From Lusavan to Charentsavan: Toponymic Myth-Making and the Textual Construction of a Soviet Industrial City

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15826/csp.2026.10.1.375

Abstract

In this study, Charentsavan (Kotayk province, Armenia) is considered a bottom-up Soviet industrial city, whose material infrastructure and symbolic identity were created simultaneously through industrialization, mass housing construction, and cultural myth-making. The study explores how the “new city” arose and what makes Charentsavan noteworthy not only in the Armenian context. The research adopts a micro-historical and semiotic approach. The city is considered a semiotic object. The toponymy (Lusavan/Charentsavan), naming practices, and urban narratives were analyzed as tools of symbolic construction. The empirical basis includes archival visual materials documenting Soviet-era construction and everyday urban spaces. Furthermore, literary and essayistic texts in Armenian were studied, particularly the anthology Gangraher Tghayi Kaghaky: Aknarkner Yev Banasteghtsut’yunner [Curly Boy’s City: Essays and Poems] (1987), as well as the collection of memoirs (2007). This corpus of texts was read using Peirce’s discursive analysis and semiotics, which is based on the relationship between the representative, the interpretant, and the object. Additionally, a demographic analysis of the context was conducted. Industrial data was used to reconstruct the logic of rapid urban growth and housing construction. The analysis revealed that Soviet Charentsavan was shaped by a planned industrial and urban structure, including factories, transportation, and residential areas, as well as a mythological foundation. This is evident in the 1967 renaming of Lusavan in honor of the rehabilitated poet Yeghishe Charents. This toponymic shift altered the ideological codes of modernity, labor, and collective memory, uniting a diverse population under an industrial civic identity. By providing English-speaking researchers with a Soviet Armenian corpus of scientifically based, propagandistic texts about the city, the study broadens the comparative discussion about Soviet mass housing and urban heritage. Thus, this study demonstrates how industrial projects create sustainable symbols of the city, beyond just architectural forms.

Author Biographies

Tigran Simyan, Yerevan State University, Yerevan

Tigran Simyan holds a Doctor of Science degree in German Literature, awarded by Yerevan State University (YSU) in 2015. He is Head of the Department of Media Studies and Semiotics. Since 2016, he has been a Full Professor at YSU. Professor Tigran Simyan researches the History of German Literature, Semiotics of Cultures, Urban Studies (City in Literature and City as Text), and the History of Humanitarian Methods. He lectures on the History of German Literature, Semiotics and the Theory of Communication, and the Theory of Literature. Tigran Simyan is also a Co-Editor of the journal Urbis et Orbis. Microhistory and Semiotics of the City. He is an affiliated member of the German Scientific Society of Semiotics (since 2015) and the International Association for Semiotic Studies (IASS, since 2024). As a researcher, he has received numerous grants from DAAD, KAAD, DAAD-Ostpartnerschaft, and the Higher Education and Science Committee of the Republic of Armenia.

Haykuhi Muradyan, Yerevan State University, Yerevan; Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of NAS RA, Yerevan

Haykuhi Muradyan holds a PhD in Cultural Studies. Her academic interests span cultural policy and management, cultural anthropology, and Soviet studies. She has been teaching at Yerevan State University (YSU) for over ten years.

As a scholar in historical sciences, Dr. Muradyan specializes in cultural anthropology and heritage management. At YSU, she teaches a range of courses, including “Theories of Cultural Studies,” “Cultural Policy, Armenian Culture of the New and Modern Ages,” and “Research Methods in Cultural Studies.”

She is the Head of “Cultural Heritage Monitoring” group at Institute of Archeology and Ethnography, NAS RA, Co-Investigator, Interdisciplinary Armenian Cultural Heritage Studies (IACHS) Lab Supervisor, the author of more than 30 scholarly publications. Her most recent work is titled “Cultural Policy in Soviet and Post-Soviet Armenia.”

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Published
2026-04-17
How to Cite
Simyan, T., & Muradyan, H. (2026). From Lusavan to Charentsavan: Toponymic Myth-Making and the Textual Construction of a Soviet Industrial City. Changing Societies & Personalities, 10(1), 88-106. doi:10.15826/csp.2026.10.1.375
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Vol. 10, No. 1 (2026)
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