Today everybody speaks about emigration and, doubtlessly, by emigration they refer to the flow of Armenian citizens to Russia, Europe and the U.S., observed over the past decades. Many people believe that the cause was the collapse of the Soviet Union and the independence of Armenia. “The Soviet Union collapsed, borders opened and people started to leave,” they say.  

Such a conviction is equally right and wrong. Yes, the Soviet Union was a totalitarian state enclosed by a thick iron curtain, the “gates” of which nobody could pass, not even a bird or a snake. But the aspiration for emigration was always there and it was, so to say, the “monopoly” of the immigrants.

Araxie Demirchian residing in the Panorama City, California, recounts that her family that was living in France then, immigrated to Armenia in 1936. However, after seeing where he had brought his children, her father went to Moscow to get permission to return to France from the French Consul in the Soviet Union.

Araxie’s father, as expected, did not manage to approach the consulate since Chekists (officials of security service) prevented it. By attributing his action to his being unaware of the Soviet laws the officials did not take any further measure except sending him back to Armenia. After the war broke out in 1941, he was exiled to Kazakhstan as a “hopeless element” from where he returned in 1948. A year had merely passed when he was again exiled, but this time with the entire family.

During the harshest era of Stalinism, only someone who had a reality other than the Soviet one to compare to could do such a thing. In a nutshell, someone who knew where he came from and where he wanted to go to.

Both this and other examples let us conclude that emigration is directly linked to repatriation. In search and aspiration for “Motherland-Armenia” tens of thousands of people came to the closed Soviet space by bringing notions of a different life – notions that locals did not have.

According to Sonia Mghrplian, who immigrated from the U.S. in 1949, diaspora Armenians who had moved to Armenia earlier were saying that compared to 1946-1947 life was better then. “…But to us, there was nothing good as we had come from the U.S.,” said Mrs. Sonia who presently lives in Paris.

Sonia Mghrplian before epatriation

What she said is proved by a top-secret letter held in the National Archive of Armenia, written by Lieutenant Colonel Nalbandian, Deputy Head of the Border Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Armenian okrug (region). In his letter dated May 1948 he informed Head of the Committee on Immigration Astvatsatrian that “… due to social difficulties some of the repatriates are unhappy with life in Soviet Armenia and praise life abroad.”

The letter directly quotes a repatriate from Egypt residing in Leninakan (Gyumri): “I am lame but I used to live way better in Egypt than any healthy person in Armenia. As a cobbler, I had everything I needed for a decent life. When immigrating to Armenia I was hoping to open my own workshop and work within my profession. However, my expectations were not met.” Answering the question why he did not want to work in a shoe factory, the Egyptian Armenian said. “No matter where I work in Armenia, I know things won’t get better than they were in Egypt.”

Another top-secret letter (12.08.1948) sent to Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Armenian SSR Sahak Karapetyan by colonel Karakozov, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, and colonel Rudevskiy, Head of Border Troops’ Department, shows that in the very first year of repatriation, seven cases of escape of 19 people in total were prevented in the July-December period of 1946. The number of escape attempts grew in 1947 reaching 91, with a total of 270 people. In 1948, before the day the letter was written, there were 71 escape cases (133 people) registered. Thus, in just two years (July 1946 – August 1948) over 400 repatriates attempted to escape (emigrate).

According to the authors of the letter, they carried out explanatory work with repatriates, which enabled them to convince 287 repatriates to give up on their intention to escape (emigrate) in 1947, and 42 repatriates – in January-August, 1948.

Despite the watchfulness and vigilance of the border guards, 20 people (5 cases) were reported to cross the state border in 1946-1947, and 11 people (one case) – in the seven months of 1948.

Escape attempts followed in the next years as well, however, their number gradually fell due to increased penalty on escapes. At first the penalties were comparably lighter and mostly referred to a two-three-year imprisonment and sometimes the imprisonment was conventional and without arrest. In fall 1948, an amendment was made to the Criminal Code that said the prison term was extended to 10 years with the crime being regarded as treason against the motherland.

The following steps prove that the emigration trends were a serious “hassle” for the government of Soviet Armenia. Meeting halfway the suggestion of the Armenian okrug’s border troops, the Council of Ministers of the Armenian SSR made the decision to move families of repatriates trying to escape (emigrate) from border settlements to the deep areas of the republic. In other words, it was a forced displacement or an internal exile. At the same time, a decision was made to take steps to improve the standard of living of Armenian repatriates settled in border areas (and having no intention to escape).

An еscape scheme

All official documents on these escapes put the emphasis on the low social and living conditions of the repatriates and explain emigration attempts by these factors, while the references of individual complaints of repatriates that appeared in the spotlight of the state officials often came with the expression “is praising life abroad.”

From the right Hovhannes Paytaryan, 1952, Siberia

This is critical to understanding the origins of emigration because in the subsequent years (1950-60-70s) life changed, the living standards of repatriates improved but instead of fading or declining migration trends grew and intensified.

Hovhannes Paytarian, who immigrated to Armenia from Lebanon in 1947, survived the Siberia exile and currently lives in Granada Hills, California, believes that the main cause of migration was the Soviet ideology that was founded on lies and falsifications. “Had the Soviet Union been as enshrined in the Constitution, it would be a heaven on Earth with an excellent order and rules,” said Mr. Paytarian.

Translator Ani Babayan

Photo: Araxie Demirchyan’s wedding, early 1950s, Siberia

 

 

 

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This article is prepared within the framework of “Two Lives: The Cold War and the Emigration of Armenians” project financed by National Endowment for Democracy (NED).