Vardan Harutyunyan (long interview) // Вардан Арутюнян (длинное интервью)

With a new series of eyewitness videos, we commemorate the disintegration of the Soviet Union. After last years‘ focus on witnesses from civil society, this time we will be devoted to perspectives that are often overlooked in the discourse of remembrance surrounding the collapse of the Soviet Union: How did people from ethnic and cultural minorities fare at that time? Which social groups suffered particularly? And who, on the contrary, was finally able to start a new life free from repression? And what can we learn from that for our societies today? Our witnesses are a mixed bag of different people – we present people who, through their unique perspectives, bring the complexity of the post-Soviet transition closer to us like pieces of a puzzle. They tell of their personal fates at the „fringes of world history” and of how and why Soviet republics came to be independent states. This is the story of Vardan Harutyunyan. Vardan is a Soviet dissident and Human Rights activist. He was a member of the Armenian Youth Union of underground National United Party of Armenia. In 1980, was arrested along with 4 other dissident friends and sentenced to 5 years in prison and 3 years of exile for his “anti-Soviet activities.” Served his sentence in Ural and Magadan (Kalima). In 1988, after the end of his sentence term, returned to Yerevan, Armenia, where he lives until now. // Новой серией видеороликов свидетелей мы отмечаем распад Советского Союза. После того, как в прошлом году мы...