Why We Miss Our Exes
Missing an ex doesn't always mean you want them back. Sometimes what you really miss is the version of yourself you became around them.
Olga Sverchkova
Olga Sverchkova is a writer and lawyer with more than twenty years of legal practice. She writes about Tbilisi and St Petersburg, people, books and everyday life, paying particular attention to the small details from which larger stories usually grow.
Buying Property in Tbilisi
Buying property in Tbilisi can be surprisingly quick, but fast registration does not replace checking the property. Here is what to look at before you buy.
Residence Permit in Georgia
A residence permit in Georgia depends first on the legal basis for your application. This updated 2026 guide explains the main routes, current requirements, fees, deadlines and the rules that changed this year.
Renting an Apartment in Tbilisi
Renting an apartment in Tbilisi can look simple until you start asking about heating, deposits, exchange rates and the contract. Here is what I would check before signing a long term lease.
On Entrances, Counts and Food Delivery
A count may once have lived here. His study may now be a parcel collection point. Nobody finds this particularly surprising.
On the Language St Petersburg Speaks
Porebrik, paradnaya, shaverma. Sometimes one word is enough for St Petersburg to know whether you belong here.
On Weather You Can’t Trust
In St Petersburg, a perfectly respectable blue sky is no reason to leave your umbrella at home.
Olga Sverchkova Website
For months I thought I was simply redesigning a website, until I realised that the real question had nothing to do with fonts, menus or buttons. The Olga Sverchkova website finally became what I wanted it to be: a home for my books, free chapters, the Journal and the stories still to come.
The Alibi of St. Petersburg Chapter 3
The hallway light was on, and a pair of black high heeled shoes stood neatly against the wall, a detail Larisa would later remember more clearly than almost anything else she saw that evening. A television was playing somewhere in the apartment, a male voice calmly predicting rain and colder weather, while the kitchen light was on as well and two coffee cups stood on the table, one empty and the other with a little coffee left inside, beside a packet of cigarettes that immediately struck Larisa as wrong because Marina did not smoke.
The Alibi of St. Petersburg Chapter 2
The hallway light was on, and a pair of black high heeled shoes stood neatly against the wall, a detail Larisa would later remember more clearly than almost anything else she saw that evening. A television was playing somewhere in the apartment, a male voice calmly predicting rain and colder weather, while the kitchen light was on as well and two coffee cups stood on the table, one empty and the other with a little coffee left inside, beside a packet of cigarettes that immediately struck Larisa as wrong because Marina did not smoke.