Ceremonies were held on Friday on both sides of the line that separates Georgia from South Ossetia, its separatist region, to mark the first anniversary of the Georgia-Russia war, FT reported.
The Georgian attack on Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, prompted Russia to send forces into Georgia and left Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgian president, further than ever from his stated goal of returning breakaway regions to Tbilisi's control.
One year on, the bonfires and memorials in Georgia were held in a country faring markedly better than the South Ossetian and Abkhazian regions that Russia chose to recognise as independent states.
Mr Saakashvili said in a speech in Gori, the town bombed during the five-day war: "We survived a full-scale invasion ... as a free and proud nation."
While Georgia has begun to recover, a recent visit to Tskhinvali revealed a town still in ruins. The parliament and university are but shells and almost half of the housing is condemned.
Stanislav Kochiv, speaker of the South Ossetian parliament who leads the local Communist party, said: "Our economy is broken and we are living on Russian hand-outs."
Georgia has received $4.5bn (€3.2bn, £2.7bn) of international assistance, $1bn of it from the US. Civilian infrastructure has been repaired and the economy has stabilised.
Russia posted forces in South Ossetia and Abkhazia but its reconstruction pledges have come to little after funding was halted this year amid reports the money had been pocketed.
Edouard Kokoity, South Ossetia's president, fired his government this week and formed an emergency commission to oversee reconstruction of Tskhinvali.
FT correspondents look at the Caucasus region a year after the military conflict between Georgia and Russia
Lawrence Sheets, Caucasus director at the International Crisis Group, the think-tank, said the lack of rebuilding pointed to a "policy paralysis" in Moscow. "Russia could have paved Tskhinvali's roads with gold by now, turning it into a showcase for the South Caucasus."
Downtown Tbilisi was sealed off on Friday as Georgians milled about in the sunshine visiting an outdoor exhibition of war damage. Elsewhere in the country people formed human chains symbolizing resistance to further Russian occupation of Georgian territory.
Sounding a note of defiance on Friday, Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, saying, "Whether anyone likes it or not, we will establish comprehensive relations with South Ossetia and Abkhazia." But he admitted "the situation was "very difficult" in South Ossetia.
Landlocked and impoverished South Ossetia dreams of reuniting with Russia which insists it remains independent.
Abkhazia has seen an economic revival since the war as thousands of Russians flock to its Black Sea beaches. Property prices are booming in Sukhumi, the picturesque seaside capital.
Abkhazia, dependent to remain independent, is leery of Russia's growing influence in the region.
"Georgia is gone for good. Our main goal is to build a legitimate, independent, democratic state, Sergei Bagapsh, the Abkhaz president, told the FT.