Freedom at Last

As I walk over to the sofa to sit with Mr. Grigoryan, I see a seventy-five year old man who has lived through difficult times. Born and raised in Bulgaria, he moved with his family to Armenia in 1946 at the age of sixteen, with a hope of learning. But that hope vanished quickly when he immediately started to work in order to feed himself. He lived there for thirty-four years before he came to the United States. Currently, he resides in Glendale, California where he lives with his wife, son, and his son’s family. As he slowly starts to unravel his life story, he shudders, as memories come flooding back to him about the horrible life he lead sixty years ago.

Russia governed Armenia. What government? All the leaders were in Moscow. The main leader of the Soviet Union was Stalin and in Armenia, it was Karen Demirjian. The leaders in Armenia would get orders from the higher leaders in Moscow and in return would govern Armenia.

In Yerevan, we saw a few types of newspapers. There were Armenian and Russian newspapers. Where I worked, I had to receive Russian newspapers. But we didn’t read them, but we had to receive them. They were forcing us to receive the newspapers. All the newspapers were under the government’s control. Uhhh. The journalists can’t add any of his own words or ideas into the newspaper or else he will be sent to prison. There’s no such newspaper where there were articles criticizing the government or president. Whoever writes that will be sent to prison and that wouldn’t be printed in the first place. The government was very strict. You had to obey them or else get sent to prison. I never did anything against the government. If they told me something red was white, then I would have to call it white too.

In some cases, the police did help people. But in other cases, there were bribery. Well, of course the police was corrupt. There is no country without bribes. Let’s say you committed a crime and you’re sentenced to ten years in jail, they’ll take it down to one year and take you to court. If you committed a big crime, they would make it to a small crime, same thing here (smiles).

Uhhh. The prisons? Well, if you did a small crime, then you are taken to an ordinary prison. If you said something against the government, then you and your family would be sent to Siberia. Siberia was a really cold place. People were sent there to do hard labor. Uhhh. People who were sent there were tortured. It was a very bad place. Some of the people did come back, but the others were lost there.

There were elections, but I don’t remember how many. They would call us for elections from home. If I didn’t go, I would be in trouble. Uhhh. I was sleeping and they told me to go vote but whom was I voting for? I didn’t know. When I went to elections, they told me to take a paper and put it in a box. But whom was I picking? I didn’t know. I don’t even recognize the person. They didn’t let us know in advance whom we would be voting for. I wasn’t interested in whom I was picking, as long as I was doing what I was told.

Uhhh. I don’t really remember what age I started voting at but the earliest I remember voting was at 22. Uhhh. Where I was working, there were meetings but I couldn’t go to the meetings because I was an immigrant. I was born in a foreign land so they considered my son a foreigner’s son. I needed a license to be a part of the meetings and to get the license I had to pay for it. I did not want to get a license because then I would have to believe everything the government believed in.

Well, what can I say about the leaders? They were interested in pressuring the people. The person who lives in Armenia only cares about food for his family. I had nothing to do with any political games, because if I said anything, I would be sent to prison. Uhhh. I didn’t really care about the leaders. I didn’t want any part of it.

There were pictures of the leaders everywhere. If there were pictures of Soviet leaders lined up and you asked me if I knew them, I wouldn’t know because I am an immigrant. From a small age, children in Armenia were taught who the leaders were but I was an immigrant from Bulgaria so I didn’t know. Uhhh. At work, it was the boss’s job to teach the employees who the leaders were and if a representative of the government asked one of the employees, and they didn’t know, it was the boss’s fault. Even though I was Armenian, since I was from Bulgaria, I felt like a foreigner in my own country. Uhhh. If you graduate university with a gold medal, you wouldn’t get a job position as high as someone who was born in Armenia. You weren’t allowed to get a higher position. They discriminated you if you were not Armenian. They took these people as soldiers. I was very close to being called to the army. They didn’t call me in because I was born in 1930. If I was born a year later, in 1931, then I would have been forced to join the army.

You couldn’t have your own independent job; you had to work for the Soviet. Nothing business, business nothing. I did work. When I went to Armenia, I was uhhh16 years old. I went with hope of learning. But there was the danger of dying from hunger so I was forced to work because of that. If you didn’t work, there was a place to work. If you didn’t work, the police would come, take your passport to a company and you had to work there.

At that time, every week, I would make uhhh 24 rubles. I entered as a student, like a helper. You had to do whatever they said and gradually, they would increase your salary. I worked at a machine factory. Uhhh. There were many accidents there. They would just take the person to the hospital. If it was serious and the person had to stay home, the company would pay for a period of time. After that, no more pay. Unions? Strikes? Of course not. If you even speak out or hold a strike, you would be sent to prison.

Women had to go to work in fear of starvation. By women working, the family could use the money to buy food and pay rent and everything else. Uhhh. They don’t usually go out to work. They stay home and take care of family and children. Women were treated equal. There was no discrimination against them. If a man and a woman were working the same job, they would be paid the same. Other than the uniforms at work, they didn’t have to wear anything else in particular. Everyone has to wear uniforms at work.

At first, I did not like living in Armenia. From 1946-1950, I didn’t like it. Uhhh. The conditions improved starting from 1950. It was okay, but there was still discrimination. I didn’t like the government. When my stomach was full, I was happy. My stomach was full and my children and family were happy, then that made me happy. I wasn’t communist and had uhh nothing to do with the government. I came here because of the discrimination in Armenia. I left Armenia because I saw that the government and uhh everything else was better here. Here, it’s so much better than Armenia. Here, Armenians, Mexicans, Italians, Indians, Russians, everyone work together. No discrimination. At my retirement, they threw a big party for me. Three hundred people came and my relatives too. Very nice people here. I wish I could still work. It is better working here than being retired.

 Interviewed by Beny Babu