It is quite understandable that no society can advance too much in terms of education, if it doesn’t also add to education craftsmanship. From that perspective,Baku’s Armenian society must be assessed at the lowest levels of education. Not only does it not work to develop the craft, but also it looks at a craftsman rather contemptuously, given some old prejudice. Today, an oppressing trader, a mean clerk or a master who had become rich in thousands of unlawful ways are more respected in our society than a craftsman who honestly earns his living.
Everyone knows thatBakuas a port city and as the most convenient port has a big future, particularly when that city is connected to the Poti-Tbilisi railway. It can be perceived the first city with its industry inTranscaucasianow. One can only mention that it produces a few million poods of photogen. Given that fact, craftsmanship, to which our Armenian society doesn’t pay attention at all, should have developed.
I will recall a few facts as examples. There are six main machine-building plants inBakunow, at which hundreds of laborers work. Those laborers, beginning with the first master and ending with the last apprentice are all Russians, Swedes or Europeans, but not Armenians. Enter our courts, our police, our customs house and other official institutions, instead and you will see a lot of Armenian workers there, the majority of whom are ordinary clerks. Our parents think it is better, if their sons wear away at a clerk’s desk, get pneumonia to eventually become a functionary, rather than to prepare good craftsmen out of them sending them to a factory.
I hope parents, poor parents, in particular, will pay attention to that point.
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ALEXANDER SHIRVANZADE
1882
