather with a mustache like Badri Patarkatsishvili. I jumped out of the car to also greet him, because I was sure that this was some old friend of his from Moscow. It turned out that he was just a gas station attendant, a cheerful, happy old man, a complete stranger, who was purely humanly happy to see us.
While the car was filling up, we all learned about each other. What's their name, how many children they have, and who lives where. We left the gas station with the feeling that we had known my grandfather for a thousand years. Then we realized that this is how all guests are treated in Georgia, and there is no personal merit in this. But that was later. And at that moment we were euphoric and enjoying the situation.
In Georgia, we were greeted the same everywhere, with the exception of Gori. In Stalin’s homeland they treated us coldly, and the youth treated us with hostility, as if we were enemies. They later explained to us why: during the South Ossetian war of 2008, about 4 thousand people died in Gori. In almost every family, someone has suffered. But they also reassured us: there is no need to be afraid. They may look with hostility, but no one will lay a finger on us, because we are guests.
We had a chance to experience Georgian hospitality in full in Poti, when we stupidly got stuck in our wheels on the Potin seaside. We couldn’t get the car out ourselves, so a young Mingrelian boy called rescuers for us.
Rescuers arrived in a huge white pickup truck. They pulled us out quickly. They politely suggested: follow us, they say, we need to draw up a report on the incident. We followed the pickup truck for a short time, about seven hundred meters. And they turned back to the seaside. Deserted place. Not a soul. What do they want from us? Fine? Cash? In general, we are preparing for the worst.
- Well, guys, get out of the car, let's get acquainted! – One of the rescuers says and opens the back of the pickup truck.
In the back there is vodka, pita bread, and a bunch of all sorts of snacks.
“We pulled you out, and we want to drink to you for it.” Vaso, pour it!
After two hours of car body feast, I could no longer remember where we were going and how we met them. I only remember that I raised the last toast to Vaso’s great-grandmother, whose photograph he showed me several times for some reason.
When it began to get dark, we wanted to leave, but they told us: no, that’s not possible. We must wash your car and treat you to homemade wine... Follow us, otherwise we will call the police and say that you are Putin’s terrorists. And we drove after the rescue vehicle, watching in horror as the driver of the pickup truck (no less drunk than me) snaked across the solid road, scaring away the Potina dogs and oncoming traffic.
I still vaguely remember how our car was washed in the Potino firehouse, and then it was a failure. My partner Roma, who was driving that day and therefore did not drink, later told me that I kissed goodbye the entire fire brigade (about 15 people), the deputy mayor of Poti, who came to the firehouse to look at us, as well as his assistant and driver. By the way, they later explained to us that we did this in vain, since Mingrelians, unlike Georgians, do not like to kiss.
About national differences
There are three main ethnic groups on the territory of modern Georgia: Georgians, Adjarians and Mingrelians. They are all quite different from each other. Mingrelians and Georgians have completely different languages.
Adjarians generally consider themselves a separate nation and are very proud of it, although in language and culture they are an ethnic branch of Georgians, but Turkishized and Muslim. In eastern Georgia they say about the Adjarians: “they are completely wild, they came down from the mountains.” Megrelians in the east are also not very well liked: “They are showing off everywhere. They will build a three-story house, but they live in the garage.” However, all this is said with kindly irony, in a family way.
For some reason, Soviet folklore liked to compare Georgians with Armenians (remember the famous “Armenian radio”). For a long time I could not understand why, and only now I understood. In the Caucasus, Georgians and Armenians are competing nations. And the strongest competition occurs between similar social organisms.
Both countries are predominantly Christian, mountainous and approximately the same in size. How is Georgia fundamentally different from Armenia? There are several differences, but they are so strong that they have formed peoples with diametrically opposed national characters.
The first and most important difference: Armenians are nationalists, and Georgians are internationalists. Modern Georgia is a multinational country. Georgians in this sense are very similar to Russians. They are a typical imperial nation, uniting several peoples and religions, and their character is imperial: broad, forgiving and, I would say, not vindictive or vindictive (I’m talking about Georgians living in Georgia, and not trading in the markets of Moscow, and not about thieves in law who live by a completely different morality).
