Interview with my Grandfather – Dmitry Tatosian

The person that I interviewed is my grandpa and his name is Dmitry Tatosian. He is seventy-one years old, but he looks a lot younger because he exercises every day. I think that he is a very strong and smart person. He faced many different challenges in his child hood, adolescence, and adulthood as well. Dmitry grew up in the time of war; he did not go to school during the war. My grandfather still got into a college even though he was considered as an enemy to the Soviets just because the area where he lived was occupied with the Nazi armies. The Russians thought that the people who were living there were the enemies of the Soviet people. Until 1955, Stalin’s death, my grandfather had a very hard life. He had to help his younger siblings to go to college. In addition, the Russian government wanted the “enemies of the people” to sign at the militia office every month. If they did not sign, then the militia would come after them. At that time, nobody could understand why these people are being treated like this. Dmitry Tatosian wants to talk about the democratic change in Russia as well as the world and how it affects racism.

 I was born in the year of 1933, in January, and in the city of Crimea; Crimea used to be a part of the Soviet Union, but now is one of the major cities in Ukraine. I spent my childhood in Crimea. In the year of ’41, the war started, and from ’41 to ’44, I lived in the place where the Nazi army was located. In 1944, Armenians, Greeks, Bulgarians, and other minor nationalities were deported from Crimea, mainly to Siberia and other northern parts of the Soviet Union; at that time the reason of deportation was unknown, the reason was not announced, we were just deported. From ‘44 ‘til ’79, I lived in Ural, Sverdlovsk Region, where finished school and were accepted into a metallurgy college for a specialization as a surveyor – mountains specialization. In ’50 finished it with excellence. There was a will to go to Armenia for work. Appositely, I had a choice and there was one free place, but with remorse for me they didn’t allow because of the reason that my passport where the stamp was, which didn’t permit me to leave the city of Sverdlovsk; because they didn’t let me leave the city, I was forced to work in Sverdlovsk, Ural. Yet in the year of ’55, after the death of Stalin and the execution of Berlo; we were vindicated and they changed the passports and now we had the right to leave the city of Sverdlovsk; at that time, I was already settled down and had a family. In ’62, I was accepted into a Sverdlovsk Mountain Institute; before that, I finished two semesters in absentia in a university in Moscow; subsequently I was put into a Sverdlovsk university and continued my studies of coal pit construction, which finished in ’65. After my studies, I came back to the enterprise where I worked before... Here, I worked in this specialization for a couple of years and then started to climb up the stairs of the specialization to being the director of the mine. At that time, this specialization was very high in ranking, so the government offered me to become a member of the communist party. There were many important meetings held in that party. Meetings that involved high post directors as well as the government. I did not experience a lot of racism at that time, because I never told anybody that I am the “enemy of the people.” Once in college, I forgot to go to militia to sign that I have not illegally fled the country. My college friend who was in the same position as I was forgot too. Therefore, the militia came to the college and told the people we lived with to tell us to come to militia. When we heard the news, we understood everything, but our classmates did not. Therefore, we told them that we fought some person and this is why the militia wants to see us, it worked. When I worked in Ural, I had very good results. Armenia was a part of the Soviet Union, so the government wanted to send me to the place where metallurgy did not function well. I had two choices Armenia or southern Soviet Union. I chose Armenia. I have helped Armenia a lot with its metallurgy enterprise .Now I moved to Los Angeles, USA. I live near my daughters and visit them often.

The people during the war did not have many rights. The constitution was not functioning well. Famine was very common during that time. During the war, I myself ate rotten potatoes because there was not anything else to eat. From ’91 to the present day, Russia is trying to get out of the hole of the communistic rule. I think that Russia will be able to accomplish this, but it is going to take time. At this moment, Russia is trying to match America in its democracy. There are still some racism problems going on in Russia. America is the ideal democratic country because every race is welcome here and there is discrimination against other nations. America is really a free country. However, there was time when the US did discriminate against other races. African-Americans were treated terribly in the sixties and before that as well. However, the revolution took place and now everybody is treated with the same respect. I think that every country and especially Russia has to advance to this revolution. In addition, the sooner, the better because If it does not; then Russia is going to be criticized for not being able to treat other races with respect. At the time of the war, people were executed for no reason; the constitutional rights were totally violated. The shift to the democratic government started in 1991 in Russia. The democratic wave went through the world and brought the United Nations party. Now people could be executed for no reason. The UN would track this down and argue. All nations should be equal by law. We have to respect all nations. This process will be getting better and better, all nations will be respected. A person has to position himself into the society. 

Interviewed by Eduard Tonoyan