Birth of Anton Kochinian (October 25, 1913)

Anton Kochinian was a remarkable, yet underrated figure in the history of Soviet Armenia during the 1950-1970s, despite being in top leadership positions for most of that period.

He was born in the village of Shahali (now Vahagni), in the district of Lori, on October 25, 1913, in the family of an agriculturist. He studied in the local school, then entered the youth organization of the Communist Party (1928) and studied in the school of the organization until 1931. He went to Tiflis to study at the Armenian pedagogical technical school in 1932, but left after a year and he was sent to Yerevan to study at the agricultural school of the youth organization (1933-1935).

After working on the editorial boards of local newspapers from Tavush and Vayots dzor (1935-1937), Kochinian rapidly rose in the party ranks. First he was secretary of the regional committee of the district of Azizbekov (Siunik) from 1937-1939, and from 1939-1940 secretary of personnel and then first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth Organization. In 1940 he was elected member of the Central Committee of the Armenian Communist Party, and in 1941-1943 he led regional committees in Yerevan and Kotayk.

After spending two years in Moscow as an auditor at the higher school for party organizers, in 1946 he was elected third secretary of the Central Committee of the Armenian Communist Party, and in 1947 secretary of personnel.

In November 1952 Kochinian was promoted to the post of president of the Council of Ministers. He would occupy this position of prime minister for almost fourteen years, during the tenures of Grigori Arutyunov (1937-1953), Suren Tovmasian (1953-1960), and Yakob Zarobian (1960-1966) as the party’s first secretaries. Kochinian was selected by the Moscow leadership to replace Zarobian in February 1966 after the latter failed to contain the demonstrations of April 1965 on the fiftieth anniversary of the genocide.

During his more than two decades both as prime minister and first secretary of the party, Kochinian recorded a series of important achievements. The economic progress of Armenia was backed by an important program of industrialization. This included the construction of chemical factories in Alaverdi and Kirovakan (nowadays Vanadzor), the industrial complexes of Hrazdan and Charentsavan, and factories in Sevan and Dilijan, complemented by railways that ensured transportation of raw materials and production. The “Yeraz” truck factory (1964) in Yerevan and big electronic factories in the city of Abovian were added in this period. Thermoelectric centrals were built in Yerevan, Kirovakan, and Hrazdan, as well as the hydroelectric central of Tatev and the cascade of Vorotan. The construction of the 48 kilometers-long Arpa-Sevan tunnel, which would bring the waters of the Arpa River to Sevan Lake, started in 1963. Kochinian’s active participation was instrumental in the decision to build the nuclear central of Metzamor, started in 1969, which would lead Armenia to energy self-sufficiency. Several thousand hectares of orchards were planted, along the construction of the canal of Aparan and the reservoir of Garni. The Yerevan-Sevan highway and the Kapan-Goris route were also built.

Besides a network of sanatoria, pioneer camps, and tourism areas throughout the republic, the sports complex of Tzaghkadzor, which would be used to train the Soviet winter sports teams, was built in the 1960s, and some important public works in Yerevan started in the early 1970s, such as enlargement of the Zvartnots airport (1973), the Hrazdan stadium (1971), and the Rossiya movie theater (1970). The first steps to build the subway network were taken in 1972.

Kochinian was also instrumental in the inauguration of the genocide memorial of Tzitzernakaberd (1967), the monument of Sardarabad (1968), and the Erebuni museum (1968). The latter coincided with the celebration of the 2750^th anniversary of the foundation of Yerevan with great fanfare. He also raised the issue of Karabagh in 1966.

 

During Kochinian’s tenure as first secretary, Soviet Armenia earned three of the five all-Soviet decorations it had throughout its history for reaching high marks in economic activity (1968, 1970, and 1972). Kochinian himself was twice decorated with the order of Lenin.

In November 1974 he was replaced by Karen Demirchyan under pretexts of “serious flaws in leadership” and practically left unemployed. He passed away on December 1, 1990. On the centennial of Kochinian’s birth, two busts were inaugurated in Yerevan and in his birthplace in Vahagni (Lori).

