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Georgia's tea growers work to revive an industry that collapsed with the Soviet Union
Georgia's tea growers work to revive an industry that collapsed with the Soviet Union

Straits Times

time18-07-2025

  • Business
  • Straits Times

Georgia's tea growers work to revive an industry that collapsed with the Soviet Union

Find out what's new on ST website and app. ANASEULI, Georgia - When Lika Megreladze was a child, life in her native western Georgian region of Guria revolved around tea. Her mother worked for decades as a scientist at the Soviet Union's Institute of Tea and Subtropical Crops in the village of Anaseuli, perfecting cultivation methods for a Georgian tea industry that supplied the bulk of the vast communist state's brews. 'When I was a child, this was only my mum's workplace. Only later I realised that it was something big,' she said. Now the institute lies abandoned. Yellowed papers are strewn around its decaying corridors, and a statue of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin lies toppled and overgrown in the courtyard. Throughout Guria's verdant subtropical hills, sprawling plantations have relapsed into jungly thickets interspersed with wild forests of tea. Dozens of cavernous old tea factories now stand empty and deserted. Introduced to Georgia in the early 20th century by a Chinese expert invited by the Imperial Russian authorities, tea plants flourished in the hot, humid climate of Guria, which stretches down from the Caucasus mountains to the Black Sea coast. But for the tea industry, the restoration of Georgia's independence in 1991, after two centuries of rule from Moscow, came almost as a death blow. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore 30% of aviation jobs could be redesigned due to AI, automation; $200m fund to support workers: CAAS Singapore Residents in South West District get help to improve employability, find career opportunities Singapore Alleged Kpod peddler filmed trying to flee raid in Bishan charged with 6 offences Singapore UOB awarded $17.7m in civil suit against Lippo Marina Collection over inflated housing loans Life Kinokuniya opens third bookstore in Raffles City, weeks ahead of schedule Business DBS shares rally to a new record as STI clocks yet another high Singapore 5 foreigners charged over scheme to deliberately get arrested in S'pore to sell sex drugs Asia Lightning strikes kill 33 people in eastern India The collapse of the Soviet Union opened its market to cheaper Asian imports, while the disintegration of the Georgian economy amid a brief civil war in the early 1990s saw electricity cut off, and tea factories plundered for spare parts and scrap metal. By 2016, according to official figures, Georgian tea production had declined 99% from its 1985 peak. 'The institute collapsed because the Soviet Union collapsed,' said Megreladze, who now owns a guesthouse and cultivates her own small tea plantation for visitors. 'Georgia, a young country, could not save this huge industry,' she said. Now, over three decades since the Soviet collapse, some locals are trying to revive the tea industry. Ten years ago, Nika Sioridze and Baaka Babunashvili began rehabilitating derelict tea plantations, financed partly by a grant from the Georgian government. Their GreenGold Tea is one of several new companies that brought tea fields in and around Ozurgeti, Guria's regional capital, back to life. Processing their tea in one wing of an abandoned Soviet silk factory in the town, they aim to reintroduce Georgian tea to local and European buyers. 'For 40 years nothing was happening here. Here was a jungle,' said founder Sioridze. Under the Soviet Union, which prioritised quantity of production above all, Georgian tea mainly acquired a poor reputation for quality. Guria's fields grew mostly simple black teas, with bushes harvested by machines, seeing older leaves and even stems thrown into the mix. Now, they say, their task is to reinvent Georgian tea as a high quality, distinctive product for a new era. 'We must be different from Chinese tea makers, Taiwanese tea makers,' said Sioridze. 'Because Georgia is Georgia and we need some niche to make our own tea.' REUTERS

Goodbye, Lenin, hello Putin
Goodbye, Lenin, hello Putin

Economist

time03-07-2025

  • Politics
  • Economist

Goodbye, Lenin, hello Putin

Statues commemorating the Soviet Union's long-dead leaders, who once ruled an empire stretching from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean, have had their ups and downs. A Moscow metro station recently unveiled a frieze glorifying Josef Stalin, now once again feted in Russia as a great leader. Shortly afterwards a gigantic statue of Vladimir Lenin, the Soviet Union's founding father, came toppling down in Kyrgyzstan, one of five former Soviet states in Central Asia. Yet it is still a staunch ally of the Kremlin.

