A Soviet-era statute, dismembered and removed in 1997 that extolled the working class, will be returned to its original site in Yerevan.

The monument, entitled “Glory to Labor”, was sculpted by Ara Harutyunyan and installed in an industrial zone of Yerevan in 1982. (Longtime Yerevan residents commonly refer to it as the "Worker's" statue).

In 2004, two Yerevan residents started looking for the statute and found the remains in one of the abandoned factories that dotted Yerevan’s Shengavit District.

The Armenian government today announced that the eleven-meter high cast iron and granite statue will be installed in Yerevan’s Labor Square near the Factory metro station.

The government, in a statement, says the statue is an art object that will symbolize the Armenian capital’s “fight against vandalism”, noting that the site had become an eyesore after the statue was removed.

The statement thus neglects to mention the statue’s original symbolism of extolling the humanity of workers.

According to a website devoted to Harutyunyan:

“In 1997 it had been barbarously broken into pieces and disseminated. The news dealt a terrible blow to the creator, who had put his soul into the work. This act of vandalism was hard to survive for him. The area has lost its meaning and value and is now crowded with shops and sales outlets.”

Ara Harutyunyan, a People’s Artist of Armenia who passed in 1999, is quoted as saying the statute represents the image of an Armenian worker walking towards western Armenia. He also created the “Mother Armenia” statute that overlooks Yerevan and the Sardarapat Memorial Complex, among others. He is buried at the Yerevan Municipal Pantheon in Tokhmakh․

Photo: Rima Grigoryan@Hetq