Translated material
Georgia on the eve of change
Philip Dzyadko listened to what they were talking about in Tbilisi during the election campaign
“Whenever Saakashvili’s rating falls, Putin comes to the rescue.” When this NEW Times number will appear in kiosks, in Georgia there will be elections to the parliament. The main intrigue is whether the ruling party “Unified National Movement” will receive the constitutional majority or simply the majority and how much the Operational Dream Opposition Alliance will gain. All week before the elections, Tbilisi lived with expectations and fears: they talk about the possibility of riots, provocations on both sides, and most importantly, war with Russia. The New Times it became known that foreign embassies are ready, if it comes to this, to export their employees from Georgia. The New Times correspondent spent three days in Tbilisi and listened carefully what people on the streets are talking about, on demonstrations and a friendly feast to understand what was in the air of the city on the eve of change 
On the border, all arrivals were given a bottle of red wine with a seal in the passport. “This is Onishchenko’s answer - to show what good wine is, so that then everyone knows what to compare with,” the neighbor explains in turn.
The weather is good.
We turn from the highway, drive along the short street of George Bush (“Well, what the name is! Who is he at all, Fenimore Cooper, or something? When the power is replaced, will they be renamed, we are doing this all the time,” says George), and now the city center, Mount Mtatsmind with a monument of the mother of David, the old city, descending from the mountain to the mountains to the mountain. water, terraces, cypresses, bridges, old and new ones. “And this is“ Mishin’s gasket, ”the driver suddenly says, pointing to the glass curved bridge built several years ago by Saakashvili: for some, a symbol of the successful well -being and triumph of new reforms, for others - tasteless showdown.
Five hotels are busy in a row, many say that the reservation is “before the election”. Elections to the Georgian parliament are held on October 1, and the whole city is glued with posters, portraits of serious men in jackets. For those who do not know Georgian, the numbers under the physiognomies of candidates - the serial number in ballots - and the colors of the posters: the blue - the Bloc of the “Georgian Dream” Bidzina Ivanishvili become.
* * Bidzina Ivanishvili-the Russian oligarch, the creator of the Dr. Stoletov pharmacy network, the founder and vice-president of the Russian Credit bank, in 2012 founded the Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia party, which participates in the parliament in the Bidzina Ivanishvili-Georgian Dream. , red - the “single national movement” by Mikhail Saakashvili. There are others, but these main ones, and between the blue “dreamers” and the red “Mishists” are the main war, they are the heroes of compromises, disputes and forecasts.
Torture and rumors of barbecue, “zinandali”, cheese of fortune -telling, pals ... The restaurant “Maspinzelo” near sulfur baths. “There are no average rallies in Tbilisi - either very small or huge. Either everyone does not give a damn, or all concerns everyone. And then everyone becomes politicians, everyone watches TV, everyone read newspapers, ”- says the young architect Shota. The rallies returned to the city after the publication of a video that became famous throughout the world: employees of the Gldanian prison torture and rape the prisoner, the instrument of torture - a broom. When these cadres showed on television, several thousand people went out onto the streets. Tolpa came to the Philharmonic building, where President Saakashvili watched the premiere of a new performance, and the building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, demanded to judge the former Minister of Bachu Ahalai
* Bacho Akhalai - the former Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia, before that, the head of the Department of Punishment of the Ministry of Justice, in 2006 received sad glory during the suppression of the prison rebel, on September 20, resigned after the publication of the video test of prisoners. .
“This video could not be shown at such a time. Now he is quoted by children at school, ”a large family, three children, parents, their friends are sitting at the next table. They talk about this story here at every table. A variety of people gather here - students, officials, actors ... Now the restaurant is full, and almost every table comes from the phrase “Gldanis Tsikha” ... “Gldanis Tsikha” ... “Gldanis Tsikha” is a Gldanian prison.
