The Silk Factory is just a memory now

The Daily hustle and bustle have accompanied 37 Sebatsia street in Yerevan for decades. Founded in 1953, the Silk Factory after Lenin employed thousands of people. The natural and artificial fabrics produced there were exported to the Soviet Union and Central Asia. After finishing school, a lot of students used to work there, becoming loyal employees of the Factory.

Three employees of the Silk Factory are visiting for the first time the Factory that collapsed about 20 years ago, and in the dust of the remaining ruins, you can still see the cocoons, threads, and pieces of silk. For these people, the collapse of the Factory is a painful memory, but they remember the happy episodes with smiles.

[Archived footage] Everyone is incredibly enthusiastic about their work at the Silk Factory after V. Lenin in Yerevan. To work and to live like a communist: that’s the embodiment of Lenin’s ideas today.

Anahit Krtshikyan: “When I came to apply for a job, I was told to write an application to the Chief accountant. Henrik Samsonich said: “Write an application, and let me see whether you know how to write it or not”. I said: “I will write”. I wrote it and put it on the table. He looked at it and said: “Wow, you wrote it so nicely. I will not give you to anyone, you should work in the Accounting Department”. I told him: “But I’m not an accountant”.

Tsaghik Vardanyan: My sisters were working here. I thought that I should work here as well. Why should I financially depend on them? I also want to earn money.

Haykanush Metsikyan: My husband worked as the Chief mechanic’s secretary. And I was the secretary of the Communist Youth Union of the first manufacturing workshop. So we met and got married here. After having children, I later moved to the HR department.

Tsaghik Vardanyan: I adored my job. I have never worked anywhere else: only at the Silk Factory, only with my weavers. Can you imagine thousands of machines and the noise of those machines? You will become deaf after such noise.

Anahit Krtshikyan: Our work started at 9 am and ended at 5:12 pm.

Tsaghik Vardanyan: I was never late for work. The attendance tracking controller was writing down the latecomers’ names, and they were left without salaries and bonuses.

Anahit Krtshikyan: When you arrived after the employee attendance record book was closed, no matter whether you worked or not, you were considered absent.

Tsaghik Vardanyan: We were not allowed to work without headscarves. Well, it’s a machine. Imagine you are working with your head down, and suddenly, your hair wraps around the machine, or the bobbin case jumps out. It was common when someone lost his eye or injured his back or head.

Haykanush Metsikyan: Standing in the boiling water, the women continuously worked, taking out the silkworms. Then, those cocoons were boiled in the water. That's where they got the thread, the silk — the real silk.

Anahit Krtshikyan: The silk was turned into fabric, which was stained, and converted into a final product, ready for the consumer.

[Archived footage] The production of the new Factory after Lenin is the result of the efforts of thousands of artists, designers, workers, and engineers. This city of silk, as it is called, is one of the leading enterprises of the Republic that sends its fabrics to all corners of the country.

Tsaghik Vardanyan: I took my lunch with a big bowl as I knew girls would eat it. I used to put it on the engine of the car to keep it warm. Then, during the break, I would see that my plate was empty. The girls were laughing: “We've eaten your food”. And I asked them: “Now what will I eat?”

Haykanush Metsikyan: We had everything: a library, a club, sports halls. The Factory had an amateur group. It was a big factory. We also had a pioneer camp in Tsaghkadzor.

Anahit Krtshikyan: An old man was working in the Aperture workshop. He would tear a piece of paper, write a quatrain, and give it to us. He was such a good person. So when we saw him coming, we all walked towards him, knowing that he had probably written something: who should he give that quatrain?

Haykanush Metsikyan: I was elected the secretary of the Communist Youth Union for the second year in a row. I was 20 years old, the youngest on the committee. He was also elected. We went to the Araks café in front of the Moscow Cinema. We had coffee and talked. Maybe he was already interested in me; I don't know. That's how our love story began.

Anahit Krtshikyan: We had a worker who was fond of taking pictures. He used to walk in the workshops and take photos. One day he came and said: “Anahit, I should take a picture of you”. I said, “Wait until I spruce myself up, then you'll take a photo. Here it is. We laughed so much, then he said: “Ok, now let's take a normal picture”.

[Archived footage] The students of the 10th grade of school № 92 of the Shahumyan administrative district of Yerevan, under the guidance of the head teacher Mampeyan, visited the Silk Factory after Lenin for production training. Under the guidance of experienced and skilled masters, the students not only study the production technology but also participate in the production of silk fabric. After graduation, many of them will work in this factory.

Anahit Krtshikyan: Lenin's bust was right next to the booth. After the Revolution, just as Lenin's statue was removed from the square, so was his head.

Tsaghik Vardanyan: I’m seeing this for the first time. I have never seen it like this. I thought that if those cars were going in and out, they would open a workshop, they would do something.

Haykanush Metsikyan: There was no raw material, water, or electricity, and gradually the Factory collapsed. Weavers who worked for 30–40 years, those who worked so much, got pennies. I remember the Labor union president giving those pennies and the girls throwing them away: 700 AMD, 600 AMD. Is it money? In other words, it meant that you shouldn’t have any demands.

Anahit Krtshikyan: If a vein is damaged, if a clot forms, will the heart pulp? It will stop, won’t it? So not only our production but the entire Soviet Union was connected via it. That’s why when the Factory collapsed, we faced a crash, and the production stopped. It wasn’t easy to lay off more than 5,000 people at once, was it? Our best specialists disappeared along with the machines, so to say, evaporated. As if you raise your child, cherish, and suddenly realize that you have failed.

At the Yerevan Silk Factory after Lenin

Tsaghik Vardanyan has worked as a weaver and then as an instructor for 43 years.

Anahit Krtshikyan has worked for 30 years as an accountant at the Weaving department, a controller at the silk thread workshop, head of the workshop, head of the Wages department, and deputy director of economic activities.

Haykanush Metsikyan has worked at the Factory for 29 years. She has been a lab assistant, a brusher, an inspector of the HR department, and finally, the director of the Archive.