t
time; everybody was excited to go to Armenia, we Armenians.
Dr. Vagarshak Vardanyan is 71 years old. He is a professor of mathematics and physics and has achieved a lot in his life. Dr. Vardanyan lives with his wonderful wife and was blessed with two children. His life wasn’t always this enchanting, however. Vagarshak had to suffer over thirty years in an oversize cage called the USSR. “The soviet country was a big prison,” he said, a prison he finally escaped after over three decades.
I was born in Greece in 1935 in Salonica. We spoke only Armenian at home, no Greek: it was forbidden to speak Greek. My father made that rule. We were a traditional Armenian family: we sang songs and had all traditional food and everything.
I went to Armenia in 1947, I was 12 years old. It was a
great movement at that
time; everybody was excited to go to Armenia, we Armenians.
On September first, 1947, we arrived by train in Yerevan. Most signs were in Russian. We didn’t know any Russian, and my father yelled, “We came to Armenia or this is Russia?” It was too dangerous at that time. At that time “All were brothers” and the Russian language was our “Mother Language.” All other people immediately understood. They would say “Long live Stalin.” They already learned how to talk but not my father. He was just talking about what he was thinking. This is why my father was sent to Siberia after eight months.
One year later, my 19 year old brother was sent to Siberia. He spent ten years in a strong regime prison. The reasons were “anti-soviet propaganda” and “enemy of the people.” Enemy of the people! Nineteen years old: how could it be?
The life was so miserable because after the World War II, the country was too poor. They gave us coupon to buy bread. The government assigned about one pound per person. And then sometimes you couldn’t even find that bread if you are late. So we were selling our clothes or whatever was valuable to survive the first couple years. You know, after the World War II, the economy broken apart.
One room, they gave us, four people, one room. It was everything there. Just one room. The toilet was somewhere else and no kitchen. About, I tell you, two hundred square feet, that’s it.
It was because of the economy. Nothing was there. For instance, you couldn’t buy spoons. We had a couple only. They didn’t exist. I remember we went to some wedding, what was our gift you could imagine? Six spoons. It was a very good gift because you couldn’t find spoons. The country needed more of sweaters and things like that.
The economy was so bad, my father had no job. At that time he started to buy and sell sheep and it turns out that it was illegal. At that time, buying and trading sheep was illegal. The government should know where did you buy and who, and everything was limited there. But he had to survive. Probably they wanted to see what he was doing that way.
Anyway, we arrived in Armenia on September 1 and after a week I started school. But there were difficulties. There are two Armenians: Western Armenian – we were western Armenian – and eastern Armenian. There were language problem and all sorts of problems but in general I survived. I had difficulties for a couple of months only.
There was one algebra class. Everybody took that class. There was only one program of algebra, one program of trigonometry, physics and chemistry. There was no choice for the whole Soviet Union. There was no concept of choice. What choice? There was only one program and only one single textbook of each subject for everybody. Everybody took this from fist class to the tenth grade. The tenth grade was the highest there.
So for some people, can you imagine, it was too hard. The algebra in the Soviet Union was the highest level compared to here, not like Algebra 2. Everything was the highest level, physics was all formulas and everything was very hard. Of course, it’s impossible for everybody to take theses hard classes, but this was the rule.
Always the regime, the oppression was too hard. The soviets lie about everything. After the election there’s a list “Armenia 99.7%” another republic 99.6. Actually about 20% of people voted. It was all lies. No unemployment, best country. All of this propaganda was awful. Everything was censored. Nothing was private. Lenin: the greatest leader of international proletarian. This is how it was called.
I always liked mathematics; I was good at mathematics compared to other subjects. So I decided to go to university to major in math. But it’s better to have some professions like engineering. I chose mechanical engineering. There is lot of math so I became a mechanical engineer.
I went to a school called Yerevan Polytechnic Institute, now it’s a university. They are the second most prestigious. The Armenian State University is the most prestigious.
At that time when you graduate, you were absolutely obligated to go where they send you. With forty people graduated came forty places. You must go where they needed. So there were two Siberian assignments and, of course, nobody would like to go there. Everybody was surprised, I chose one of those places. And then my friend said I come with you. What a coincidence, I went to the same city – Krasnoyarsk – that my dad was in. So we went there, my mom came with me by the way, then after a couple of weeks, I went to the place. I found my father there in poor condition. If I hadn’t chosen mechanical engineer it was impossible to go to find my father. It was impossible to visit any other way.
As an engineer my salary was, how to say, in the black market my salary was 20 dollars a month. It was ridiculous. One ruble was one and a half dollar. What could you buy with one ruble? On the other hand I really should say the food was very cheap. For instance, a middle class car was about 10,000 dollars. 10,000 dollars – I should work eight years. One car. But that car was 30,000 pounds bread. Can you imagine that, how cheap was the bread compared to the car.
If you had rubles, and you come to Soviet Union, 10,000 rubles would be only 2,000 dollars in black market. If you bring 2,000 dollars, you could get 10,000 rubles and buy a car like Honda.
All the necessities were cheap there. Could you imagine, the rent was two dollars a month. The electricity again was too cheap, everything was cheap. So the Soviet government was paying too low salaries, but the rent and the food were too low too so everybody could live, but you couldn’t buy anything valuable. You couldn’t buy a ticket to go to United States, for instance. You have to work one year just to pay for a trip. These things were too expensive.
I could tell you one thing. The soviet country was a big prison. In prison the people live the same way right? They eat. They sleep. They can see movies and read books but they can’t get out.
Anyway, I worked only five years as an engineer. Then I got my PhD. I became a professor, I worked twenty one year there, same place. First assistant, then professor. I was 49 when I came to America. I will tell you in the black market my salary was only 70 dollars a month. I will say 100 times less than professors here. 70 versus 7,000. But I was feeling good. Everybody respects a professor and I was earning a lot with tutoring. It was private. Anyway, I had a normal life at the end. I was middle class.
I should confess, however, that I myself became a member of the communist party. It was impossible to become a professor if you were not a member of the communist party. There was no choice basically. I was given privileges as a member. Of course, the most important, a job.