"Saakashvili did not know anything about torture, and he was well done that he fired these executioners." - “If he did not know this, then what did he know at all? All Georgia knew about torture in prison, all Georgia knows about terror against businessmen, he did not know alone? " - "The third day of the Ministry of Justice sits seven people, they announced a hunger strike." - “What do they want? Nothing! They are against violence. " - “All this provocation is a video shot for a long time, they threw it before the elections. And not at all in order to repair something, but for the sake of the move for Ivanishvili. All these slogans about “in the ass of the brooms of the ministers” are not democrats, but animals, they, when they come to power, break through everyone! ” - "Films, Ivanishvili is already well -fed, he does not need to steal, he will arrange an economic amnesty, cancel loans." - "What amnesty, he is a friend of the Russian thieves in law!" - At the table are four young people who seem to be ready to cling to each other. "We are all tired - both the people and Misha."
All kinds of rumors go in the city. It is said that when immediately after the scandal, Minister Akhalai came to the Patriarch - a man whose authority is higher in the country than any politician, the patriarch had a heart attack. They say that the Patriarch himself arrived in prison immediately after the cadres of torture showed, and cried. They say that at the Red Bridge, on the border with Armenia, 20 black jeeps were seen, and in one of them there was a former minister Ahalai, who fled from popular anger. They say that Saakashvili went to the Patriarch and asked him to stand up for him, to save him from the trial and murder if Ivanishvili came to power.
“You see,” says Shota, “Putin and Saakashvili have a very strange relationship. No one will be surprised if, in the end, Misha escapes to Moscow - no one else will accept him. After the scandal in prison, they will not want him in America, only Putin needs such a criminal. And when he accepts, he will say: look, for you it was a light bulb of democracy, and now he is sitting in Moscow. You say that you are in democracy, and soon you will also be in Moscow. ”
Students' company sits at the next table: "This time of the new generation, our time, we lacked oxygen, now it will be." The main participants in the demonstrations are they. The next action is scheduled for Monday, on the 24th, at 15.00.
A rally at Tbilisi State University. A few minutes later, the crowd will begin a procession through the entire city center, a demonstration in front of the building of the University of Tbilisi is slowly gathering people. A fragile girl with a huge megaphone in her hands whispers something to her friend and laughs. Many have white scarves on the neck and wrist, many have colored whistles in their hands and the sheets of Watman's sheets twisted into rolls. Not far from the entrance to the university kindergarten sits the old man and rhythmically hits the drum. And although a box for money lies next to him, it seems that he is a participant in the future manifestation. The rally is generally capable of changing the city, the more the little center of Tbilisi: people peek out of passing buses and shout something to the assembled, sellers of porcelain are in a hurry to turn their goods. Hearing passes through the crowd: not only Tbilisi students will take part in today's event - they go from other cities. There are more and more people, chambers of television companies appear, students give an interview. “We don’t have a leader, those who are called that refuse this,” a man of about twenty years, who, seems to really want to be like Che Guevara, says that the student movement is not associated with any political force. “We will protest with any government whoever won the election. We will demand that the penitentiary system, and then the education system, will change first. ”
This is Dito Huskivadze, one of the creators of the Laboratory 1918 movement, a student association, which previously fought only against internal university problems: against a high fee for training, against the dismissal of opposition teachers, against the official student union, whose members are called the Komsomol for the active support of the ruling party. Now the members of the Laboratory are one of the main organizers of the many thousands of demonstrations of civil protest, and their page on Facebook hacks and attack unknown forces.
Here, in the garden in front of the university building, representatives of various forces gathered, the fundamentalists are standing near the defenders of the rights of sexual minorities. In the crowd they argue where to go by the procession after the rally - to the residence of the Patriarch or to the Ministry of Defense. In the hands of the posters “We Are Fucking Angry!”, “Your Democracy Takes Me”.
