German POWs who were captured in World War II were enlisted to build the city of Rustavi. Modern Rustavi is divided into two parts—Dzveli Rustavi (Old Rustavi) and Akhali Rustavi (New Rustavi). Old Rustavi adheres to Stalinist architectural style while New Rustavi is dominated by a multitude of Soviet-era block apartments. The fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 proved disastrous for Rustavi, as it also caused the collapse of the integrated Soviet economy of which the city was a key part. Most of its industrial plants were shut down and 65% of the city's population became unemployed, with the attendant social problems of high crime and acute poverty that such a situation brings. The population shrank from 160,000 in the mid-1990s to 116,000 in 2002 as residents moved elsewhere in search of work. New York-based artist Greg Lindquist (b. 1979) has documented Rustavi's crumbling concrete factories in his paintings and installations, such as the exhibition "Nonpasts" in 2010. Lindquist has also worked with Georgian collaborators, such as artist Gio Sumbadze (b. 1976), in projects that address the current social, cultural and political significance of these architectures. In 2010, the Laura Palmer Foundation staged an exhibition at the Ministry of Transportation building (Tbilisi Roads Ministry Building) in which Lindquist and Sumbadze installed paintings addressing the history of Georgia's transportation system. This BOMB magazine interview with La Toya Frazier for the exhibition "Planet of Slums" addresses many of the complexities of Lindquist's work in the Republic of Georgia. Demographics At the beginning of 2021, Rustavi had more than 130,072 inhabitants, an increase of 4% since the 2014 census. This increase makes Rustavi the fourth most populous city in Georgia, just behind Kutaisi, which is suffering from ongoing contraction. Rustavi experienced rapid growth due to industrialization under Stalin. Since the regained Georgian independence in 1991 and the years of civil war and crisis that followed, many residents (e)migrated due to unemployment. The low point was reached around 2002, and growth clearly picked up in the 2010s while industrial activities and employment have resumed. In 2014, the ethnic composition of Rustavi was almost 92% Georgian, with minority communities of Azerbaijanis (3.7%), Armenians (1.6%) and Russians (1.2%). Remarkably enough, more than 500 Ossetians (0.4%) lived in the city. Other ethnic minorities included 315 Ukrainians, 239 Yazidis, over 166 Greeks, 55 Assyrians and smaller numbers of Kists, Jews, Abkhazian and Bosha. The proportions of the