When it became clear after the famous recording that many politicians and commentators are very excited about that eavesdropping, one of my friends noted that it turned out the KGB had proponents and even fans in the modern-day Armenia, and there were rather
young men among them. It is absolutely right; one should not necessarily be a former teacher of the CPSU history on the wrong side of 70 and an ardent fan of 1937. And perhaps, the very problem is that we haven’t understood, haven’t assessed and are not even interested in what happened exactly 75 years ago.
What do we really know about that period? Basically, what Stalin’s comrade-in-arms and accomplice to his crimes, Khrushchev, said in 1956. А cult of personality? Is it the main specificity of that period? Now there is Gagik Tsarukyan’s cult of personality in the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP), there is Levon Ter-Petrossian’s cult of personality in the Armenian National Congress (ANC), there is Artashes Geghamyan’s cult of personality in the National Unity Party etc., so what? Is it the characteristic of “1937,” were the Communists of the mid-1950s right about “criticizing” the Stalin regime for that very thing? Rather, they should have talked about another cult – the cult of violence – when both the leadership and the people are convinced that the only motivation for organizing people and achieving some result is violence, and the state’s duty is to create such a machine of violence that will keep a firm grip on the people and will make them comply with some strict rules for fear. And what is the engine of that machine? In the same period (1933-1945), that institution in Germany was called Gestapo – Secret State Police – and in the Soviet Union, it had many names, but the most common one was KGB. The work style of that institution is, for example, to persecute people based on anonymous denunciation, to eavesdrop on political opponents and to blackmail using that. And the main specificity of such a system is that the given institution is beyond any control. I am convinced that we haven’t comprehended, denied the horrible things that existed in our past.
Certainly, we live in a whole different country today, the head of state – take, for example, his speech – talked about whole different values. But does the state, the government, work in a style different from that of the KGB, are the majority of our citizens intolerant toward that style? Haven’t you met people who say, “This country needs a Stalin who will enforce law and order”? And while it is so, there will be fans and proponents of eavesdropping.
Read also
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
