Mobilities, commodification of Soviet memories and affective power of items: connecting souvenir bazaars in Georgia and Armenia

This ethnographic study explores emotional connections between flea market locations, vendors’ narratives, and the transnational movement of goods in Armenia and Georgia. It is focused on two souvenir flea markets in the countries’ capitals, Yerevan and Tbilisi, that have been a hub of informal mobility, nostalgia and the circulation of Soviet materiality. At the same time, the flea markets exemplify the commodification of nostalgia that can bridge the past and present, leading to the creation of new international trade routes, which reach beyond the countries in question. The findings of the study underscore the enduring appeal of Soviet nostalgia, even among those who did not personally experience that era. Through the exchange of goods, vendors’ and consumers’ stories, the analysis of these markets facilitates a deeper understanding of the region’s complex cultural and political (dis)connectivity. I argue that a mythicized nostalgia for the Soviet era serves as a resource for triggering new informal and formal economic links and channels between local markets and marketplaces in China. The circulation of objects becomes a mechanism for enlivening connections, concurrently contributing to globalization from below propelled by the gatherers of material culture.