A NATION OF READERS BUT WHERE ARE THE BOOKS?

by David Zenian


Yerevan -- Armenia's emphasis on private enterprise, combined with the harsh realities of a market economy, has left many casualties including the publishing industry.

A nation of avid readers, most Armenians today are reading less, not only because little is being written or published, but because books are no longer on top of their shopping list.

Some bookstores have already closed down, while many others look like they are about to go out of business.

At one central Yerevan bookstore, used books in Russian share the dusty shelves with a few textbooks and a cluster of cheap toys and stationary.

Gone are most of the literary magazines and journals along with works of literature, poetry, theater and the arts. Dozens of printing presses are idle across the nation because serious authors are no longer subsidized by the central government or the once omnipotent Armenian Writers Union.

According to Information Minister Hratch Tamrazian, the publishing industry is one of the worst hit in the country mainly because of economic factors that have created a new set of priorities among the reading public.

From more than 60 private publishing houses licensed in the independence-fever days of 1991, only a "handful" have survived.

"It is nothing more than a question of supply and demand ... or money. Authors have no money to publish their own works. Rich businessmen say publishing is a bad investment because books are not a commodity they can sell.

"People have no money to buy the few books that do get published, and if this continues our intellectual life and literary output will be in very serious trouble," Tamrazian said.

Under communism, everything was subsidized by the central government. Works of quality were published along with massive volumes of propaganda, and made available to the reading public at nominal costs.    Books were the cheapest commodity in a tightly controlled society where the government effectively decided what got published and what did not.

But all that has changed.

Independence has, for the first time in more than 70 years, guaranteed freedom of thought and expression -- but not without cost.

"I barely make enough to feed my family, and I have no money to spend on books. This both is sad and dangerous, but what can I do ... we have to eat," said a government employee who declined to be identified.

The cost of printing 1,000 paperback copies of a 400 page novel is about 1,400,000 Armenian Drams -- or 1,400 per copy. The sale price of such a novel is about 4,000 Armenian Drams -- the average monthly wage for most of the nation's workforce.

If no one is buying books, then what is happening to the hundreds of authors and the literary potential of the country.

After four years of turmoil, the Writers Union was recently consolidated with the its once-rival faction Today, a union which has more than 400 members across Armenia.

"We have no problems with membership, but the Union no longer has the clout it once enjoyed. In recent years, it was neglected by the government, but that is changing now," outgoing Union president and writer Razmig Davoyan said.

According to Davoyan, while some scientific and research papers are being published along with the religious output of the Holy See of Etchmiadzin, works of literature are on the decline.

The American University of Armenia with U.S. Information Services funding has published several Armenian translations of books on economics and business administration by renowned authors like Peter Drucker and Paul Hawken, and the National Gallery of Art, with financing from the French Embassy, has published several Armenian translations of books on Van Gogh, Diderot and others.

While some of the publications are sold to students, most are distributed free of charge to researchers. Under either circumstance, the printing costs are not covered.

Given the economic conditions of the country, the little that is being published is still being subsidized. In the past, it was the communist party, now its either the government -- in the case of textbooks -- or institutions who often depend on outside financial assistance for their sustenance.

"We need to establish something like an endowment fund for the arts and literature to help new writers who cannot make it on their own. It would be ideal if sponsors can meet the publication costs to keep the sales price of books within the reach of all Armenians," he said.

Maybe just a dream.

"Armenia has always been a nation of habitual readers, but that has changed since independence," said Arevshad Avakian, President of the Armenian Cultural Fund, a quasi-governmental organization grouping writers, painters and other artists.

"In Armenia, we do not have a shortage of good authors, but in the absence of financial support from the state or private sponsors, real talent cannot survive because it cannot publish, and this means authors will eventually stop writing.

"Even if a novelist finds a sponsor or patron and gets his book printed, people do not have the money to purchase them," he said in a recent interview.

Avakian, himself an author, is a good example of the problems facing writers.

"I have stopped writing, and like many others, I am trying to generate other sources of income. I am also a painter, and fortunately, paintings are easier to sell, because they cost so much less to produce. I have not published anything since 1990," he said.

The Armenian Cultural Fund, which was established during the last months of the Gorbachev era to encourage young authors, is almost bankrupt now.

"Throughout 1995, we were able to print a single art album and about half a dozen books. A serious writer does not have the financial capability to publish his or her works, and even if he gets something printed, he cannot sell.

"Food and other household needs come well ahead of books," he said.

If books are not a priority, then is anything being published, and what are people reading since the collapse of communism, which considered the printed word and its propaganda machine as one of its most powerful and potent weapons.

"The weekly television news magazine Yeter sells 40,000 copies, while the 20 or so daily newspapers have a combined nation-wide circulation of less than 60,000 in a country of 3.5 million," said Vrej Margosian, manager of Yerevan's government-owned Barperagan publishing house where all Armenian newspapers area printed.

"In the old days, we printed 2.5 million copies of various communist newspapers every day, including Pravda and Izvestia in Russian. These machines were busy 16 hours a day," Margosian said during a tour of the massive complex -- most of which is gathering dust after years of remaining idle.

In one of the sections of the mammoth printing press, a handful of workers are leisurely binding elementary school notebooks. Elsewhere, a few essential textbooks are being put together. The color printing presses are idle.

"We are down to less than 10 percent of our potential, and we are printing very little more than newspapers these days. No one has the money to buy books on culture and literature, even if such books were printed," Margosian said.

"We hope to generate some cash from the sale of notebooks to pay our staff ," he said.

If the government-owned Barperagan publishing house and printing press depends on the sale of notebooks and national newspapers for its meager existence, the soon to be privatized Zvartnots color printing press is not in better shape.

"We had more than 600 employees who worked almost around the clock to print books, calendars, brochures and much more. Now we are down to less than 100 employees and we have lost 99 percent of our business," Zvartnots' director Mikayel Gevorkian said during a recent visit.

Zvartnots and the Barperagan printing press -- who may have once been overstaffed -- are two of the hundreds of similar facilities in Armenia which once churned out not only valuable literary and scientific books but also stacks of propaganda for the communist party.

Every university department, labor union, hospital, and government ministry had its own printing facility. Printing was once a powerful tool.

But this is Armenia, and adapting to the changing realities is what most people are very good at. "We have made the transition and like everything else, the publishing industry will survive. It might take another shape, but Armenian creativity will prevail," Information Minister Tamrazian said.