It took a long time for Georgia to recover from the economic shock of the collapse of the USSR. Initially, workers’ rights were ignored while the country tried to re-establish its sovereignty after civil war and interethnic conflicts. Later, Mikheil Saakishvili decided to go along the Singapore road of high speed economic development.
Tbilisi’s central market is popularly known as the deserters’ market, because during the Russian civil war at the start of the 1920s, when Georgia was an independent country thanks to the presence of British forces, deserting soldiers used to sell their modest booty there. According to memoirs of the time, you could buy uniforms of every army involved in the conflict, as well as stuff stolen from every battleground.
Today, on the side of the market beside the railway station (most of which is now a shopping mall) you can find an endless line of street traders standing under a makeshift awning made out of plastic sheets cobbled together with twine and duct tape. All the nearby pedestrian subways are also occupied by stalls, so commuters rushing for their trains have to dodge among the traffic.
