Grigory Pasko: A Trip to Abkhazia

The Sovietness of the tour journey from Dagomys into Abkhazia was felt literally right from the start: the bus travelled for nearly three hours through Sochi-Adler-Matsesta-Khost and the flophouses on the shore of the Black Sea, gathering tourists. They were gathered. We arrived in Veseloye to the border.

It's a very funny border: lots of fences, but any sense of the security reality is absent. Dogs highly trained to find fried ground meat cutlets wandering around in droves. Abkhazian borderistas and customs agents wandering around in droves (I did not see what they are highly trained to find). The guide asked if the Russo-turistos (some 50 people had crammed themselves into the bus) had narcotics, weapons and other unlawful items. In response EVERYBODY was silent. And after this they did not check ANYBODY.

The first poster on the neutral strip we came across - an advertisement, for the American cigarettes West. This is all the more funny because the official powers both of Russia and of Abkhazia are doing everything they can to demonstrate their dislike of the USA, which support Georgia.

The Russian border guards checked passports: just like they ought to - in a database on a computer. An Abkhazian maiden checked passports selectively, skipping over every one-two people, without any of those silly computers and databases.

We crossed the Psou on foot and saw chebureki [a common street food, a fried folded flatbread usually filled with something vaguely resembling meat--Trans.] at 50 rubles and a bus of other tourists with the sign Yebenes tour. Droves of dogs were wandering around it.
A person in a camouflage uniform entered (they're fashionable there) and collected 15 rubles each - «insurance fee». The guide Manana re-counted everyone: one girl - a Korean - our borderistas had «rejected as defective». She remained in our Motherland.

The first excursion site (for an additional 150 rubles) - the dacha of comrade Stalin №2 on Kholodnaya [Cold--Trans.] river (somewhere in the mountains between Leselidze and Gagra). The dacha is in dismal condition. It can be seen that they had plundered its interior but good - even not all the light bulbs are burning. The excursion of the dacha was led by... the security guard. He recounted fairy tales about Stalin. It seemed to everyone that the lad obviously sympathized with the tyrant. Then we asked why they aren't showing us the third story. «There, - the security guard said importantly, - are the apartments of Sergey Vasilievich». Who this «Sergey Vasilievich» is clearly not everyone knew, but, apparently, guessed, that this - is president of Abkhazia comrade Bagapsh. (I'll never understand this habit of people who have climbed to the pinnacle of some kind of power to settle in the mansions of previous tyrants).

The dacha did not make any impression on me whatsoever: boring, dusty, dirty, smelling of mold...But then around the dacha is wonderful piney air. And also, of course, impressive is the labor of prisoners, who carved out so much space in a cliff face for dacha constructions and roads.

...In Gagra, it was the state of ruin that struck the eye. Houses without windows and doors, abandoned constructions, garbage along the roads...In anticipation, Manana began to talk about the blockade of Abkhazia by the Georgian «occupiers and aggressors», about how they had vandalized and destroyed everything around in the course of the 6 years of the «blockade». Something didn't quite connect with the arithmetic: the war had ended in the year 1993. That is, already 16 years had passed. That is, 16 years already since the «occupiers» had gone. That's the first thing. The second thing, in Gagra and Gudauta rayons, supposedly, there hadn't been any «occupiers» at all. So who had destroyed the houses and had strewn garbage all over the place?

Of the intact sites in Gagra, sticking in memory was the sanatorium of the Russian ministry of defense. Such an impression that no wars take the desk commandos of our ministry of defense. Furthermore, even in the crisis they contrive to build something there - like an aerial cable-car tram.

From Gagra we went to Pitsunda. Regularly encountered along the road were huge little monsters of a macabre appearance - bus stops tackily overlaid with mosaic-like small tiles in the form of a spotted little hen, a little octopus, a little fish, a little shell...As Manana clarified, this - is the graduation projects of the great sculptor Zurab Tsereteli. (Later I recalled that I had already seen this tackiness earlier in Peredelkino: there the sculptor-raptor had decorated his dacha in this manner).