Someone shouts loudly in Megaphone, applause: the rally began. The guy, similar to Che Guevara, begins to read the text of the “Manifesto”: he reads on the line and calls for the crowd to repeat every line. TV presenter and photographer Alexander Bagration translating the text to me: "Are we ready for joint experiences?" “If we are ready, good.” -"Combine the effort for the most accurate designation of this moment." “Do we not realize that an attempt to find a rhythmic factor of this moment is a more than painful process?” A person with a megaphone slowly reads one phrase, the crowd repeats the words. This is the text of the poet Leo Rubinstein "Program of joint actions", written in 1981
* The text of the poet and essayist Leo Rubinstein, transmitted in Samizdat, was written in the experimental genre of “Foard” - each sentence was written on a separate card. The subtitle of the "Programs ..." - "by reading is transmitted from hand to hand." . Thirty years later, someone transferred him to Georgian. Now it is the text of the protest of the Georgian young public against the current system.
Suddenly, two of those who recently distributed interviews are cutting their forearms. The words “I love the police” on a white T -shirt are written with blood. The mess begins - they shout that this cannot be done, "we are against violence." Screams, whistles; Megaphone takes turns convey to different speakers. Rumor passes through the crowd: in the Gldan prison, three prisoners were crucified on the beds. Then it turns out that it was only a hearing. Suddenly, the crowd swayed and poured from the university - it seems that no one understands where everyone is going, but the movement is already set.
Bagration disappears in a crowd with two cameras at the ready. The crowd overlaps the movement, the beeps of cars, in front - a bearded man with a huge drum, at the head of the column - a small truck, in the body of which ten people with megaphones were packed. The crowd, which overwhelmers the street, organizes itself. Every 10 minutes, people stop to straighten the column. At one of these stops from the speakers of the truck, singing is heard - a group of five people sings Georgian polyphony in the microphone.
"Sakartvo, Sakartvo, Sakartvo (Georgia)!" - the crowd shouts, turns into Rustaveli. People leave neighboring stores, someone cries, someone joins the crowd, people go to balconies, wave, take pictures, thank the demonstrators. About ten thousand people are moving towards the Ministry of Defense, crossing the bridge.
Two fishermen on the shallow part of the hens catch fish. Their almost motionless figures and an inspired screaming crowd - as if pictures of two different books. But the fishermen see the crowd on the bridge and wave it, the city merges into one common movement.
“Students, of course, use everyone who is not lazy. But they are the cleanest that we have now, ”says Alexander Bagration.
At night, he will send me the SSMES: "They just detained Alexander Tsagarsel, the leader of the" Laboratory of 1918 ", everyone goes to him." A few hours later, Tsarsele will be released. He will pay a fine of 400 Lari “For Police Resistance” and leave the police station by the hero.
Restaurant "Gabriadze". The toast for the health of Rezo Gabriadze has just been drunk and “for the wind in his head, thanks to which so much beautiful has been created,” again, to destroy everything along with Manana Arabuli, the organizer of Tbilisi cultural life, we came to the editorial office of the Prirectory weekly “Tabula”. “For the first time they are forced to close the doors of the editorial office, it used to be an open house,” says Manana.
At the editor -in -chief of Tabula Tamara Chergoleishvili, there has been serious pressure lately - they write letters with threats, her wall on Facebook is filled with curses. The reputation of the publication supporting the “Mishists” can now be dangerous. But the circulation of the magazine has grown in recent years - everyone is interested in politics. “Of course, now everyone is annoyed. Saakashvili supporters are disappointed. After all, how, the president is the father of the people, when he is in force, everyone believes him unconditionally. And this is wrong, society should constantly ask the question "why?"
Chergoleishvili says that this is a trap: those who are now opposed to Saakashvili understand that he does not have alternatives - Ivanishvili and his party is even worse, no one really knows anything about this person, he is surrounded by people from the former “Soviet government” - the company Shevardnadze, who are waiting for the revenge. “These people did not do anything good for the prison, there were the same torture, only no one showed the video on the eve of the election.”
