A trip through the Soviet Armenia

Don’t ask me why, but I am drawn to countries from the former Soviet Union. As a matter of fact, every time I travel, I try to investigate and invest myself in the history of that much discussed time.

So once in Yerevan, capital city of Armenia, I found this free tour (you can read what I wrote about it here) called “Soviet Yerevan”, where they take you to places from this aforementioned period.

The communist style is characteristic of this city: large buildings —mainly those that belonged to the government— and “block” buildings. We also boarded the train, built during the Soviet era, that hitherto it’s still running.

We ate Armenian sweets and even an ice cream called “CCCP”, the Russian acronym for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. In fact, a plan was set in motion to build block buildings in the shape of said acronym, in a way that portrayed the “CCCP” from the sky. However, since 1991 the USSR fell apart before the project was finished, the “P” is still missing.

We could also visit some abandoned factories, not far from the center of Yerevan.

We were transported in a minibus from the “Soviet era”, which is nowadays still running. They are simple and cheap, except when a part needs replacement, which are logically hard to come by since they are no longer made.

So, if you’d like to know more about the Soviet times in the present Armenia, I strongly recommend you go on this tour!

Lada