In Pitsunda we were met by the already customary ruin and untendedness. It was cold, a strong wind was blowing, clouds had overcast the sky...Maybe it was for this reason as well that an atmosphere of unfestiveness was felt. There were few people around. In the main - women at the market. They were selling souvenirs, made who knows were and who knows by whom: you can encounter this kind all over Russia. Moreover, predominating were shells- beads-clay abominations of exactly the same coloration as the little Tseretelian monsters-bus stops. Could it be that he is the author-raptor of these souvenirs?

One woman offered me «home-made wine». I foolishly took a gulp. It didn't smell like wine. I'm not even talking about the taste. Let me put it this way: do not drink, little Ivan, from the hoof, you will become a goat. (Later, I, of course, did try Abkhazian wines. So-so. But you can drink them, especially the dry reds like «Chegema» and «Eshera». Although... I still wouldn't call all this wines).

...Obviously threatening the breathtaking beauty of lake Ritsa are the multitude of constructions cropping up without any rational plan: cafes, restaurants, boat rental centers, souvenir stands... Then I often notices this disorder, lack of a unitary architectural approach. The motleyness at times distracts even from the beauties of the site itself. That's how it was also, by the way, next to the artificial waterfall in Novy Afon [New Athos--Trans.]...

...Next stop - the New Athos Simono-Canonite monastery. A very beautiful monastery - not even the ubiquitous scaffolding gets in the way of seeing this. It's amazing that the place is actually in good condition. It is not amazing that there once used to be a tourist base here.
The Novy Afon karst cave - this is a truly amazing creation of nature. And the people here have actually put in some effort - the metro inside the Iverian mountain alone is impressive enough. [Everything that has been preserved and is still functioning had obviously been made in the Soviet years--G.P.]. In the tourist handbooks they write - «the halls of the cave are very beautifully lit». In actuality, the halls are disgustingly poorly lit. Darkness everywhere you look. Some 80 percent of all the beauty is simply not visible. Manana the guide clarified that they had tried to make the lighting somewhat better, but the undertaking didn't work out: the stalactites had begun to get overgrown with moss because of the elevation of the temperature in the cave.

On the way back, the driver put in a cassette with the «Caucasian chanson « (this is - something, words fail me, you've got to hear it for yourself) and a cassette with patriotic songs of the Republic of Apsny (that's how Abkhazia is called). Here are the words from that song: «Stark naked you stand, o mother of mine. Everybody is ripping you to pieces. But now you have become free, my dear Abkhazia». Have you imagined the picture? And just who is this «everybody»? Could the author of the words have had in mind not only Georgia?

...For a small advertising leaflet of the «Magical world» tourism bureau, the girl in the kiosk took 50 rubles from me. In the leaflet I read that the Abkhaz - are the oldest nationality in the world; that the Abkhaz and the Kartvelians (Georgians) - are different nationalities; that in the year 1810, Abkhazia had voluntarily attached itself to Russia; that in the year 1866, the Abkhaz - every man, woman and child without exception - were banished to Turkey; that Abkhazia is «waiting for worldwide recognition of state status».

To this I will add that having recognized Abkhazia, besides Russia, are Nicaragua and Venezuela.

Photos: Abkhazia today (Photos by G.Pasko)

For reference:

On 14 August of the year 1992 between Georgia and Abkhazia began military actions, including with the application of artillery. The start of the military phase of the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict was laid by the introduction into Abkhazia of Georgian troops. In Georgia they declare that the troops entered by mutual understanding between Tbilisi and Sukhum for the protection of the railroad. In Abkhazia they are convinced that this was just an excuse, and the introduction of troops evoked the exacerbated resistance of the inhabitants of the region.

On 3 September of the year 1992 in Moscow, Boris Yeltsin and Eduard Shevardnadze signed a document envisioning the cessation of fire, the withdrawal of Georgian troops from Abkhazia, the return of refugees, however the parties did not fulfill a single item of the agreement, and military actions continued.

At last, on 27 August of the year 1993, Sukhum transferred to the control of Abkhazian troops. Georgian troops were forced completely to abandon Abkhazia.

During the time of the war around 16 thsd. people died, including 4 thsd. Abkhaz, 10 thsd. Georgians and 2 thsd. volunteers from the republics of the North Caucasus and South Ossetia.