Helena Tadevossian
Block 2
5/04/06
The Life of Haykanush Khrikyan during the Soviet Union
Haykanush Khrikyan is a sixty year old woman who was born in Cairo, Egypt in 1946. She and her family moved from Cairo to the Republic of Armenia, as it was called then, when she was two years old. She lived in Yerevan during the Soviet Union for forty-three years, from 1948 to1991. She encountered many misfortunes in Armenia because the Soviet Union caused lots of poverty and adversity in her life and the lives of people around her. She has faced countless difficulties during her lifetime, but she has prevailed over them and now lives a peaceful life in Burbank, California with her husband. She is now a mother of two, one son and one daughter, and a grandmother to four, three girls and one boy.
Life was very hard in Armenia. My family and I faced lots of difficulties like finding jobs, getting good food and water, our house was very small, and we didn’t have lots of money like most people who were living in Armenia.
The house my family and I lived in was very crowded because I lived with most of my relatives and family. We had to stay together because we did not have lots of money, so we stayed together to help support each other. We all had to bathe in the same tub using the same water because there wasn’t lots of water to use. Water was very little and sometimes it was dirty and smelly, but we did not have lots of money to pay for good water and there was no running water. We had to get all our water from like this well, like a fountain, and everyone got all their water from it and sometimes it wasn’t always clean.
I think that there was only one newspaper that was allowed and it was called the Armenpress. We did not have a television until a couple of years after we lived in Yerevan because we had to buy more important things like food and clothes. I don’t really remember much about what was on television, but there was probably news and Armenian shows and concerts and other stuff. I don’t think the government was really strict about the media.
There were no restrictions against religion that I know of because I am a Christian and mostly everyone I knew was too, so we would always go to church together and pray no matter what.
I think that the only legal party was the Communist Party of Armenia, which I remember reading something about them in the newspaper.
In school, we were taught in Armenian, but we could be taught in Russian if we wanted, but I of course chose Armenian. School was free, but I had to pass secondary school because it was important and we just had to. We had few books to learn from or to just read. Some school activities we did in school were mixed up with government, culture, and other stuff. I don’t think there was any corporal punishment at school or at work either.
There were lots of factories to work in and that’s what most people did like some of my relatives and family. They worked very hard everyday except for Sundays. My parents worked mostly all day, so I had to help make dinner and clean the house or do my homework. I worked really hard to make everyone happy and to do good in school and life because that’s what I wanted and what
my parent’s wanted of me. Working and making money was the main priority for my family and me.
Working people did have health benefits and could take vacations. We were paid, I think, once or twice a month in Soviet Union currency, which was in rubles. There was no overtime so we didn’t have to work more, which was a very good thing because we already worked really hard everyday. However, there was also lots of unemployment and people mostly ended up moneyless and homeless.
I don’t remember the name of the leader of Armenia. But I don’t think that I liked him or the things he did, I don’t think he did a very good job of running Armenia because there were lots of homeless people and many people lost their jobs. There wasn’t good food or housing, and many people couldn’t buy anything because they didn’t have any money. Prices were too high and even my own family could only pay or food and rent. He could have done a better job. At least, I think, there was no major violence or deaths in Armenia during the Soviet Union.