In 1978, “Novy Mir” (New World) Russia journal issued the then Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev’s “Malaya Zemlya” memoirs. This work tells a truly heroic episode of the Great Patriotic War. The Soviet army was able to capture a small bridgehead near Novorossiysk with the help of landing operations and had defended the position with heavy fights lasting 225 days. The 18th Army was also involved in these actions, the Head of the political division of this army was Colonel Brezhnev, and he truly was actively participating in the military operations.
But the Soviet propaganda, sorry for my language, made us so “sick and tired” of this “Malaya Zemlya” that this story does not cause any other feeling in normal person but scorn and irony. Brezhnev’s this and other memories were published in tens of millions of copies, and later, in the second half of the 80s, these luxurious published books had to be thrown away as trash.
Brezhnev was awarded the Lenin Prize for literature for these books. General Secretary of Army was also awarded the title of Marshal and the highest “Victory” medal. The Soviet propaganda was trying to convince us that the Soviet Union would not win the Great Patriotic War without Brezhnev. “Malaya Zemlya” was included in the compulsory school curriculum and films were screened, songs were written and performances were staged based on it. Naturally, all this had also become a subject of jokes in the kitchen.
Why have I recalled this story? It seems to me that the person’s real earnings can be assessed fully and “wholeheartedly”, if a/ in his all life and after the war, he still behaves himself as a decent person, and b/ if he does not yell about his services day and night by undermining the others’ services. For us, the then youth, it was very difficult to distinguish between Colonel Brezhnev who had fought in the war and “dear Leonid Ilyich” appearing in marasmus and being a victim of flattering. In addition, in 1978, the reality of the “Brezhnev government” was quite clear for me: there were people living with modest wages (like my family), and there were those who were having “out-of-work income”, and some of them were speaking from high tribunes about the “developed socialism.”
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So as now, if the war heroism and unjust reality are placed on the scale, then the second one, sooner or later, prevails in the public perception. From the first grade, our children know who Garegin Nzhdeh and General Andranik are, but they are not sure that it is possible to become rich in Armenia without cheating, displaying persistence and without seizing other’s property. People are encouraged by the examples of heroes – to fight against the enemy on the battlefield. The injustice of life makes people think of immigrating. Both options exist as an opportunity. It is important that the first one does not fade out under the pressure of the second one.
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
