Life Under the Rule of Joseph Stalin - Tigran Gabrielyan

At age ninety-seven, Tigran Gabrielyan lives in Glendale, California. He waits patiently in his bright room to be interviewed about what it was like living in a repressive country during his years in Armenia. He was born in Aleppo, Syria, but later moved to Armenia. He remembers how he was sent to exile and the hardships he had to face while being under the rule of U.S.S.R. Nowadays, he lives a healthy life which consists of reading the daily newspaper and taking long walks. He has two sons and five grandchildren. He believes he has done all that he can for himself and now he devotes his time supporting his family members.

First time from Aleppo, Syria, I came to Boston, Massachusetts on August 21, 1939 and from Boston, Massachusetts, I went to Armenia. It was 1947, November 21st, something like that. As I know the ruler at this time was Matsak Babian.

The Armenian government knows it has to be fair for them, but not for the people. The government thought they were doing the best way but the people did not think the same what the government was thinking. The people were not so happy.

The government urged you to vote because you to had vote for the person they want in power. There is no other way. You have no other choice, only one choice. This one has to be president and this one has to be governor. You vote for who the president or the governor is at that time. To be able to vote you had to be eighteen years old.

 There were newspapers but it was controlled by the government. You had to write the newspaper, you know, because it’s their paper. Well at that time, there was no television or radio at home. But the government put radio on the streets and you heard from there. These were also government controlled.

The government also had too many pictures of leaderships on billboards, t-shirts and classrooms. There were too many pictures, especially, Stalin’s pictures, and many pictures of government.

I worked while I lived in Armenia. Since I was there I have worked until my age became sixty years old because it was in Armenia sixty to become old age patient. The money we got was not good enough, but you could get along anyhow. And if your income from that one job was not enough to make a living you could not work two jobs because that was considered going against the government.

 The workers had every protection. I mean hospitalizing and to have education, to go to vacation. Everything was absolutely free. That’s the law in Soviet Union. And for me I never went. Even to the hospital at that time in Soviet Union was free.

People could not own their own business. The government owned everything. Everything was in its hand. But you can own your own house. When it was our time to have a house, the government gave us a two bedroom house. It was a family house. This house is for you. The government is given for you because you had to live over there.

I was exiled while my stay in Armenia. When we first came to Armenia, Armenia was absolutely poor. They had nothing at all. And when we came we brought everything. We bought washing machine, vanity, and whole things, mattresses, everything, many machines, and sewing machines. And when we went over there they were just surprised they’re all like what is this. They had no idea about what we have, what we are going to do, how we got there, anyhow and they do many things to put us in trouble. The government has many people who can ask you questions and they want to know if you say some sentence wrong against the government. But the way we were talking we were taking was very simple. When somebody asks a question like what is it like in the United States? It was something like that for the government that was unbelievable. So anyhow, they just turn around two years after I came and they found a way that I am talking about the government. They thought I was thinking of somehow how to escape from Armenia. I don’t remember that I have said something like that. Anyhow they take me to jail. Also at this time there were some people who were against the government and those people wanted to rule the country, I was inside them. They confiscated everything from me. I stayed in prison for six and a half years. I was released from prison in 1955. When Stalin died they gave me freedom to Armenia because I was exiled in Russia.

The main crime to commit would be to talk against the government. There were not many other reasons why the government would put you in jail. Well for me especially as I said they say that I came to Soviet Union and I am thinking how to do to go away from Soviet Union and I am thinking that way. That’s why they just did not like that and they put me in jail but in fact of course it was not that. They put me in jail because we had many things that they had not gotten that I bought from America with me. The main thing is that.

Armenia was the eleventh nation that belonged to Soviet Union. As every nation has its own land and every nation belong they came together and they built the Soviet Union. There were eleven nations and one of them was Armenia. Every nation, I think likes to have its own freedom. One of them was Armenia. As I know Armenia was the first nation that separated from Soviet Union. Armenia separated after Stalin’s death.

Armenia separated from the Soviet Union as I know it was 1989 or 1990. Life after separation, well it was hard times because there were not many facilities to keep the people busy like jobs or something like that. People couldn’t make their own living as it was before because before the Soviet Union separated, there were many chances to get a job. Before the separation, the factory was working when there is no Soviet Union the factories closed. And there were no jobs to work and that’s why they had a hard time to live. That’s all.

Interviewed by Mary Gabrielyan