REMAINS OF A SOVIET UTOPIA by Arne Piepke and Ingmar Nolthing
Vaziani, an estate of rundown tower blocks surrounded by mountains and broad acres, is situated just a 30-minutes drive off the gates of Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi. Vaziani settlement, constructed during the soviet era, served as accommodation for soldiers, stationed in a near-by military base, living there with their families. In the UdSSR military personnel and politicians were highly privileged. They were provided with adequate housing, received better salaries and were given priority in the distribution of luxury goods and supplies.
Back then, life was celebrated in Vaziani – the population lived in prosperity and the settlement flourished. However, after the downfall of the Soviet Union, the stationed Russian soldiers left the housing estate for home – without them Vaziani’s good days were numbered. The government sold the apartments for around 50 Lari (abt 20 US-Dollars) to people with deprived backgrounds, homeless, or to refugees from Abkhazia, who had to flee from the Russian arms in the Russo-Georgian War. Today the authorities don’t care any longer about the settlement and its inhabitants. The first building collapsed in May 2013 – others are not far from experiencing the very same fate. Problems with water, gas and electrical supplies are huge – many lines and tubings are demolished. The sewage system is leaking, and thus contaminating drinking water by fecal bacteria. The unemployment rate in Vaziani is a staggering 90 percent – and has stuck there for the last couple of years. There are simply no jobs in Vaziani. Although time shattered concrete to dust, the people stay – because there is no alternative, they hope for a future in their home.
The work ‘Remains of a Soviet Utopia’ by Arne Piepke and Ingmar Björn Nolting, documents the present conditions in the former military town – it portrays the inhabitants, reflects their daily life and their connection to Vaziani.
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- About 4000 People call the settlement of Vaziani their home. They live in flats in run-down tower blocks – most of the inhabitants are living with their large families. 12 out of 42 tower blocks are in acute danger of collapse.
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- Vaziani was built for Russian soldiers during Soviet Union. Russia ceded control in 2001 to the Georgian ministry of defence. “The dream of a wealthy military city has vanished after the collapse of the Soviet Union,” tells Andrei.
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- Up to 2004 there was no running water – the power and water supplies are still deficient today. In some of the Soviet buildings, water has been dripping through the ceilings, down several stories – basements and ground floors have been flooded due to the defective sewer system.
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- “There are no jobs here and people are poor – sometimes we don’t even have water here. We have problems to pay for our daily bread. The people here simply want to live normal lives. I’ve been living here for 15 years and stay unemployed. No one cares about us…”, tells Cico.
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- Marina suffers from cancer and is unable to work. She split up with her husband a few years ago and moved to Vaziani with her children, Edo and Maya.
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- Marina makes lunch out of whatever she can gets her hands on and stores the leftovers in the pan for the evening.
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- “This whole place is a huge problem, you know, nothing moves forward. The politicians are fighting each other and meanwhile people are suffering. We’re only thinking about how to get food and something to drink.” tells Tariel Zodiashvili, who has been living in Vaziani for 30 years.
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- There is rarely work to find in Vaziani. The youth meets in the streets of the settlement or they drive to Tbilisi to pass time.
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- A friend of Edo smokes a cigarette in Edo’s room. Just like this one, most apartments are furnished sporadical. Their owners are in lack of any means to renovate their homes.
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- A boy burns collected garbage in the center of the settlement. Children struggle to find activities in Vaziani. The parents in the settlement worry about the future of their kids, thus they try to give them better prospects in life through education.
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- “I have gotten used to this place. I live here with my husband, my daughters are already married and have children on their own. I’m content in this place. We wish we could go somewhere else, but we need to accept the places we call home and start creating our own worlds there,” tells Lali, who has been living in Vaziani since 1993 and is the only nurse in the settlemen
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- The Russians left almost no traces when they left Vaziani. Some Cyrillic letters on walls are the only evidence of the Russian control in Vaziani. After the collapse of the Soviet Union all Resources that could not be taken home were blown up, just before the last Russian troops departed.
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- Seventeen year old Edo, the only man in the household, is repairing his small music box. Because of Marina’s illness, it’s his job to raise money for the family. The last job he took on was helping some local farmers shear their sheep. He only kept a small amount of the money for himself, the rest he gave his mother.
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- The whole family shares a light bulb which is, whenever needed, plugged in the appropriate lamp socket. The corridor, however, is never lighted. There is power supply in the apartment – that is not evident in the village.
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- Two children roam around the broad fields at the periphery of the settlement. In demand for a suited playground, the inhabitants collected signatures for a petition to the government – they only received empty promises in return.
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Arne Piepke (1991) studies photography at the Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Germany focussing on documentary photography. He deals with different aspects of home and his personal relation to it. Recently he worked on social-documentaries in Georgia and Kosovo. In December 2016 he took part at the portfoliowalk of DFA in Augsburg and in march 2017 he participated in the Nikon-NOOR Adademy workshopat C/O in Berlin.
Ingmar Björn Nolting (1995) studies photography at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Dortmund, Germany. His work focuses on long-term documentary photo-essays mainly dealing with social and sociological issues. Driven by curiosity about how people feel, think, and interact, he tries to understand what it means to be human. Ingmar is based in Dortmund.