Both Arabuli and Chergoleishvili say that the level of aggression in society has reached its limit: “They again want to break everything. It reaches idiocy: a funicular was recently restored - they now say that it spoils the city look, not to mention bridges and buildings built under Misha. These radicals will vote even for a bear, if only not for the "Mishists."
Tamara assures that “Misha is not Turkmenbashi” and will calmly give power, will not be advanced in the presidential election. Saakashvili, she says, wins the elections, even despite the prison scandal, and both parties will be approximately in parliament, but only if there are no provocations.
“Provocation” is now the most frequent word on the streets of Tbilisi. Some claim that they were preparing Ivanishvili, who announced that he would win in the election anyway. They say that he is preparing new compromises - and this is not difficult, all Georgia knows each other, and politicians are not modest. Others expect that Saakashvili will be forced to falsify the elections and either find a pretext and simply cancel them, or will announce a curfew in the city and take Black Brigades to the streets. Rumors amaze with ingenuity: as if the former minister Akhalai bought 20 houses on the outskirts of the city and transported all the weapons there: in the event of the defeat of the “Mishists”, he is preparing a military coup. Or: somewhere they hide a very powerful political figure-the one about whom everyone thought that he died: people argue-either it was Badri Patarkatsishvili, or Zviad Gamsakhurdia himself. This person will declare himself at a critical moment, and everything will change ...
“This uncertainty and universal brutality are worried,” says the editor -in -chief of Tabula. And much depends on Russia: everyone is waiting for Putin to do something, and then the brief alignment of forces will change. They can support Ivanishvili, put their puppet and make us a sphere of their interests. Russia can really come in. Russia is our permanent cross, we always live with an eye on. ”
On September 27, on the festival of the Cross Extension Patriarch II, Tbilisi consecrated: several thousand people took part in the procession, the priests sprinkled the streets with holy water - in connection with a difficult situation in the country on the eve of the elections ”and“ for the sake of the unity of the country and the world ”. (Photo Reuters)
The fears of October on the morning of the third day in the Vake area (“This is our Manhattan), full of expensive cafes, I met with Marina, a relative of one of the European diplomats working in Tbilisi. She tells how she was asked to take a picture and prepare the questionnaire - for an Armenian visa. All embassy workers were strictly forbidden to participate in street actions and, in general, if possible, not go to the city. “Hotel rooms were ordered in Armenia. This happens in all embassies - even the Japanese are worried. " The last time this was on the eve of the 2008 war - then it was in Armenia that foreign diplomats and members of their families were urgently evacuated. “You see, Putin and Saakashvili need each other, and both are interested in a military clash - at least now they say so here. When Misha had a rating and it seemed-nothing would help, the war of 2008 happened, Putin’s now, too, is not all in order either? ” From the neighboring table comes again: "Gldan prison ..."
After 40 minutes, together with Bagration in the poorest area of the city - Gldani, near the walls of the prison. The wind is walking here, drivers of empty minibuses are getting over. After demonstrating the terrible video of the prison door, they opened for relatives, observers and priests. The passage makes the impression of the Moscow Internet cafe, which could be located somewhere on the “Red October”-computers, everything is sheathed with wood, polite girls “in the reception”. Ни один человек не улыбается — это родственники, которые ждут свидания. «Внутри все совсем по-другому», — говорит Александр и знакомит меня с женщиной, которая пришла на свидание с сыном: «Я не поверю, что ситуация улучшилась, пока не увижу его. Тюремщики обещают после выборов мстить за этот скандал и продолжить пытки. В Грузии уже давно идет террор — бюджет собирается как дань: если не заплатишь деньги, не обеспечишь нужное количество голосов на выборах за счет своих сотрудников, тебя посадят. Бухгалтера моего сына избили до полусмерти, и он дал показания, что Отар украл у государства какие-то деньги. От нас требовали принести $50 тыс. и 300 голосов за партию Саакашвили. We could not. Сына осудили на 17 лет. Теперь я стою здесь с пакетом одежды для него и жду, когда он мне расскажет, пытали его или нет. Хотя даже если да — он мне никогда не расскажет».
