by Vera Skvirskaja and Caroline Humphrey

In the early 1990s, with the rush to capitalism, a new kind of commodity market began to appear across the vast territories of the former Soviet Union. Some of these markets have escalated into great transnational wholesale and retail trading points, attracting buyers and sellers from neighbouring countries as well as from China, the Middle East, Vietnam and Africa.

Ever expanding, these bustling markets have their own administration, police and security guards, and they have put in place bus services, parking areas, cafés, toilets, hotels, banks and medical facilities. The daily turnover can reach tens of millions of dollars.

A route-taxi (marshrutka) to the market leaving from the main train station.
Image by Vera Skvirskaja