The Mtkvari River’s Many Faces: Symbolism, Space and Agency in Late Imperial Tiflis
Journal: The Canadian Journal of European and Russian Studies
Year: 2024

The Mtkvari (Kura) river framed urban life in Tiflis (contemporary Tbilisi) under tsarist rule in the nineteenth-early twentieth centuries. This paper examines how the river acted as a symbol of an evolving Georgian and played critical roles in local society and culture. Flowing through the middle of Tiflis, the Mktvari, its banks, and the infrastructure built to accommodate it, affected all city residents. They drank its water, used it for local food supplies and entertainment, and dealt with i