On the Russian battleship Potemkin
On the Russian battleship Potemkin

The Hindu

time27-06-2025

  • General
  • The Hindu

On the Russian battleship Potemkin

Q: Name the war the Russian Empire was fighting at the time the crew of the Potemkin mutinied. Russia suffered heavy losses during one particular battle in this war, forcing it to sue for peace and sending crew morale in its naval fleet plummeting. This was one of the causes of the mutiny. A: Russo-Japanese war Q: Name the leader of the Bolshevik Party who said the First Russian Revolution, as well as the Potemkin mutiny, both of which transpired in 1905, were a 'dress rehearsal' for the October Revolution that happened 12 years later. A: Vladimir Lenin Q: Following the mutiny, to which country did the crew of the Potemkin appeal for asylum? The country granted asylum after the crew was disarmed and surrendered its weapons. Two days later, a Russian rear admiral arrived to reclaim the vessel for the Russian navy. A: Romania Q: On October 12, 1905, a little more than three months after the mutiny, the Potemkin was renamed ___________. The name was derived from that of a Christian saint and which in Greek means 'all-compassionate'. It's also the name of a character in Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' series. Fill in the blank. A: Panteleimon Q: Potemkin was classified as a pre-___________ battleship. The label is derived from a Royal Navy battleship floated in 1906 whose design revolutionised naval power worldwide, so much so that the battleship's name became the label. Fill in the blank. A: Dreadnought

Eric Lewis: Political violence is the new normal in Donald Trump's America
Eric Lewis: Political violence is the new normal in Donald Trump's America

Irish Independent

time26-06-2025

  • Politics
  • Irish Independent

Eric Lewis: Political violence is the new normal in Donald Trump's America

MAGA followers delight in mocking and dehumanising but descent into cruelty is no joke ©UK Independent Political violence has existed as long as politics. From both the left and the right, violence against political enemies has been a feature, not a bug, of radical political movements. Vladimir Lenin developed a 'science of terror', in which violence was essential to overthrow the state. In Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler declared: 'The very first essential for success is a perpetually constant and regular employment of violence.' And Benito Mussolini declared political violence a necessary tool both in his early days as a socialist and after his conversion to fascism. Radicals demonise their enemies and insist on responding with violence justified by any means.

Goodbye Lenin? Russians Flock To See Bolshevik Leader's Tomb Before Closure
Goodbye Lenin? Russians Flock To See Bolshevik Leader's Tomb Before Closure

NDTV

time10-06-2025

  • Politics
  • NDTV

Goodbye Lenin? Russians Flock To See Bolshevik Leader's Tomb Before Closure

Moscow: Russians are flocking to catch what some fear could be a final glimpse of the embalmed body of Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin before his tomb on Moscow's Red Square, long a place of pilgrimage for communists, closes for repairs until 2027. The mausoleum, which houses a waxy-looking Lenin replete in a three-piece suit inside what is purportedly a bullet-proof, blast-proof glass case, is due to be structurally overhauled after an inspection uncovered problems. Once a popular attraction for Western tourists and still a favourite for Russians visiting the capital from the regions, the red and black granite structure is expected to close in the coming weeks, with repair work set to last until June 2027. Officials say that the body of Lenin, who died in 1924 after helping to establish the world's first socialist state, is not going anywhere and that the central hall where he lies in state will not be touched. But news of the temporary closure has seen long lines form to get into the mausoleum, with some visitors fearing it could be their last chance to see Lenin. "From a historical point of view, I want to witness his being in a mausoleum because I think Lenin will be buried at some point, maybe in the future or near future," said Tatyana Tolstik, a historian from Ulyanovsk, the city on the Volga where Lenin was born. A young woman called Snezhana, who did not give her surname, said she wanted to "dive into the past" because she was also unsure how long it would be possible to visit the mausoleum. The Communist Party, which ruled the country from the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, is fiercely opposed to the removal of Lenin's body, and Gennady Zyuganov, the party's veteran leader, has said President Vladimir Putin has assured him it will not happen on his watch. The Kremlin has repeatedly denied plans to permanently close the mausoleum. Standing in line, Olga Pavlova, from the town of Mirny, said today's generation of Russians had a lot to thank Lenin for. "I am on holiday and decided to show (the mausoleum) to my son and see it for myself," she said. "He (Lenin) is someone who changed our life in a very good way. Due to him, we have all the benefits that we have today. (For example,) education, healthcare, comfortable houses."

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