From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rustavi (Georgian: რუსთავი) is a city in the southeast of Georgia, in the province of Kvemo Kartli, situated 16 miles (25 km) southeast of the capital Tbilisi. It stands on the Kura river at 41°32′N, 45°00′E. It has a population of 116,384 (2002 census).

The city was founded in 1948 to house the workforce of a nearby metallurgical plant, constructed in 1941-1950 to process iron ore from nearby Azerbaijan. Stalin brought workers from various regions in Georgia, specifically from the rural poorer provinces of Western Georgia. It took its name from a nearby ancient town which was destroyed by the Mongol leader Tamerlane around 1400. Rustavi became a key industrial centre for the Transcaucasus region. The main industries are iron and steel milling and the manufacture of metal products and chemicals.

German POW's who were captured in World War II were enlisted to design and build Old Rustavi. Rustavi is actually divided into two parts--Dzveli Rustavi (Old Rustavi) and Akhali Rustavi (New Rustavi). Old Rustavi adheres to Stalinist architectural style while New Rustavi is dominated by a multitude of seemingly endless stretch of depressing Soviet era block apartments.

The fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 proved disastrous for Rustavi, as it also caused the collapse of the integrated Soviet economy on which the city depended. Today, most of its industrial plants have been shut down and 65% of the city's population is unemployed, with all of the attendant social problems of high crime and acute poverty that such a situation brings. The population shrank from 160,000 in the mid-1990s as residents moved elsewhere in search of work.

• A blogpost about Rustavi