A Georgian Jane Doe Challenge

THE BACKGROUND:

Recently, we visited Georgia (the Country, not the US state).
We are now fascinated with this country & have fallen under its natural beauty spell but, full disclosure,  largely ignorant of its History, Struggles & What her people have lived through & experience(d).

Obviously it is patronising to try to even imply that 10 days was anywhere near enough to even scratch the surface but, we tried and were (are) very interested.

I've no wish to politicise this but, obviously, at THIS moment in history, the past struggles and experiences of Georgians in recent times feel VERY relevant just now.

For reasons, not relevant to the point in hand, we found ourselves at a famous Flea Market in Tbilisi.  Some of the traders at this market, deal with former Soviet military items (medals, gas masks, busts of Stalin etc).

Whilst browsing the various stalls, I spotted pile of papers & little books.

(Stock photo - not my own)

I couldn't read any them (as all in Russian) but the vendor started showing them to me - University Degrees, educational documents, that sort of thing.

A small tattered red booklet caught my eye. 
Opened it up.
A black & white lady looked back at me.

It appeared to be a passport.

I quickly put it back.  

So deeply ingrained in us, the importance of a passport.  It felt wrong and invasive to be touching someone else's passport, let alone such a personal document belonging to a total stranger.

We left.

But, I couldn't stop thinking about the Black & White Lady, with her hair all 'did' for such an important photo.

THE EMOTIONAL/MORAL DILEMMA:

I felt mad & sad that her passport was there, just lying amongst a host of other dusty documents, by the side of the road.
I felt mad & sad that they were there to be peddled as a kitsch curio to tourists (like me).
I wondered about the circumstances behind her passport being there.

Needed to talk about it with husband.

I said that I felt it was so disrespectful that someone might BUY something like this ... as a souvenir, when there could well be some tragedy behind the story.
Surely this trivialises the tragedy? Whatever it might be.

Husband said "Yeah, but, let's turn this around & think of it another way".  

LET'S RETHINK THIS:

He concurred that there could well be a tragedy behind its journey to the flea market (what that might be would be disrespectful to speculate).
But, maybe, this might be an opportunity to pay respect (to the Black & White lady with the coiffed hair... & the passport's journey) by going back for it?
Maybe, He said, you could find out something about that lady & her story and thus, pay homage to that.
But, at the very least, He said, you could stop it from lying amongst a pile of other papers on a grimy tarp in a flea market and give it some respect & dignity that way.

Well, I was NEVER going to leave her there NOW, was I?

Back we went.

I found her straight away.

{A Twist: there was another small red book .... same photo, much info the same but, some differences.}

They have BOTH come home with me.
Whether the man who sold them to me cared or understood (or not), I told him I'd look after them (and her) now.

THE HOPE:

I'd love to investigate these documents.
I'd love to understand how or why they might have found themselves away from their owner.
It might be a massively mundane reason and I have been over emotional/dramatic about all this.

I'd love to see if anyone else wants to investigate them with me.

They are all in Russian, so I am already on the backfoot.
I am utterly ignorant about the political & social history of Georgia - and so I have a lot to learn.  It seems getting a handle on this seems a sensible place to start.

If anyone else would like to help me get to know the Black & White Lady with the Coiffed Hair, let me know and let's go on a journey together.