Tbilisi bids farewell to Khrushchev heritage

Georgy Kalatozishvili, Tbilisi. Exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza

The new administration of the Georgian capital represented by the City Parliament and its chairman Irakly Shikhiashvili developed an ambitious plan of replacing Khrushchyovkas (low-cost, three- to five-storied apartment buildings) with new apartment buildings. Leaders of the Georgian Dream create more and more ideas to outshine the intensive years of Mikhail Saakashvili’s governance, when the authorities presented ambitious initiatives of constructing on the Black Sea shore almost every day. It was planned to build “a city of the sun” and resettle half of the rural population of the country there within the program of “speeded-up urbanization.”

The plan of replacing Khrushchyovkas is comparable to the projects developed by the United National Movement. According to Tbilisi City Hall, there are about 800 five-storey apartment buildings, which were built in the times of Nikita Khrushchev for the purpose of urbanization and resettlement of residents of shared apartments. There are eight-storey Khrushchyovkas with similar conditions; there are several thousands of them.

Now it is about resettlement of several tens of thousands within the city. Who will build new comfortable apartments for them? According to Irakly Shikhiashvili, some Arab investors from a little-known trade and investment holding will deal with it. However, its head Salem Humeid Al Shams left no comments on the statement by the chairman of the city parliament, and the project got a comic character. Obviously, the main condition for realization of the project is transparency, intensive promotion, a well-thought-out PR campaign and constant work with the population. Otherwise people won’t believe in it and nobody will agree with destruction of apartments for promises to build a new house.

Where will former residents of Khrushchyovkas live all this time? The authors of the idea promise to resettle thousands of people to rental apartments, paying the rent from the city budget for several years, till the Arab trade and investment holding builds thousands of new houses. What if a financial or political crisis begins in the country and the budget couldn’t pay the rent to owners of apartments? It is clear that people won’t believe in promises and won’t rent or hire flats.

Why do the authorities need so much cry and little wolf, if the project is absolutely futureless? The answer is obvious: the municipal elections are coming up and the experience of Saakashvili’s governance tells the new authorities that major projects are demanded in the pre-election period. This is the psychology of post-Soviet people. The most important thing is to show activity.