Inauguration of the Arpa-Sevan Tunnel (March 21, 1981)

Lake Sevan is one of the few high-mountain fresh water lakes in the world. It originally had a surface of 1,416 square kilometers at an elevation of 1,916 meters (the second highest lake in the world after Lake Titicaca, on the Bolivia-Peru border, in South America).

Only 1/12 of the more than 1,300,000 cubic meters annually entering the lake from rivers, streams, and precipitation flowed out through the Hrazdan River. The bulk of the entering water evaporated and vast areas of the Ararat plain remained unused due to the lack of moisture.

The tunnel during construction in 1973.

The idea of increasing the outflow of the lake had been put forth since the beginning of the twentieth century. The free flow from the lake would increase more than six times if more than 80 per cent of the lake surface was drained. This would suffice to irrigate almost 250,000 acres of surface of the Ararat plain. The 1,000 meter drop between the lake and the plain would be used for the generation of electricity through the construction of a cascade of hydroelectric stations on the Hrazdan River.

The work on the Sevan-Hrazdan irrigation-power complex, with six stations, started in 1933, in the period of rapid industrialization of the Soviet Union headed by Joseph Stalin. The first power station was opened in 1936. The complex was the only real source of power supply in Armenia, and until 1962 its hydroelectric stations generated almost 90 per cent of all electrical power in the country.

However, the ecological condition of the lake underwent tangible changes and vast degradation due to reduced water level and detrimental impact of human activity on the biological diversity of the lake. Due to the water level decrease, the quality of the water deteriorated and natural habitats were destroyed. In the 1950s it had become evident that the ecological and economic consequences of extensive exploitation of the lake were too undesirable to continue in the same way.

The interconnection of the power grids of Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan in the 1960s helped reduce the demand of energy from Armenia, and the construction of thermal powers started, due to the arrival of gas from Azerbaijan.

The level of Lake Sevan had been reduced by 18 meters due to the loss of water and the surface had become 1,242 square kilometers (the Sevan island has become a peninsula due to this severe reduction), and a plan to solve the issue was put in place. As a result, the release of water was reduced to 500 million cubic meters per year, of which 380 million was intended for irrigation and the rest for reserve of the power system. Two steps of the Vorotan River cascade of hydroelectric stations were put into operation in 1978, and the generation of power from the lake was totally stopped. The Sevan-Hrazdan cascade was reconverted into an irrigation operation.

This was not enough to stop the drainage of the lake water. For this reason, one priority was to divert to the lake an annual amount of 250 million cubic meters of water from the Arpa River, which would be enough, together with the lake’s own hydro resources, to stabilize its level.

The construction of the Arpa-Sevan tunnel, which would ensure the flow of the river to the waters, was no small engineering feat. It would cross 49 kilometers (30 miles), drilling through the mountains that surrounded the lake. The tunnel was inaugurated on March 21, 1981. In 2010 the tunnel received the name of “Arpa-Sevan tunnel named after Hakob Zarobian,” in memory of the Armenian republican leader from 1960-1966 who had been instrumental in the construction of the tunnel.

The tunnel during its reconstruction in 2004.

However, it is important to note that, since the water level in the lake did not rise as fast and as much, a month later the Council of Ministers of the former Soviet Union passed a resolution to build the Vorotan-Arpa tunnel to complement the work already done. This second tunnel is 21.6 kilometers (almost 14 miles). The Karabagh conflict and the earthquake of 1988 halted the construction, which was later resumed. The tunnel was finally inaugurated on April 26, 2004, bringing an additional 165 million cubic meters to the lake annually.

The water level of Lake Sevan began rising significantly after the second tunnel was completed. It was reported in 2007 that the water level had risen by 2.44 meters in the previous six years and reached 1900.04 meters in October 2010. The government committee on Sevan has predicted that it will reach 1903.5 by 2029.