Frunze Dovlatyan's "Yerkunq" ("Delivery") is an epic film about Soviet Armenia at the beginning of the era of Lenin's New Economic Policy (NEP). Starring Khoren Abrahamyan as the revolutionary statesman Aleksandr Myasnikyan, it highlights the difficulties that the new Soviet government faced in rebuilding Armenia after seven years of war and genocide. Myasnikyan needed to gain the trust of the people, develop infrastructure, and create new irrigation systems, among other tasks. Although a Soviet-era film, it treats the history objectively. Internal debates among the Soviet Armenian leadership are represented, including those who favored harsh measures in dealing with the Armenian peasantry (measures that the flexible Myasnikyan opposed). Opposition to the Transcaucasian SFSR project is also illustrated as well as suspicion toward the Soviet government among the peasantry. The desperate conditions of Armenia at this time are vividly depicted as are major cultural personalities, notably Yeghishe Charents, Shushanik Kurghinyan, and Martiros Saryan.
Unfortunately, this film is not as well-known as other Soviet-era Armenian films. However, it is truly an underrated masterpiece that can, and should, be used in history classes dealing with Soviet, Russian, and Armenian history. It presents a different perspective of the NEP era, away from Moscow and Petrograd, in the Soviet borderlands of Eurasia. Myasnikyan is still regarded as a hero in Armenia for rebuilding the country after an especially harsh period (a large statue to him stands in Yerevan). Sadly, he died in a tragic plane crash in 1925, which Trotsky thought suspicious (some suspect Lavrentiy Beria engineered the crash to get rid of Myasnikyan). Overall, an excellent historical epic and a must-see classic of Soviet Armenian cinema!
