“The city where Ertaoz set off is not marked on all maps up till now, and even today it is referred as a Various Settlement. From the houses built of thick-layered limestone or Eklar stone as they call it locally, sad guitar sound could always be heard. Half of the population in the city invaded by vineyards was drunk, and the other half was drunker, or the other way around … The renowned tragedian, fellowless Hamlet, was teased on the stage by wine bugs coming from the cellar like an open wine carboy. Horse riders were strolling on the sidewalk. They loved the words: “Geniuz” (genius), “Graduzi” (degree), “Essence”, “Balzac” – we read in “The Eccentrics” (original name “Sherekilebi”) by Rezo Gabriadze, and even though the author never once mentions the name of the city, we know for certain that this city is Kutaisi.

Have you ever heard how much the development of commerce and international economic relations of Kutaisi and the entire West Georgia in the 19th and 20th centuries relied on the Georgian Jews? Some interesting facts can be found in the paper by Ilya Papisimedovi, “On the history of Jewish commerce in Georgia”: it turns out that back in 1866, 62 Jews living in Georgia obtained permission to travel abroad for commercial activity, while in 1867 this figure comprised 44. Based on the surviving records, residents of Kutaisi were the most numerous groups on the list. The Iakobishvili, Eligulashvili, Enukashvili, Tavdidishvili, and Khananashvili families stood out among the first and the second guild traders and on numerous occasions, traveled to Istanbul, Trabzon, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Odesa, Kharkiv, Rostov, Warsaw, Lodz, and other large cities.