Towards the Interpretation of Religious Pluralism in Postsocialist Rustavi

The paper argues the features of religious pluralism in Post­so­ cialist city Rustavi, which is situated close to capital Tbilisi and was established around the steal plant. The urban planning of the city was an example of per fect workers’ city, whithout the space for religion. At the same time the soviet goventment put Rustavi into the center of Georgian Soviet nationalistic narratives. The composition of the citizens was interenational. The national and international image of Rustavi contained the latent tension between the religiosity and soviet atheism. Before the colapse of the Soviet union already in 1991 the spaces for Orthodox churches and crosses were found in the urban environment. This was conceptualised as the revitalisation of lost his­ torical reality. The other confessions occured in an assimetric condi­tions. Their visibility was facing some dif ficulties and in some cases led to court disputes. The religious topography of Rustavi reflects the tension for gaining power and establishing new order in the de­indus­ trialized post­communist city.