Hitchhiker's Guide to
Armenia: Diary of a Russian Traveler
May 15, 2009, video, 45 minutes, by Artem
Общая
информация
Вкратце о себе: родился в городе Урай (Ханты-Мансийский автономный
округ), вырос в Уфе (Республика Башкортостан), сейчас живу в Москве.
Закончил журфак МГУ, владею английским и немного испанским. Работаю
редактором и журналистом, путешествую по мере возможностей и пишу об
этом в своем ЖЖ. Готов обсудить любые деловые предложения, связанные с
путешествиями и туризмом: писать статьи и путеводители, работать гидом
и фотографом. Связаться со мной можно по мэйлу rusakovich@gmail.com.
General
information
Briefly about myself: I was born in the city of Urai (Khanty-Mansi
Autonomous Area), grew up in Ufa (Bashkortostan), and
now
live in Moscow.
I graduated with a degree in journalism from Moscow State University,
and speak English and some Spanish. I work as an editor and journalist,
traveling as much as possible and write about it on LiveJournal [Zhivoi Zhurnal]. I am
ready to
discuss any business offers related to travel and tourism: to write
articles and guides, to work as a guide and photographer. You can
contact me by e-mail rusakovich@gmail.com.
Краткое
описание фильма:
От
грузинской границы до Еревана с турецким дальнобойщиком - Ереван:
Европа в Закавказье — Митинг каждый день — Разговор с афроармянином —
Лестница в небо и вид на Арарат — Откуда в Ереване Голубая мечеть —
Армянские храмы снаружи и изнутри — Старый и новый город — Село Гарни:
языческий храм и "симфония камня" — Монастырь Гегард— Город и озеро
Севан — Водитель-молоканин —
Дилижан — Село Фиолетово: патриархальная
Русь посреди Армении — Ванадзор — Водитель из Гюмри о спитакском
землетрясении — Монастырь Кобайр — Как полетать над Алаверди — Сыновья
армянского плотника: создатель МИГа и президент СССР — Монастыри Санаин
и Ахпат: тени прошлого.
A
brief description of the films:
[Recorded April 30 to 3 May 3, 2009. 8 to10 minutes each. Posted on
the
Internet May
15, 2009.] Part 1 — 9:47
minutes — From the
Georgia border to
Yerevan with a Turkish trucker — Erevan: Europe in the Transcaucasus —
A
meeting every day — Conversation with an Afro-Armenian — Stairway to
Heaven, and a look at Ararat — Where did the Blue Mosque in Yerevan
come from
Part 2— 9:59 minutes — Armenian
churches inside and out — old and new City — Garni village:
pagan temple and a "symphony of stone" — Gegard Monastery
Part 3— 7:59
minutes — City and
Lake Sevan — a Molokan
driver — Dilijan [2:30-minute
interview with Jumper or Molokan man
in noisy car.]
Part 4— 9:54
minutes — Fioletovo
village: patriarchal
Russia in the middle of Armenia [Short interview with 2 Jumpers or Mookans along highway,
then 9-minute interview with a Jumper
or Molokan man on
street]
Part 5— 8:10
minutes — Vanadzor [Kirovakan] — A driver from Gyumri about the Spitak
earthquake — Monastery Kobayr — How to fly over Alaverdi — Sons of an
Armenian carpenter: MIG founder and president of the USSR —
Monasteries Sanahin and Haghpat: the shadows of the past.
Hitchhiker's Guide to Armenia — Part 3 — To watch, move the sliding
red dot at the bottom of the screen to the
middle, and set the timer to minute 4:00. A Jumper or Molokan gives
hitchhiker Artem a ride to Delizhan from Lake Sevan. The interview ends
at
minute 6:39.
Driver: Our
ancestors came from Tambov. Hitchhiker: When
did they come here? D: During the
reign of Cathrine I, they were exiled.... H: What for? D:
You know, to live with God ... the cross ... [unclear] H:Ah, Old
Ritualists? [Old Believers] D:Yeah, but Molokans. H:Molokans, yeah
I heard about them. D:My sister lives
in Min Vod. They came to visit the farm. H:Where do you
work? D:On a farm. We raise livestock.
Feed them. I got one here in the back. We sell the young ones [calves,
lambs]. H:Do you have a
family, kids? D: Yes, five kids. H:Do Russsians
usualy have big families? D:Yes, we have
families of 10, 12, 8, 7, .. H:Are there also
Russians ... D:They are in
Fioletovo, and farther in Lermontovo. I don't know. Earlier we had 20
villages. They went to Moscow,
Krasnayarsk,
Krasnodar, Stavropol, Rostov ... H:Where the name
Filoletovo come from? Do you know? D:Before it was
called Nikitino. Then named after [Ivan T.] Fioletov,
one of 26
Baku commissars who were shot.
