Rural transcaucasian trade before and after national borders

Abstract

The post-Soviet period highlighted the patterns of social and economic development of the Caucasian nations since the age of early modernization and urbanizations. The realities of the Sadakhlo/ Bagratashen transborder marketplace bear the marks of the postponed economic, political and cultural developments in the pre-Soviet and Soviet periods, as well as the nationalizing present of the neighbouring communities, observed in this paper by means of ethnographic research, adding a few reflections on the similar processes along the former “Iron Curtain”.