Застолье Через час мы снова в центре города — за дружеским столом, и это застолье переходит еще в одно, и уже толком не помнишь, куда осенней тбилисской улицей тебя везет таксист.
Но застолья этого тбилисского сентября — другие. В городе перенесли несколько свадеб, Нино Катамадзе отменила свой концерт, отменено освящение нового порта. Почти каждый тост здесь так или иначе заканчивается словами о надежде. И за каждым столом висит — мучительное ожидание и тревога. Эта тревога чувствуется на цветочном рынке на Колхозной, в хинкальной у Сухого моста, в шикарном, самом европейском районе Шардене, на открытиях выставок и в толпе студентов.
И всюду идут споры, расхождения проходят через семью, как говорит Манана, такого не было со времен Звиада Гамсахурдиа, когда семьи раскалывались из-за политических разногласий. За столом кто-то скажет: «Если начнется война, я вывезу детей и вернусь воевать». «Не будет никакой войны, это бред». Вновь пришедший подхватит: «Только что слышал, что на границах собирается мощная техника, Путин пригнал 10 тыс. солдат, а Миша привозит наших солдат из Афганистана». — «Всякий раз, когда у Саакашвили падает рейтинг, Путин приходит на помощь». — «Они все фарисеи: говорят, что хотят все улучшить, но снова все разрушат, сломают мост, переименуют улицы, поменяют фасад, а мы же очень доверчивые». — «Не доверчивые, а глупые — мы в кого-то влюбляемся, выбираем его, а дальше ждем, что он все за нас сделает». — «Если начнутся столкновения, будет хаос, выползут гоблины — воры, наркоманы, уволенные менты, а против них — «мишистские» чиновники, у которых ничего нет, кроме больших зарплат, фасадной вежливости и умения продавать выгодные места под стройку. Если система изменится, им будет нечего терять».
Для многих «роман» с Саакашвили закончился — не только из-за страшных кадров с пытками и независимо от плохого и хорошего сделанного им, а просто от усталости. Президент не может оставаться долго на своем посту — он сначала надоедает, затем его начинают ненавидеть. У Саакашвили еще есть возможность уйти спокойно и красиво. Но и Иванишвили вместе с его командой многих пугают — и своей агрессивной риторикой, и непонятными связями с Россией и фундаменталистами.
Знаменитый поэт Котэ Кубанишвили сочиняет экспромт «Горе — не море, в нем не утонешь». Багратион говорит о том, что ничего не меняется: «Эта дрянь политическая ниже нас, а мы внутри нее все равно». Кто-то рассказывает анекдот: как Сталин предлагает Горькому написать роман «Отец» и, подмигивая Берии, говорит: «Ведь попытка не пытка, не правда ли». Слово «пытка» повисает в воздухе, Котэ напоминает, что этот анекдот два поколения тому назад рассказывали друг другу шепотом и предлагает выпить — за то, чтобы «после 2 октября мы шепотом анекдоты не рассказывали».
«Вот это и есть предчувствие гражданской войны», — говорит кто-то.
«Я хочу выпить за Россию, мы всегда были вместе и…», «Всего этого не хочется касаться, но и быть в стороне невозможно, нам нужна эволюция, а не революция и…», «Слышали, все билеты на 2 октября из Тбилиси раскуплены? Остались только в бизнес-класс в Мюнхен…», «Оставьте Мюнхен в покое, я хочу предложить тост…»
На следующий день по всему Тбилиси пройдет процессия священнослужителей. Они освятят город, чтобы ничего не случилось, чтобы ни одно дурное предчувствие не подтвердилось.
Два рыбака по-прежнему ловят рыбу на обмелевшей стороне Куры. Их фигуры сливаются с общим пейзажем, они почти неразличимы.