.
Hitchhiker's Guide to Armenia — Part 4 — Hitchhiker Artem
interviews 2 young Jumper or Molokan men plowing a field along the
highway. Then he interviews a a Jumper or Molokan man on the street in
Fioletovo. The opening title reads: "Fioletovo (15 km [10 miles]
west of Dilizhan)". [Translation
is close.]
Hitchhiker: Do any Russians live here? Young men:Catherine
II sent us here. H: Where did they
send you from YM: From Tambov
Governorate [guberniia]...
Tsar Nicholas... It was the prosecution of the Church. [In Fioletovo] Man: We live by
Christ's commandments. H: So you
don't have any priests [sviashchenik : священик]?
M: What you mean
We have them. We sing psalms, H: What's the
difference between your church and a typical church, the Orthodox
Church? M: Ours doesn't
take bribes. We don't preach for money. Our priest is a worker just
like me. He earns his living. I earn my living. So we don't pay money for baptizing,
weddings or funerals. That's the difference.
Over there in the [Orthodox] Church you
have to pay money to the priest if he comes to baptize kids. If you get
married then you have to pay money, and then membership to the State.
Ah, we don't pay anybody!
So we don't harm anybody. We just serve
God and that's it. Over there the pope can get drunk. And for example
their leader gets drunk. And his assistants get drunk with wine and
swaggle in their chasubles
[robes]. But we don't do that. We are against tobbacco, alchohol,
stealing, and cheating. That's our way of life. We work a
lot of course in the mountains H: Yeah I can see
that the soil is poor. Does anything grow here? M: Potatoes,
cabbage, carrots and beets, that's all. Our ancestors were exiled
from Russia during the times 1758, -38 ... -54 ... H: 1800s [about 1830] M: 1800s H: Who was the
Tsar then? M: Nicholas
probably. H: I was told it
was during Cathrine II. M: No not Nicholas,
Catherine Maybe a different Nicholas but mostly during Catherine.
But Nicholas was
the last one during the Revolution in 1917. H: I see the
houses are big and nice. The villages in Central Russia look worse than
this one. Why is that? M: I know that,
I've been there. Because these mountains were full of forests. When our
people came here there were only 38 families. They cut down the trees,
just like in Russia, and built these houses.
There's a rock here, tufa[hard soil]. We
work a lot.
We practically don't use alcohol at all. H: Not at all? M: We drink a
little sometimes. The young drink a little. But generally not. The
family people mostly work for their family. [Noisy tractor passes.]
H: I see there is .... M: [Interrupts]
We don't use tobacco. H: I see that the
kids can drive tractors. M: Yeah, kids.
Look at my grandson, he can drive a car tractor. And I have a Ford
tractor. And he's almost 7 years old, he can almost drive the car,
standing behind the Ford [tractor].
I got up in the morning at 6 am, and I
will work until 9 pm. What you harvest, that's what your going to
get. If you sit over here.... We have rich. We have poor. But
generaly it's good. A lot of people left to Russia. H: You are not
going? M: My son is going.
I have 3 brothers in Russia. They grew up over here.This is our
father's house. I have an apartment in Kirovakan [now Vanadzor] where I
lived. I was born here. Now I get a pension. My son is in Yakutia
[Siberia]. H: Is he mining diamonds? M: No he's working
on a gas line. When he finishes he will go to Uzbekistan. He went
to Indai, and Nakhodka.
They are constantly traveling in Russia and working there. [Jumper and Molokan men from Armenia
formed work teams to subcontract labor as a "brigade".]
Hi [Zdarov].
Mikey! [Picks up grandson.] And that's how we live — little by little.
Let me kiss you. Here's my grandson. It's difficult right now. During
the Soviet Union we lived better than in Russia. They don't ask you for
registration papers. In Russian there are too many laws. Here there are
fewer laws.
Today if do something here, my neighbor won't turn
me in for what I am doing. Where did I get it? What am I doing? I don't
know how it is in Russia now. But during Soviet times, they reported
you to the authorities. He has it, I don't have it.
But Armenians are different. If he has it, he will share
it with a neighbor. All my life my neighbors did not bother me, they
helped me. So it's easier here if you have work. H: Is there
any conflict between Russians and Armenians? M: No. Absolutely
not. H: During the
Soviet Union there were conflicts, but after each Republic separated, I
have full responsibilites and rights. M: Do you
know [speak] Armenian? H: Yes. In the
village they don't know. But I lived in the city. All my famiily, my
grandkids are learning it. You need it. The men go into the army and
have to learn it, but the females [don't] ....