Fadei Sargsyan: The Armenian High-Tech Engine

The Institute did not develop large-scale activities in the first years of its activity. The team was formed from talented specialists. However, squabbles, intrigues, and internal fractions had not allowed the necessary work: the result had been frequent turnovers of leadership. With the arrival of Sargsyan as director, the situation changed qualitatively. The team became integrated, carrying out unique projects and achieving globally highlighted results. An integral part of the director’s organizational talent was exceptional human qualities, the ability to find an individual approach to each person, professional competence and great kindness, combined with punctuality and discipline. Fadey Sargsyan paid particular attention to the social aspect of the team’s life. Employees received the highest salaries in Armenia and were provided with apartments and everything else necessary. A team of thousands honored their leader.

The Institute created the USSR’s first semiconductor-based computers of the second generation – “Hrazdan-2” and “Hrazdan-3” – followed by machines of the third generation – “Nairi.” The Americans qualified “Nairi” as an advanced computer that reduced the gap existing with their computers. The computer of the single series – ES-1045 and the computer complex VK-1045 was considered a colossal achievement. The creators were awarded the Lenin and other state prizes, and among them was Sargsyan. The names of prominent designers Arman Kuchukyan, Hrachik Hovsepyan, Mnatsakan Buniatyan, German Ohanyan, Aram Geoletsyan, Robert Atoyan, Yuri Shukuryan and their teams were marked in golden letters in the history of the Armenian people. They all lived and worked in Armenia, and back then, the cutting-edge computers were called “Nairi” and “Hrazdan.” Comments are superfluous.

Head of the Soviet Armenian Government

In 1977, Sargsyan was appointed chair of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Armenia. He was the head of the government for twelve years.

The country’s leader during this period was the outstanding statesman Karen Demirchyan. Sargsyan was well-known and respected in Moscow. Among his friends were Soviet ministers, marshals and generals, with whom he worked directly. However, the choice of Demirchyan even more decisive. Demirchyan’s Armenia enjoyed a time of unprecedented economic, educational and cultural upsurge. A considerable number of facts and figures support that assertion. We limit ourselves to only two: if in 1970 there were seven significant production associations in Armenia, then ten years later their number increased tenfold – there were 77 of them. Sixty to eighty new schools were built and opened annually during this period.

The president of the Council of Ministers was involved in the most critical areas. Sargsyan was the chief of personnel for the construction of the Yerevan Metro. He was responsible for constructing the Sports and Concert Complex, reconstructing the Opera House, and developing the entire infrastructure of the republic’s economy.

We would like to touch briefly upon the relationship between the state and the Armenian Church. The atheistic state, one of the ideological foundations of which was the rejection of God, in the period of its foundation and decades of development, persecuted the Church and its ministers in every possible way. In Armenia, several clergy members were murdered, and churches were liquidated during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 (World War II).

The attitude towards the Church became more tolerant in subsequent years, but the ideological confrontation continued. In Armenia in the ‘70s-‘80s, despite the instructions dictated by the centralized power, the leaders of the country were aware of the role of the Armenian Apostolic Church as an essential institution for national identity. The president of the Council of Ministers, Sargsyan, was the one who primarily dealt with it. He periodically met with Catholicos of All Armenians Vasken I and resolved pending issues. It is no coincidence that of the two resolutions of the highest authorities of the Soviet Union adopted in the post-war period concerning Armenia, one was about insufficient atheistic work in the republic.

In the future, the relationship between Sargsyan and the Church in the period of Armenian independence, acquired a new quality, especially during the reign of the Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II. Here is what the latter wrote: “We have been communicating with Mr. Sargsyan with joy and love since his work as president of the Council of Ministers of the Republic. We loved and respected him as a worthy person, the son of the Armenian people, devoted to the precepts of the Armenian Apostolic Church. He inherited this spirit, apparently, from his grandfather, a priest whose name he proudly bore. When we invited Mr. Sargsyan to participate in the celebrations concerning the founding of six churches, he acted as a godfather and proudly highlighted that he was the grandson of a priest.”

President of the National Academy of Sciences

In 1993, Fadey Sargsyan was elected president of the National Academy of Sciences of the independent Republic of Armenia. One of his main tasks was to preserve the Academy to the extent possible. The attitude of the new authorities differed drastically from the realities of the Soviet era: the role of the Academy and science in the state structure changed. Sargsyan, using his own connections outside Armenia, achieved several agreements on scientific cooperation between the Academy of Sciences and foreign scientific centers. His efforts brought about sponsors who also supported the Academy. Nevertheless, all this was not enough. Furthermore, the state of affairs that developed during this period in the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia, and even now, suggests that the national government continually thinks that something should be reformed, but in reality it should do nothing.

To completely deny and misunderstand what was created in the past threatens to lead to the collapse of the most important national institutions. The outstanding statesman Fadey Sargsyan realized this.

Here is what Academician Samvel Shukuryan wrote about Fadey Sargsyan: “His merits in the development of high technologies, electronics, computer technology and informatics in Armenia are tremendous and undeniable. He was the first to realize the need to create an appropriate and continuously updated technological and financial infrastructure, and he did a lot for this.

“This infrastructure not only functioned successfully for decades but also contributed in every possible way to the growth and development of engineering talents and innovative thinking in Armenia. Consequently, now about 25 thousand people in Armenia are successfully working in the field of high technologies.”

I would like to conclude this article about Fadey Sargsyan with the phrase authored by the great Lithuanian poet Eduardas Mezhelaitis: “He took the tasks of each individual close to heart.”

(Ruben Mirzakhanyan is the president of the Tekeyan Cultural Association of Armenia, doctor of history and professor.)