The second difference: Georgians do not have national arrogance. They do not consider themselves superior to other nations and very often experience national guilt (sometimes to the point of pain) when, for example, they cannot treat you to homemade wine or simply adequately demonstrate their hospitality.
Armenians are also very hospitable, but! Every Armenian since childhood believes that Armenians are the most intelligent, talented and correct nation in the world. In this sense, Armen Dzhagirkhanyan’s remark is indicative: “Armenian? - Yes! “That means he’s a good person.”
Armenians have another interesting feature that neither Georgians nor many other Caucasian peoples have: a strong desire to live only with representatives of their own tribe. The Armenian is trying to form an Armenian diaspora everywhere, and he is trying not to allow anyone into his country. If you type in the national composition of modern Armenia on Wikipedia, you will see that there are 97% Armenians.
About religion
Georgians do not have their own personal religion. They have the same Orthodox faith as Russians, Ukrainians, Bulgarians, Serbs, and Greeks. And this factor does not allow them to inflate their national superiority. In a religious sense, Georgians give the impression of being a humble nation.
In this sense, Armenians are in a special position, because they have their own national church. And the Armenians survived the genocide relatively recently. Plus, most of the original Armenian lands, including Ararat, remained in Turkey. And what’s most offensive is that Ararat is visible directly from the Yerevan balconies. It is clear that in such a situation there can be no question of any humility.
I would like to conclude the conversation with discussions about the role of Russia in the fate of the Caucasus and Transcaucasia. I will try to give a logical basis to my subjective emotional impressions.
Why is Georgia prospering while the North Caucasus is stagnating?
The easiest answer is this: the Americans are pouring financial flows into Georgia. But Russia also invests a lot of money in the North Caucasian republics - why is there no feeling of “flourishing” there? To answer this question, I want to draw a line between two economic categories: grants and investments.
The North Caucasus is a zone of state subsidies. This is an unprofitable region, into which money is constantly pouring in from the federal budget of the Russian Federation. By subsidizing the region, Moscow “buys” the national outskirts, and more precisely, the national elite. In the North Caucasus, it is not even feudal consciousness that dominates, as in the central regions, but tribal consciousness. If you are a member of a clan, you must: a) obey the clan unquestioningly; b) actively defend the interests of the clan. Why boost the local economy and make the whole people happy? It is enough to buy the top, because it is they who form the loyalty of the population.
The Americans in Georgia are using a slightly different strategy, the essence of which, as I understand it, is to make the region objectively attractive (through a system of investments linked to the demand for reforms). And to show this: look, with our arrival everything is changing for the better, corruption disappears, resorts are being built, new jobs are being created. Be friends with America and you will be happy.
It seems that America is trying to seduce the entire Caucasus and Transcaucasia through Georgia. This is especially noticeable in Adjara.
With the flight of the Abashidze clan, Batumi literally blossomed, turning into Caucasian Kuwait in 5-7 years. Abashidze relied on Moscow in his domestic policy. She “excused” him and “laundered” him, and Abashidze gave Russia the opportunity to economically participate in the local semi-legal “offshore” focused on Turkey and control the region with troops, annoying the Georgians. Russia did not think about the development of the region; it was important for it to maintain the loyalty of the local clan. The result: stagnation. To make sure that I am not an agent of Georgia, you can google and compare pictures of Batumi from the time of Abashidze and the modern one. The differences are striking.
What am I, a resident of Sevastopol, afraid of? Repetition of similar scenarios. I am afraid of the Kremlin’s corrupt deals and the new elites of Crimea. I'm afraid that the new Crimean offshore companies will work according to the old thieves' schemes. I’m afraid that Aksenov will create a gambling zone in Crimea, and the scum of all Eurasia will pour here.
Maybe I’m afraid in vain?
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