Natalia Aramovna Gregorian

I had the pleasure of interviewing Natalia Aramovna Gregorian. She was born and raised in the former Soviet Republic of Armenia. After receiving a high education, she went on to lecture social science in a university. She is not old enough to have experienced communist rule come into power, but she was there during its fall, which sent a shockwave of disastrous reform across Eastern Europe and most of Asia. The fall is still the biggest change in her life. She’s in her late 60’s, residing with her eldest son and lives a rather busy life. She was half an hour late for the set time of the interview, not to mention the interview was to be held at 9 p.m. upon her request. After arriving, and looking somewhat pleased with her recent accomplishments, she sat across from me on the sofa in the living room.  

Well basically, if you were to look back 10 years before the reforms began, things weren’t going very well, and that’s why the rebuilding itself began. Back then the people in power were making quite a living, they had access to anything they needed and people got angry. The changes didn’t begin because people had a need for “democracy”, that they believed in it or loves it so, but because people knew the government could no longer run in such a fashion. …The country was being rebuilt according to the five-year plan. There was a committee that worked out this plan, that was supposed to resolve the production, farming and social issues, and to basically figure out what to do next. It was obvious to he people that noting was working. There was nothing to buy in the markets, yet these politicians were making speeches about their success, and being ahead of schedule even. The reality was nothing compared to what was said. Things went from bad to worse. There were these democratic views all of a sudden but the government was yet to change. For example there was no freedom of speech, you couldn’t even share freely with a friend because of the danger. After numerous incidents, the people and the KGB knew that the things couldn’t go on thusly. So they tried to change things, but as they tried to do so, everything just fell apart, things went out of control. 

The situation was somehow kept up in Moscow, since it was the capital and was the reflection of the country’s status to the world. No one traveled to villages or small towns far from the capital, to see how things really were. As you drove out 100 miles or so out into the country, there was some type of medieval setting. No jobs, no order, nothing. Every local supervisor would report that everything was going as planned.

The country began arming itself rapidly. Later we went to Afghanistan, kind of how the United States recently invaded Iraq. There was rivalry with America, every consecutive year before the fall was worse than the last.

There was an issue of food, slowly it disappeared from the markets, so you had to stand in some line, then even that disappeared. Later you had to have some coupons, and then you couldn’t even buy anything with those coupons. After the coupons were gone, there were made sales of food for insane prices. People began to leave for shelter, for jobs. A lot, for example, left for Poland. What many did was basically buy supplies there, and sell them back home. But this did not keep up for too long, because in neighboring socialist governments things weren’t going too smoothly either. Not much longer after the fall, we began encountering homeless people for the first time. They were begging for change, digging in other peoples’ garbage, knocking on peoples’ doors asking for food, here were children playing on violins in underground cross walks. This was the consequence, people hoped for the best, and things came out as always …(ironic laughter)

The president of Russia at that time, Mikhail Gorbachov, understood that to run the government in how it was previously ran was impossible, so he decided to reform. This meant changing everything, he wanted for Russia to be on the same level as Europe and the West. He wanted Democracy. But because he was born and raised in a country (Soviet Union) that did not have democratic roots, it was challenging for him. When he started he had no idea as for a plan for a reform. So it came out not as he had hoped it to be. Since the people that were waiting for these reforms for 70 year too, did things that Gorbachov did not expect from them. Through out all of the 15 republics went these waves of conflicts, of which the people knew about but did not speak against. And since the reforms brought democracy and freedom of speech, people began to say what they wanted. The government just did not have the resources to handle this; …got out of hand.  

As of a result, the Union fell. First of all some of the republics thought that they were forced to be a part of the Union, a marvelous excuse to break off and live “splendidly”. And the rest, since some broke off, simply became alone. The worst consequences were the economic break offs. Everything was originally controlled from Moscow. And since the bonds were broken, many newly independent republics did not know what to do next. For example, say Armenia, was a catastrophe. In Armenia’s case, the gas line went through Azerbaijan, with whom Armenia had conflicts. So they tied off the gas line. The railroads also went through Azerbaijan and Georgia, more conflicts followed. And even if there was no official conflict, there was anarchy, and neither of the governments had the power to suppress this anarchy. So Armenia, after shortly declaring independence, was plunged into poverty. There was no electricity, no gas or food, there wasn’t anything. The politicians naturally wanted to “wet their beaks” a little bit. And as a result, during some 10 years, there was total chaos. First all the people supported one leader, later they all collectively took him down from power. War followed, and the people’s moral had gotten low. People did not know what to believe in, the old way was bad, the new one seemed even worse.

Well, before [the fall] my family life went well, I graduated from a good University and had a high paying job. The family was an average one, lived with parents and raised children. And it was going fine, but as soon as I grew older, and began to think properly, I just decided that life can’t be going THIS well, and I didn’t quite agree with this. Just that communism before and a little later, …was all wrong! The foundation of the government wasn’t right, everything was odd. I can’t say everything was bad. I mean there was a high standard of education, on boosting the culture, art reading, there were opportunities to learn of the world culture. My opinion is that there was a lot of good in spite of all the bad. Many great things were built: great monuments buildings, opera houses, theaters, and different centers for children. I mean Children could sign up for sports, music, dance and all was for cheap. Everyone had an opportunity to get a “broader” education.

But still, we all saw that despite these positive factors, people could not express their views openly, and some would disappear simply because they spoke the truth. For example you could not read what you wanted to, but what you had to. Reading the classics was safe, you could read from Aristotle to say…who ever you wanted. Art was safe too, because it’s meaning wasn’t as clear. There were art galleries everywhere, you could go if you wanted. But if the topic seemed suspicious to the sensors, the works just weren’t shown. These situations were inevitable, and many people were against it. And with all the economic mistakes, one after another, incorrect leadership, all just fell apart. After all, no one expected a bunch of geniuses to come and present a bunch of marvels of ideas to solve everybody’s problems. It wasn’t like that since 10 years of reconstruction is practically nothing in the long run. People understood that for such a large country, and with so many problems, quick resolutions weren’t possible. 

You could consider us victims, or you could consider the opposite. Since we were able to escape harsh consequences. Or you could think of this as a misfortune in a sense, that we left out homelands, and everybody behind, and here we are, starting again from zero. Instead of being at the peak of our careers, we have to explore new professions, and have to start from the lowest paying jobs out there. And that was basically my biggest change. I was teaching courses on social science, and then “pop” and I’m a teacher’s assistant for the second grade, [ironic laughter].