The Abkhazia war stopped in Oktober 1993. More than 250 thousand people were dislocated, most of them Georgians. The city of Tskaltubo took in 12.00 refugees from Abkhazia. Most were distributed to the vacant hotels and sanatoriums of the city. For the past 25 years, many of the families have been living in these dilapidated buildings. Now the second generation is growing up there. The Georgian government is trying to build new homes for the people in different places around the country. They are financial supported by the state with about 25 euros per month per person by the government.
View from the ball room of a former hotel build by the Sowjets. It became a temporary housing to Abkhazia war refugees in 1993. Since 25 years nobody invested in the structure of the former hotel. Now most of the windows are missing, the roof is leaking. Hotel Samgurali was build from 1977 to 1987, when it opens with 306 beds and high class furniture as old descriptions show.
This viewpoint was built for comrade Josef Stalin for his one-week stay in Tskaltubo in 1951. Located in a residential complex of the KGB, this place was not only particularly guarded, it is also just 30 meters from a large villa where Stalin lived. People in Tskaltubo say that Stalin always read sitting there after lunch for an hour and looked at the landscape. To Stalin’s visit not only this villa was built in Tskaltubo, but also the Tbilisi Hotel with 100 rooms and the Sanatorium Spring 6 were built by about 4,000 German prisoners of war in just nine months.
Nado (53) lives with her husband Georgi, her children and grand children in the hotel Sakartvelo for 26 years. Next moth her 4th grandchild will be born, so 9 people share four small rooms. Her husband Georgi is unemployed at the moment.
Georgi is the second generation of refugees living in the abandoned hotels in Tskaltubo. He and his father breed dogs. They bought the young husky just some weeks ago with the aim to breed huskies to make an income. The youth unemployment rate in Georgia is as high as 27% officially. Most young people try to go to Europe to find a job.
Nadia Chemdichvili (53 years), has lived for 25 years with her mother and sister, as well as her 13-year-old son in two former single rooms of the Hotel Tbilisi. The escape spread her family and friends across Georgia. The contact is mostly broken off, which has led to a certain loneliness for them, as Nadia says. Although 12,000 refugees came to Tskaltubo after the war, they found little connection to the life in this part of Georgia.
Georgi (68) lives with his wife in two rooms in the Hotel Medea for 24 years. In Abkhazia, he was a police officer and fought in the battle of Sukhumi. His daughter lives with her small child in Tbilisi and he also will soon leave the hotel. The Georgian government has promised him a home in Kutaissi in a modern housing project. The Hotel Medea, where he currently lives in, is to be renovated in 2019.
A car parked in the foyer of the sanatorium Gelati. Sukhumi is written on the wall. Sukhumi is the capital of Abkhazia and the place where the Georgian-Abkhazian war began. The battle for Sukhumi. was the bloodiest of the whole war. It lasted from 16 March to 27 September 1993 and ended with the defeat of the Georgian army. The insurgents were supported by Russian troops and armed groups from Chechnya. Both sides committed serious war crimes and ethnic cleansing during the war.
A Child sleeping besides his parents beds, in hotel Metalurgia. Most of the families live in one room with a small kitchen. The rooms are damp, this often forms mold on the walls. The hearths are old metal stoves whose smoke is dissipated through improvised chimneys.
Two boys ride their bikes on the top floor of Hotel Metalurgia in Tskaltubo. The hotel was built as a luxury resort for heavy industry officials of the Soviet Union. The walls of the dance and cinema hall are made of red marble, the foyer is made of the same material. For the officials there was a library, a billiard room and a smoking lounge. Immediately after the war around 80 families lived in the hotel, whose administration they took over. Currently only 20 families live in the complex. Most of the others moved to Tbilisi or Kutaissi. Children raised in this environment suffer more from heavy health complications like asthma and allergies, regarding the statements of local doctors.
The guest book of the hotel Tbilisi. During the socialist times delegation from all brother counties visited Tskaltubo. At this page you see the record of two patients from the GDR on the left side and the translation to Georgian on the right side. Most of the people give thanks to the friendship of the two nations and praise the hostility of the Georgians. Hotel Tbilisi was build for Stalins visit in 1951. With around 80 rooms, luxury furniture and only a five minutes walk away from Spring 6, the bath builded for Stalin it was the highlight of the hotels in 1951.
Greta (68) ist not a refugee. She worked until 1992 as a secretary in the hotel Tbilisi. She lost her cheep flat after the collapse of the Sovjet Union and moved in the abandoned Hotel.
Man breeding chickens in front of the hotel Tbilisi. Some of the elderly refugees depend on self use breeding, because the state pension is not sufficient for all needs of a family. With only 160 Lari a month (67 US$) its just 40 cents above the poverty line defined by UN. In Georgia, 21.3% of the population lives below the national poverty line in 2016.
