The Armenian community in Rostov is the largest community in the
Russian Federation. The number of Armenian regional officials passes
5,000. Armenian businessmen in Rostov are the most active. According to
head of the community Harutyun Surmalyan, “Armenians in Rostov live
better than in Armenia.” Surmalyan adds that the Armenians live however
they want and the Russian chauvinism has no impact on Armenians what so
ever. What’s amazing though is that until today there is not one
Armenian school and the children learn Armenian only in the framework
of facultative classes in Russian schools. Instead of schools there are
20 Armenian churches in Rostov and two more churches are being
constructed as we speak. This, of course, is very good, but it is sad
in that nobody cares for building schools.
During the years of the Soviet Union, Rostov was known for its mafia
where there were Armenians too. They were pretty active in the
framework of the authority’s “razborkas”(Russian for debates).
Times have changed; the Soviet Union has collapsed, but what about the
mafia? “They don’t exist. You can only read about them in books,” said
Rostov’s Armenian community leader Harutyun Surmalyan.