Venera Chotalishvili is a 90-year-old woman from the village of Tsinandali. She is an economist by profession. She proudly tells us that she graduated from the Faculty of Economics and Organization of the Agricultural Institute and worked in her field for more than 40 years, most of which was as the head of the planning department in a collective farm. Now she takes care of her garden and the house and, despite the wishes of her children, does not want to move to Tbilisi.
Aprili Media Group visited Venera on Sunday afternoon. She met us on the balcony of her house with her daughter, Teo Khatiashvili, and led us with a smile to the veranda, where she expected more shade and coolness. She also told us that when her husband was alive, they often had guests at home.
We discussed many issues, but most of her stories were about the importance of work. Even when talking about her childhood, she told us that she grew up in a family where, after school, she and her sister would go to the vineyards to help their mother. They were so used to working that they didn’t want anything else. It’s still like that.
We started the interview by talking about her profession and education. She emphasized that in the Soviet Union, higher education was only available to the elite, but she hoped that not everyone would not be admitted to the faculty because they were someone’s acquaintances and at least one place would be free. With this hope, she passed the exams and got lucky. She still clearly remembers how she would repeat the exam questions from one exam to the next.
“You know what the situation was then? I thought, if they were accepting 75 people how could at least one of them not get the free spot? When I passed the first exam, in history, I got a 5.”
From there I would take tram number 5, which would go from Vake to the Kolmeurneoba Square. I “passed” the second exam on that tram, that’s how I was. Whoever asked me anything, I would tell them from top to bottom. I was satisfied, I graduated from middle school and got married that same year.”
She says that at that time there was a “recognized, famous” economist woman working there and she really wanted to work with her. That’s what happened, and when the collective farm switched to cash wages, she was invited there. She worked there for 40 years.
“I used to tell her, I don’t care about the salary, I care about being with you so that I can learn something. She was a good woman, she would stay up late at night and give me consultations. Then I became so satisfied with my work that even if I had really wanted to leave, they wouldn’t let me go anywhere. So, I stayed there, that’s how it was.”
She decided to leave her job when the system was being updated and they switched to computers — she was 64 years old, and she says she couldn’t handle it anymore. She recalls that even then, people protested her quitting, some people said, “how dare you fire Venera”.
“I wrote a statement, asking to be let go. I was at that age… Learning to use a computer, especially in agriculture, is very difficult. There are so many small jobs there that if you don’t improve yourself and learn how to use a computer well, you won’t be able to get anything done. Then they begged me a lot… I’m not bragging… I worked for 40 years…”
“By the way, at that time it was also written in the Republic of Georgia that there was an elderly man as an economist in the Chakvi Soviet Farm… in the West, the economist of the Chakvi Soviet Farm and in the East, the economist of Tsinandali,” she recalls, adding, “I was not unknown.”
When she told us the story of how she met her husband, she laughed and said, “What’s the secret? We met there [at work],” He was an agronomist: “We got together and had a good family.”
We asked, given gender stereotypes, to what extent economics was considered a “female profession” in the Soviet Union and whether there were other women in this field. She listed the names of employees in several regions and added there were “only some” women.
“There was no event anywhere where I wasn’t called and ask something at. I was interested. If you’re there, if you have a job, you should be interested in it. If an order or request came, I would go where the letter came from and not execute it out until I got there, so that I wouldn’t misunderstand anything. That’s why I was never mentioned badly in any audit report. Only when I was sure, I would do it. I was interested in my job and I did it. Some people are like different, they just want a job.”
She says that there were many problems then and there are now — mainly social status. Her full-time job was supplemented by housework. At that time, her daughter reminded her that she gave up career advancement for the sake of her family and Venera also told us this story, but added that she did not lose much.
“There was an economic research institute in Dighomi, they offered me a job, they would even provide me with an apartment. I refused, saying I couldn’t leave my family. They were young, I had a mother-in-law, a father-in-law, we had a family, a warm family. I didn’t want to leave, because I had such warmth in my family, I didn’t want to go anywhere else. It’s true that there would be an apartment, but so what, in Dighomi, or…” — this is how she ended the story with a joke, and then during the conversation she emphasized once again that she loved her field very much and that was also why she didn’t want to move to Tbilisi.
After her husband’s death, her husband’s sister’s daughter lives with her, and her own children come to visit her on weekends. We asked her why she refuses to move to Tbilisi now that she is not working and her children are asking her to. She expressed a joking negative attitude at every mention of the city. Finally, she said:
“At this point, I’m so used to the village life that I don’t want to go to the city. Have you seen my vegetable garden? Even now, at this age, I do everything by myself, whether it’s hoeing, sowing, or taking care of it, I have the strength for it.”
She told us that she had already harvested the garlic and onions and was waiting for the potato harvest. She also added that she had a large area of tomatoes. She didn’t forget about the vineyard either – for the last 2 years, she has been sending grapes to a factory.
We asked her if she has ever wanted to rest after so many years of work and why she didn’t give up on gardening. She shook her head and told us: “If you love work, you don’t like that [rest].”
Due to hearing loss, Venera has not been able to watch TV for the past few years. Her daytime relaxation consists of reading books and newspapers. She says that her children provide them for her and she does not put the book back on the shelf until she finishes reading. She recently read Dato Gabunia’s “White Magnolia.” Newspapers are her main source of information:
“I have trouble hearing hearing, I can’t understand much from TV. I’m glad when a newspaper comes — I recognize it by the pictures, what’s on the screen is written in the newspaper.
When we asked her what she thought about the current events in the country, she briefly replied that she has a lot of thoughts, adding only that there was no unanimity:
“Can’t people with similar mindset sit together and talk about what to do? They don’t. They walk alone, they go out alone. That doesn’t help the country. They don’t know what to say.”
The conversation turned to the daily work of women living in rural and urban areas. Venera said with regret that she had often heard city dwellers speak badly of them: “But how are they better than us? They always say, this or that happened in the village and… they make fun of the village people. This is not good.”
She’s in the garden since 7:00 in the morning. She says it’s less hot and that’s why she starts at that time, but it also depends on the time period. When she gets up, she “eats a nice brekafast.” She does gardening work mainly in the morning and evening, and in the afternoon she takes care of housework and cooking.
“I haven’t for 2 years, but before that I had everything: a cow, a pig, piglets, how could I live without a chicken? Now I can’t physically do it anymore.”
When talking about the difference between women’s and men’s work, she first told us that there are almost no men left in the villages, as most of them have emigrated. Then she added that women have a bigger workload.
“Generally, our men do not have a tradition of knowing how to do household chores, and this is automatically passed on to women. In addition, there is also physical labor. You have to raise a child from the beginning [to teach them how to do household chores].”
In conclusion, she told us that a woman needs to be appreciated by her family and that everyone should help her achieve self-realization: “Why should you forbid a woman?!”
After the interview, Venera showed us around the house and yard. First, we went into the glass room where she reads books during her free time. She also showed us the family photos she kept there and proudly said about her husband’s photo that they loved each other very much.
The sun hadn’t set yet, but she still took us to her garden. She has difficulty moving up the stairs, but she came down without hesitation and showed us plants and vegetables she tended with her own hands. She commented, “Look, what tomatoes we have.”
There were coriander plants nearby. She read in the newspaper that if you sow them every two weeks, they will sprout, and that’s exactly what happened.
She led us through the rather extensive area of the garden at a slow but cheerful pace, reassuring us that she doesn’t get tired while she is here.
As we said goodbye, she said she didn’t think her work would be interesting to others and that she was grateful for the appreciation. She added jokingly, “This is what us, women are doing here”
