by David Zenian
KIEV — Ludmila M. Zadarojna remembers her days as a student at Yerevan University with nostalgia. She also refers to life in the former Soviet Union as the "good old days."
Ms. Zadarojna is neither a politician nor a government official. But like many intellectuals, she refers to the former Soviet Union as "a land of opportunity."
"I did not shed a tear when communism collapsed. Times change, and so do ideologies. What hurts is what communism took away with it as it died," she said with visible sadness in her eyes.
Ms. Zadarojna, a native Ukrainian, is a Professor of Literature at Kiev University''s prestigious Taras Shevchenko Institute. Her forte is Armenian Literature.
As a scholar, she and dozens of intellectuals like her, were once the bastions of the former Soviet Union''s multi-cultural society.
Today, however, the so-called All Union government grants are gone, bringing to a screeching halt Ms. Zadarojna''s nearly 20-year career involving not only the study and teaching of Armenian literature, but the translation of major Armenian works to Ukrainian.
"I''ve always had this love toward Armenian. It was a dream which came true in 1970 when I was accepted to study Armenian Literature at Yerevan University," she said in a brief interview between lectures.
Upon her return to Kiev, Ms. Zadarojna took up a teaching position and immediately began translating modern Armenian literary classics into Ukrainian.
One of her first translations was Terenig Temirjian''s Vartanank, followed by the main works of Armenian writers like Hratchia Kotchar, Nardos, Vardges Bedrossian, Berge Zeitountsian and others.
"I have translated more than 12 Armenian literary works into Ukrainian. All of these have not only been published once, but some two or three times. There is a lot of interest in Armenian literature here," she said.
Maybe her works were not on any "best seller" list, but they were sold out just the same.
"We could not re-print them fast enough. I have noticed a great hunger for Armenian literary works ... and not only here, but in Russia as well, " she said.
But the collapse of the Soviet Union, and with it central funding for all intellectual endeavors, has all but robbed Ms. Zadarojna of her livelihood. "The publishing business in this country has come to a halt. There is no paper, and the university has no money," she said with great sadness.
"The difficulty does not only involve Armenian works. It is widespread. Nothing, really nothing, has been published in the last year or two. Imagine a country without literature because there is no paper for publications." she says.
At the end of the interview, and as we left the Taras Shevchenko Institute''s literature library, Ms. Zadarojna stops briefly to autograph one of her translations of a collection of some of Avedik Isahakian''s works.
"You see, to this generation," she says pointing to a group of students, "literature and culture are very important. I have had dozens of requests from them to teach a course in Armenian literature. The demand is great, but the university cannot afford it. Maybe next year."
