Farewell to Communism

Samson Kirakosyan sits at the desk lost in his memories of life in the Soviet Union.  A sixty-two year old man with two children and five grandchildren, he currently lives in Glendale, CA.  He was born in Tehran, Iran in 1944, but was raised in the Soviet Republic of Armenia from the age of two and lived there for most of his life.  He worked as a crane operator in a construction company and later was in charge of orders and shipping at a factory.  He was there when Stalin died and life started improving little by little.  He was there when Gorbachev introduced new domestic reforms such as the glasnost, and when the USSR finally collapsed in 1991.  He came to America from Russia to find work because his salary there wasn’t sufficient for supporting his family.  He has been living here for the past three years, away from his wife and family, so he can guarantee that they have a better life there.  As his mind journeys back through the years to the 20^th century, he remembers…

The fall of the Soviet Union and Communism in Armenia is the greatest change I have witnessed in the 20^th century.  I was born in the year 1944 in Iran. In 1946, when I became two years old, we returned to Armenia, our motherland.  When we moved to Armenia, we lived in the town of Zeva.  Nowadays it is called Aratashen.  I had five brothers and three sisters.  Of our family I am the youngest and as of today there are left two sisters and three brothers.  One sister and two brothers have died since we moved to Armenia 61 years ago. 

In Armenia I went to the secondary school of Aratashen from the age of seven and I graduated in the year 1962.  We had a lot of classes at my school, maybe about eleven or twelve different subjects.  As to what we were taught about the USSR, ever since I first started going, there was always the subject of the Soviet Union at school.  At school they taught us that we need to respect the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.  Starting from early school years, you first had to be a pioneer, then a Komsomol (member of Union of Young Communists), and then a member of the CP.  All of that was a Communist program, which you went through step by step in order of age. 

After that in the year 1963 I joined the army of the Soviet Union and served there for three years.  Of course in that time period there were hardships, good and bad days, but all of that has passed now.  After the army I studied in a specialized college.  I was accepted to a college of auto mechanics, in which my education remained unfinished because I had some disagreements with one of the professors.  We had a big argument which became a fight- yes, I had a fight with a teacher- so after that I had to leave school. 

By being in the CP you could have a better life.  If you weren’t a member, you wouldn’t go too far in life, in work, or in other fields.  Everywhere you went they first asked you if you were a member.  There were other parties but they were secret and very well hidden.  If you wanted to be part of another party and they found out, they would punish you severely and you wouldn’t get anywhere except maybe Northern Siberia or jail.

Officials always checked and investigated what you did, who you were friends with, what party and work you were involved in, what you were interested in, what government you preferred: Communist or Capitalist, and if they found out that you were secretly listening to foreign radio stations or reading foreign newspapers, they might follow you and watch you.  You couldn’t associate with any foreigners from capitalist countries; you weren’t supposed to have any ties with them.  When we went to Armenia in 1946, for about the first ten-fifteen years they were very suspicious of us.  They knew that in Iran we were members of the Dashnakcutyun Party (Armenian Revolutionary Fraction), so when we returned to Armenia they started investigating that and always questioned my sisters and brothers.  For a long time during that difficult process, they always returned from the cross examinations in a bad mood, and there were lots of problems, but they never punished us as they did others.  We were lucky.  A lot of repatriates who came from Iran who were part of ARF were exiled to Siberia and the Altai region for political reasons for a long time: five-ten years.  That was a punishment which started when we came after the fight.

The Soviet Union was involved in WW2 from 1941-1945.  We returned to Armenia one year after the war, when that country’s economy was in bad shape, working and living conditions and the financial situation were terrible, everyone lived in really hard and difficult times, both the natives and repatriates, but they were able to overcome those hardships little by little.  Many people were without homes.  Many died of hunger because the economy was in dire condition.  It was after the war, and they had no machinery or modern agriculture.  Finally by 1947-1948 new work places were opened, the people slowly started improving their lives. 

Stalin was the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CP of the Soviet Union after Lenin from 1922-1953.  He was very harsh towards the people.  He didn’t allow citizens to leave the country and he himself didn’t leave his country.  The one time he went into a capitalist country was during the war when he was in Tehran with Churchill and Roosevelt for the Tehran Conference.  There was like this closed curtain covering the country- no one could open it and no one knew what was on the other side, or what was going on in the outside world.  Stalin was a demagogue, and hated individuals who were better educated and more intelligent than him.  He surrounded himself with people who weren’t so bright or opinionated so no one would take away any of his power.

Stalin died in 1953.  Most people, especially the ones that were harmed by Stalin’s regime, were extremely happy.  I mean, they were elated that they were finally rid of this evil dictator.  However, they were too scared to express that joy and many pretended to mourn his death.  When he died I was in second grade.  The next day at school the teachers sent us all outside in front of the school where there was a statue of Stalin.  Our principal told us, “Stalin has died.  Cry for him.”  My friend and I refused to cry.  I said, “What is Stalin to me that I should cry for him?  When my own grandpa died, I did not cry because I didn’t know him.  Stalin is not my grandpa and I definitely don’t know him, why should I cry for him?”  Both my friend and I got in trouble for saying that. 

Anyway, when Stalin died in 1953, the Soviet Union started slowly implementing democracy.  This came about during the nine month rule of Malenkov, who allowed peasants and farmers to own ten sheep and two cows without paying tax, citizens to hold two jobs and gave everyone more privileges in order to improve their lives.  After his rule the people always said “Long live Malenkov for giving us more freedom.”  After him the leader was Khrushchev from the years 1955- 1964, who granted even more freedom.  The economy slowly grew towards its climax.  Starting from the 1960’s until 1979-1980’s life in the Soviet Union improved for the people, not perfect but much better than before.  People were finally able to own private property such as cars, houses, and during that time period education was free for people.  Students in colleges and universities received monthly grants, about thirty-forty rubles each, to be able to support themselves.  They didn’t have to pay it back.  Medical care was also free.  There were quite a few things which were better than in other countries.

