Pietro Shakarian's: “Antastas Mikoyan, An Armenian Reformer in Khruschev’s Kremlin”

Vahe H Apelian

Happenstance introduced me to Pietro Shakarian on the social media. At the time he was teaching Armenian history at the American University of Armenia (AUA). But it turned out that we also shared similar experiences. Pietro has grown up in Cleveland, the northernmost city of Ohio, while I, for the past almost a quarter of century, lived in its  southernmost city, Cincinnati.  For those who may not know, according to the late historian Garo Momjian, Ohio is where the first permanent Armenian settlement was envisioned to be, he noted in his book about Armenian history for 5^th grade U.S. Armenian students.

Pietro’s father is an Armenian immigrant from Romania who left Bucharest with his family in 1960 and came to Lebanon, and lived in Bourj Hammoud where his relatives, who had sponsored the family exit from Romania, lived. While in Lebanon, Pietro’s father Berj attended the famed Armenian Nshan Palanjian Djemaran. Subsequently, through the sponsorship of ANCHA (Armenian National Committee for Homeless Armenians), the family came to the United States, first arriving in Queens, New York, and then after a short time, settling in Cleveland. It was there that Pietro’s father met his mother, the daughter of Slovak and Hungarian parents. 

Pietro received his BA at John Carroll University in Cleveland. From there he earned a Master’s Degree in Library Science (MLIS) from Kent State University in Ohio. Subsequently he received a MA in Russian studies from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. And finally, he received his PhD at the Ohio State University in Columbus, OH.

When I asked him why was he named Pietro. He said as an expression of his parent’s Italophilia. His parents are art fanatics and love Renaissance art.  Later in Cleveland, his father eventually became the city architect under Mayor Carl B. Stokes, the first black mayor of a major American city.

Growing up, Pietro said, he was highly influenced by his father’s family history, as his Armenian family lived Romania. That stirred in him an interest between communism, Armenians and the United Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). He thus ended up specializing in Soviet Armenian history. 

When I met him, he was also doing research while teaching Armenian history at the AUA. His current resume reads as follows: “"I am a historian and a postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for Historical Research at the National Research University–Higher School of Economics in St. Petersburg, Russia. I earned my PhD in History at The Ohio State University, my MA in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, my MLIS at Kent State University, and my BA in History at John Carroll University in Cleveland. I previously taught at the American University of Armenia in Yerevan."

A few days ago, I received a message from Pietro from St. Petersburg, letting me that his: “book on Mikoyan will be published next year. It included excerpts from your translation of Antranig Dzarugian’s account of Mikoyan’s 1958 visit to the RA”.  In fact, our happenstance meeting was triggered by his reading of my translation of Antranig Dzarugian’s account of the Mikoyan’s 1958 visit to the Soviet Socialist Republic of Armenia.  Pietro is also a citizen of Armenia.

The link accompanying the message connected to me to the Indiana University Press, announcing that Pieto’s book on Anastas Mikoyan will be available for purchase shortly from their site and had the following introductory remark about the book:

“Veteran Soviet statesman and longtime Politburo member Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan is perhaps best remembered in both the West and the post-Soviet space as a master political survivor who weathered every Soviet leader from Lenin to Brezhnev. Less well known is the pivotal role that Mikoyan played in dismantling and rejecting the Stalinist legacy and guiding Khrushchev's nationality policy toward greater decentralization and cultural expression for nationalities.

As the first major biographical study in English of a key figure in Soviet politics, Anastas Mikoyan focuses on the Armenian statesman's role as a reformer during the Thaw of 1953–1964, when Stalin's death and Khrushchev's ascension opened the door for greater pluralism and democratization in the Soviet Union. Mikoyan had been a loyal Stalinist, but his background as a native Armenian guided his Thaw-era reform initiatives on nationality policy and de-Stalinization. The statesman advocated a dynamic approach to governance, rejecting national nihilism and embracing a multitude of ethnicities beneath the aegis of "socialist democracy," using Armenia as his exemplar. While the Soviet government adopted most of Mikoyan's recommendations, Khrushchev's ouster in 1964 ended the prospects for political change and led to Mikoyan's own resignation the following year. Nevertheless, Mikoyan remained a prominent public figure until his death in 1978.

Following a storied statesman through his personal and professional connections within and beyond the Soviet state, Anastas Mikoyan offers important insights into nation-building, the politics of difference, and the lingering possibilities of political reform in the USSR.””

http://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2022/07/seven-who-made-history.html

Pietro Shakariian is also a master teller of history. In a series of podcasts, he captivatingly told the story of  Armenian communists who were instrumental in shaping the Soviet Socialist Republic of Armenia. Thus far he has presented the following: ALEKSANDR MYASNIKYAN, SHUSHANIK KURGHINYAN, NERSIK STEPANYAN, AGHASI KHANJYAN, STEPAN SHAHUMYAN, ANASTAS MIKOYAN.

Sometime back, I took the liberty of copying his introduction to each and linked the accompanying podcast in a blog for the interested to hear Pietro.  (http://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2022/07/seven-who-made-history.html)