Harout Adanalian’s Life under Soviet Rule

At age sixty-five, Harout Adanalian resides in Lake View Terrace, California. He is sitting in his big office chair excited about the interview and can’t wait to get started on his experiences under the Soviet rule. He was born in the city of Lebanon and grew up in the region of Yerevan, Armenia. He graduated university and was involved in house drafting work. He moved to America in 1980 where he raised three kids and spends most of his time remodeling his home, watching sport games, and taking care of his garden. He claims he is now living the life of a “king” and is grateful for what he has, and the present life makes up for the hardships of his early years.

Under the Soviet Union there was always misinterpretations, like for example if a person lets say made 5 of something, they would put in the newspapers the person made 50. Many people disliked the lies. People who witnessed the event and heard it on the radio they turned the radio off because they got angry. Whoever said to the government it happened this way not this way they would be taken away to Siberia. They would do this so others would not disagree with the papers or the radio, always believe or at least show they believed in the event. 

During those times, people were told not to believe in anything. They despised idealists, and most were a materialist, which means they saw the natural or real in everything, whatever they saw they believed. They didn’t believe in religion, Muslim, Christian, nothing. They never talked about religion on television, or on the radios. They didn’t want people to go to church. They would always show that they were idealists in the capitalist world, to Germany and France, but in reality they were materialists.  

During the Soviet Union there were laws. It stated that the courts would determine the punishment. But, their punishments were too much, or could be too much. To get the fair punishments, you would have to paying a certain amount of money. People would pay the judge so they could have the least amount of years. Almost all of the people would do this, because it wasn’t a large sum of money the judge wanted. 

They would always say that women had the same rights as men did, that they were equal. But in reality, women did not have equal rights as the men had. For example, if a man and woman do the same work in the community, the man would get paid 200 rubles and the woman 100 rubles for the same work. Another example, the women in all families would work because the money earned by the husband was usually not enough. So under the soviet rule, men would not get enough money to pay off the rent for the house. The wives were forced to work. Women worked until 11 pm 12 am, women worked longer than men.  

If the costs of living were more then the men were making, there would often be fights in the house, or arguments, caused by stress of living. When men beat their wives there wouldn’t be a punishment for them. They would say it was their family problems, and that’s how he handled it. If the men were to be taken away the society would fall apart, because they are so heavily dependant on the men in the families. There were situations when they did take the men away, but it was one or two, not every one, it was rare to have that happen. Houses with good financing were rare; money was hard to come by at the time.  

At the time, In Russia or Armenia, in a communist society- There was no such thing as insurance. During work, Lets say a worker broke his leg, the worker fell- they would tell the worker that you can stay at home we will pay your salary to you until your leg is better and you can return to work. They wouldn’t pay the worker any more money than he earned. There was no separate coverage or insurance to the person.  

At schools and colleges if the student bombs the exam which determines whether they can pass the course or not, then they will not pass on, as a punishment. There were alternatives; the student would have to retake the exam over summer break, if the student passed that time, then the student could move on, if the student doesn’t, the student stays in the same grade. Entering universities depended on how much money you had.  

At the time they didn’t let open your own business the community didn’t allow it. The businesses were government owned, and you could only be working for someone. There were big organizations such as fabric companies and so forth, that you could go work, people worked eight hours and went home. They didn’t allow a man own his own businesses. You can’t have any home businesses, such as sowing clothing. If they catch you doing sowing at home-lets say you do five rubles worth of sowing they will fine you a hundred rubles just so you wont do it again. The businesses were government controlled.