The restrictions on the media, news and literature were great and strict.  The media didn’t have the ability to explain the bad living conditions of the people, or to give foreigners the opportunity to tell how their lives were.  All media belonged to the USSR government.  If they let you report on a certain topic, you could; if they didn’t, then you couldn’t.  Everything was restricted because before I said that it was as if there was a closed curtain over the USSR.  Everything was censored, controlled, closed in the country.  The border was surrounded by barbed wire fences, every meter or so a USSR border patrol agent was standing there who didn’t let anyone from the inside go outside, or anyone from the outside come inside.  The media could only write things if they praised the Soviet Union.  The media couldn’t do anything without government permission.  As for literature, before printing, the books had to pass a lot of inspections and be approved by the government for publishing.  If the topic of a book didn’t meet the requirements, they wouldn’t let it be published.

If a person was a member of the CP, he didn’t have the right to attend church.  They could expel him from the party for that.  After the upheaval- the upheaval started from the 1990’s, when each of the fifteen republics separated- there was liberty.  Now people freely go to church by their own will and light candles.  But until that they didn’t have the right.  Some of the churches were closed.  That’s how it was; during the time of the Soviet Union everything was very difficult.  If you wanted to have any luck or reach any goals, you had to overcome a lot of hardships. 

I think the biggest change in the 20th century was the fall of the Soviet Union and Communism in Armenia because the CP was the most vicious and terrible political party ever which there isn’t one like in the world today.  The CP of the USSR collapsed along with the USSR itself when Gorbachev became the first and only president of that country.  Now there are left only two communist countries like that: China and Cuba.  There no longer exists a CP like that; I mean, of course there still is a CP in Russia today, but they are not in power, they don’t play any role in the government anymore or have the means to rule. 

In 1991, when Armenia became an independent republic, the country changed from a communist country to a capitalist one, and this gave the people more rights.  The people gained rights to freedom of speech- they could now speak out against their government without fear of punishment.  The country also established free and fair elections.  Before that the elections were called “free”, but there was always only a single candidate for each vacancy.  Also, those candidates never campaigned for the support of the people or presented their vision.  That’s why we called it “mandatory” elections.    Like I said, before the change of government, people weren’t allowed to leave the USSR and go to a capitalist country.  It was also extremely difficult to go to another republic of the USSR itself, so basically the country you were born in was where you had to stay your entire life.  After Armenia’s independence, the people had the right to visit any countries they wanted.  But these are only the good changes though. 

There were many changes for the worse as well.  Before, during Communism, everyone received free housing from the government for life- when you got an apartment it was yours to keep.  Also, students who attended colleges and universities were basically paid for going to school and they never had to pay that money back.  The money they received was called living expenses.  When students studied outside of their hometown, they were provided with free housing in dormitories.  Also, kids could take extracurricular classes such as music lessons, dance classes, sports, and art all for free.  Medical care was free.  After the collapse of the Soviet Union none of this was free.  Nowadays, housing developers sell what they build; they don’t just give it to people.  There are hardly any free colleges and universities left.  All classes taken outside of school and all medical expenses also have to be paid for. 

Another good major change, however, was that whoever wanted to work for the government could, whoever didn’t want to didn’t have to.  They worked for themselves, and anyone who wanted to could now open their own business.  Until the collapse of the USSR there were no private businesses.  But in 1991 when they divided the land to the farmers and the factories among the oligarchs, of course the workers didn’t receive any factories; as it is so called the people were robbed- they robbed the people here, too.  The farmers did gain private property though.  The factories could have been shared among the workers but all went to the oligarchs instead.  The workers started out from scratch, first selling their merchandise at kiosks, then boutiques and finally opening small businesses, which we call “arevtur” there. Well of course now little by little the people are able to sustain themselves, find work.  But back then most of the workforce, about over a million, left the country to find employment elsewhere.  Working conditions from the 60’s to the 90’s, were very good for the people of Armenia, because everyone had a permanent job, everyone was employed.  Of course the wages weren’t that high, but in general people were able to provide for their minimum needs.  By saying this I’m referring to the lower class, the workers and peasants.  Obviously for the higher classes work was always good, they had a high salary.  They also had a side income and by this I mean that they stole from the government.  But when the USSR collapsed and Armenia became an independent republic, it became a big problem finding work, because the factories, the textiles, the mills weren’t working.  The people were unemployed.  That was the reason that the people started leaving the country, with the aim to find jobs.

That fourteen-fifteen year period when the Soviet Union fell apart was of course a very difficult time for the Armenian people.  About the same time there was an earthquake, Armenia was in dire condition, a lot of cities were destroyed and many people died from the earthquake.  Immediately after that the fight started.  For four or five years there was a war going on, the Nagorno-Karabakh war, and life was very hard for people.  They lived in harsh conditions, they had neither electricity, nor fuel.  For four or five years the people were without light or heat.  Many were starving; they barely survived by getting something from here and there.  But starting from 1995, when most of the people had emigrated from the country, some to America, some to Russia, some to Europe, you could say that the people were able to, with outside help, improve their lives little by little.  When they won the Nagorno-Karabakh war, from the year 1991 until 1994, after the war already slowly the country was flowering, the people were starting to lead better lives.  As of today life is much better there in comparison.

Interviewed by Tatevik Mirzakhanyan