Tbilisi - Recalling the Past

Lisa Fuhr

Germany wasn’t the only country to profit from the fall of the Soviet Union—in the southeastern-most corner of Europe, Georgia was one of the countries to achieve its independence during that tumultuous time. After seventy years as part of the USSR, the transition proved to be very painful. Nonetheless, following long years of deprivation in the 1990s, exacerbated by war and displacement, came periods of economic growth. Georgia successfully developed into a democracy and a civilian society. Memories are retained in the intimate world of the home, where, partly out of tradition and partly due to material necessity, multiple generations often live together. Photos portray aristocratic forbears in pre-Soviet times, schoolmates who died young in the war with Abkhazia, happy brides and grooms, brothers who support their families from abroad, grandchildren living in the US. But the past is also conjured up by beloved furniture from a time long since gone, Russian books, a Bechstein concert piano from Berlin, and again and again religious icons.