On the history of intercultural relations in Armenia: the Leninakan textile factory (1920s-1980s)

The study is aimed at identifying the importance of intercultural interaction between visiting specialists and local residents both for the production activities of the Leninakan Textile Factory (Armenian SSR, 1920s-1980s) and for the urban socio-cultural space. It is also aimed at determining ways of implementing this interaction in employees’ labor and leisure practices. Materials of the mass media published during the period under study, as well as data and observations of researchers and other authors who had previously studied the history of the plant, were used. The set of research methods was formed on the basis of the tools of historical science (historical-genetic and system-historical approaches, diachronic and retrospective methods), as well as some approaches and methods used in ethnology in the study of interethnic relations (activity approach and the theory of ethnic attitudes). The author gives facts about the development of production capacities in the pre-war period, with an emphasis on the interpersonal aspects of cultural exchange; presents memories of people who worked at the enterprise at that time or participated in providing professional assistance to Leninakan textile workers; analyzes facts that testify to the activities of the enterprise during the years of the Great Patriotic War; notes the participation of Russian specialists with Komsomol travel tickets who arrived during this period, emphasizing the cordial attitude towards visiting specialists in Armenia. The author characterizes forms of professional assistance provided in the 1940s-1950s (enhancing of personnel potential by young specialists from Moscow, training of Armenian masters by Moscow instructors) and notes the constant strengthening of the social and cultural ties of Leninakan textile workers of different nationalities in the post-war period. Intercultural communication between visitors and local employees of the enterprise was carried out through (1) joint labor activity, (2) the exchange of information of a socio-political and socio-cultural nature in industrial and leisure communication, (3) publications in the local and republican press related to workers’ everyday life and visiting specialists’ achievements, (4) interethnic marriages. Russian specialists were able not only to diversify the ethnic composition of the population of Leninakan (now Gyumri), but also, having adapted, to become one of the constituent parts of the local community, an element of its colorful cultural palette.