Armenia’s dying Soviet heritage

Journalist: Sona Hovsepyan, , Photographer: Hakob Margaryan
15.08.24

In the western part of the Armenian capital Yerevan, a bustling silk factory named after Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin employed thousands of people for decades. It produced fabrics that were exported throughout the Soviet republic, and housed a community of workers—everyone from archivists to engineers. 

In the Soviet Union, Armenia was a well-known manufacturing center: in the late 1980s, for example, the industry accounted for 68 percent of the gross national product.

Haykanush Metsikyan worked at the silk factory for nearly 30 years as a lab assistant, an inspector in the HR department, and eventually as the director of the archive. 

“We remember those days with gratitude,” she told Chai Khana during a visit to a former silk factory.

Metsikyan’s husband, Gagik Mnatsakanyan, also worked at the factory as the chief mechanic’s secretary. “We spent our youth there,” he said. “When we turned 50, the country changed, but we were already used to that life.”

Once the Soviet Union collapsed, the factories slowly closed as the country grappled with the First Nagorno-Karabakh War and an energy crisis, a period known locally as the “dark and cold years.” During that period, there were industrial enterprises not only in Yerevan but also in various other towns of Armenia.

The remains of the facilities—some of which included libraries, workers clubs and other facilities—have largely been left to molder. 

Architect Vruyr Kocharyan told Chai Khana that the process of finding new purposes for these ruins has been slow although recently some attempts have been made to turn them into shopping malls, residential areas or business centers.

For example, a part of the silk factory now serves as a warehouse for Vega, one of the biggest hypermarkets in Armenia. 

“In recent years, prompted by increased interest in the real estate market, some industrial areas have undergone some transformation. They have become public spaces used for business…but I wouldn’t dare to refer to those as good examples,” Kocharyan explained. 

Few of the transformed spaces retained elements of their Soviet heritage—or hold any real benefit for the Armenian population. “I think the challenge in reimagining is thinking about how they can serve the wider Armenian public and not just the interests of a private owner,” Lori Khatchadourian, an associate professor from Cornell University in the US, told Chai Khana.

Khatchadourian, who researches the afterlife of socialist modernity with a focus on the forces shaping industrial ruination, noted that these buildings were taken from the public as a result of privatization and corruption after the Soviet Union’s collapse. 

An alternative approach, used in other countries, would be to consider how the buildings could serve their community and their past, he said.

“The other big path that some countries and some places pursue is thinking of them as heritage landscapes. How can these places be reimagined and transformed into a site of heritage just like tourists go to the Erebuni museum or Garni temple [the only standing pagan temple in Armenia]?” Khatchadourian said. 

Today, however, the preference is to destroy the abandoned industrial buildings, according to Ashot Snkhchyan, co-founder of SNKH architecture studio.

Snkhchyan has some experience working with Soviet buildings, such as 180 square meters at the former ErAZ automobile factory, which he turned into a co-working space.

For him, it was important to preserve some details from the factory. In addition, the architectural studio is also working on a new project, aiming to transform the former clothing factory building into a business office while preserving the building’s main resources.

However, according to Snkhchyan, the main obstacle is that there are no political decisions regarding the reimagining of industrial ruins by goverment.

“There should be a common solution and a common vision, with a master plan that includes malls, residential buildings, art centers, schools, cafes, everything,” he stressed.

The Armenia Urban Development Committee and Ministry of Economy, in response to Chai Khana’s questions, stated that they are not responsible for statistics about abandoned industrial buildings. The Ministry of Economy, in a written response, said that defunct industrial factories are mainly private capital without state participation in their ownership. The ministry noted that the Armenian National Interest Fund (ANIF) facilitates investments in defunct factories; all shares held by the fund must be sold to interested private companies.

According to the Ministry of Economy, they have also launched several investment programs that can help industrial companies for development and transformation.

Other countries have opted to invest to restore the sites to their original state so they can serve as an attraction for visitors.

“It’s a very potentially rich way to educate the young generation about their parents’ and grandparents’ experience as proletarian workers and wage earners in a highly industrialized Armenian society,” Cornell Associate Professor Lori Khatchadourian explained.

Industrial tourism is not widespread in Armenia, although there have been a few attempts to bring post-Soviet factories back to life. For example the 2019 Ghost-fest, which brought together artists from across the world to forgotten and abandoned places in Armenia.

Architect Vruyr Kocharyan, who has not worked with Soviet-era buildings, believes they have potential to serve the public today. He says the main obstacle is changing how people view these buildings. 

“They [current owners]  haven’t looked at those factories with the same eyes as we do,” he said. “For them, they are just semi-abandoned areas, for many, maybe even a headache.”


This feature story was prepared with support from the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) South Caucasus Regional Office. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views of FES .


This article was produced in the framework of Chai Khana Fellowship program - Spring/Summer 2024

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