There is a road that crosses the Caucasus Mountains at an altitude of 2,379 metres. This road connects Georgia's capital Tbilisi to Vladikavkaz in the Russian Federation. Built in the 18th century, it pushed the Russian Empire’s boundaries southward. Over two centuries, it has been endlessly remade: extended, widened, cut and diverted. Today it forms a key artery of the North-South Corridor linking Iran to Russia. But beneath its geopolitical function lies something more intimate. This road has haunted the lives of everyone who lives and works along it, weaving together warfare and trade, hope and fear, and in some cases, death. In this episode, Evelina Gambino and Elisabed Gedevanishvili delve into the hauntings along this road by speaking with workers, residents, activists and researchers. The episode features conversations with Manana Kochladze, chair of environmental NGO Green Alternative, Irine Burduli, and academics Paul Manning, Hannah Knox and Manuel Moser.
Special thanks to Jay Bernard for reading excerpts from \"The Elder of Khevi\" by Aleksandre Kazbegi and \"Notes from a Traveler\" by Urbneli\"
Additional voice-work by: Simone Coroma, Misho Gedevanishvili, Sophie Harman, Rosie Jackman, Colm Murphy, Ksenia Northmore-Ball and Charlie Thomas.
Useful Links
Green Alternative: https://greenalt.org/en/
Mautskebeli: https://mautskebeli.ge/
JamNews Video on the Military Road: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSxpH271l08
Protests in Independent Georgia. https://www.geoprotests.org/en
Further Reading
Penny Harvey & Hannah Knox. Roads: An Anthropology of Infrastructure and Expertise (Cornell UP, 2015).
Paul Manning. Imperial and Colonial Sublime: The Aesthetics of Infrastructure. In Strangers in a Strange Land (Academic Studies Press, 2012).
Manuel Moser. “East to West to South to North—and Back,” Transfers, 12:1 (2022), pp. 20-32.
Lela Rekhviashvili, Luka Nakhutsrishvili, Konstantine Eristavi, Alexandra Aroshvili & Ia Eradze. “There’s more at stake in the fight against the Foreign Agents Law than liberal NGOs: Why the left should show solidarity with the protests in Georgia,” Lefteast, 28 May 2024.
This episode was supported by the Independent Social Research Fund, Leverhulme Trust and Cambridge Humanities Research Grants.
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