Recently, political image expert Elina Asryan drew my attention to the fact that Russian and Armenian mythology is very different. One of the main heroes of the Russians mythology is the “tsar batiushka”, who is the embodiment of the supreme justice and from time to time punishes the wicked “boyars” for their anti-democratic acts.
During Putin’s era, for example, the governors and mayors are regularly dismissed and even tried. Within a few hours of live stream broadcast, ordinary citizens address to the “tsar” and, for instance, report that the faucet water is if bad quality and the “tsar” orders his boyars to fix the defect immediately. In the 1930s, Stalin was a similar “tsar” and before being shot, the faithful communists were shouting, “oh, if Comrade Stalin knew about all this”.
The leaders, who deviated from the image of the “tsar batiushka”, Alexander II, Khrushchev, and Gorbachev, were subject to the Russian people’s rejection and profanity. Now, as Navalny says, “he is not our tsar”, he expresses the viewpoint of 30 percent of the population (mostly youth) living in the megapolises of Russia, the rest of the Russians believe that Putin is a “tsar”.
The Armenian mythology is of a different nature. There is no image of a good and righteous king here. Just the opposite, the Bible’s idea that “any authority is from God” is absolutely unacceptable to us (unlike Russians). Our hero is a human-savior, who comes out of a cave, uncovers his sword and frees people, rescues from the monstrous, evil forces. Generals, for example, Vardan Mamikonyan, or Andranik, can embody this role.
Over the past 30 years, Armenians wanted to see such a hero among the opposition leaders, but perhaps they were missing something. Only Levon Ter-Petrosyan in 1990 and Nikol Pashinyan in 2018 complied with that character with all their standards. But both became “kings” and, at least in the case of the First President, our people’s attitude toward “kings” was revealed with all its strength (of course, also by Ter-Petrosyan’s fault). Let us hope that in case of Nikol Pashinyan it will not be so. If that mythical stereotype, nevertheless, applies, let it happen as late as possible. It is a matter of stability of the state.
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
