Chiatura is a city in Western Georgia. There was a time when it supplied 50 per cent of the world's manganese. Today, with drastically reduced manganese production, dangerous working conditions and little prospect for any improvement, it is becoming a ghost town. For the Soviets, it was the embodiment of a bright, utopian future: Theaters, universities, concert halls, stadiums and parks were built. Chiatura was a human and technological experiment...