Photo Story
Hunting for Work After the USSR
Hayelektro was an engineering giant in Soviet Armenia -- from the 1940s through the 1990s it employed thousands in the production of generators, transformers, and household appliances. Khachatur Vardanyan, now 60, was one of them. When the Soviet Union crumbled, complexes like Hayelektro and workers like Vardanyan, were the first casualties.
Few were able to reinvent themselves and get a new profession -- even fewer succeed. Lusine Balyan’s short film showcases people who had successful careers in the USSR’s vast industrial empire, who then lost their role, yet managed to reinvent themselves. They adapted to the new order of life, transformed their old skills into the ones that the labour market needed, and found new jobs and professions in an independent Armenia.