On One Alcoholic “Place of Memory” in Yerevan: Between Essentialism and Constructivism, Between Armenian and Soviet Identity

The article is devoted to the analysis of one urban syntagma of Yerevan: from the Yerevan brandy factory “ARARAT” to the Yerevan brandy, wine, and vodka combine “Ararat” (factory “Noy”). The empirical material is described in the context of historical memory and symbolic capital. The choice of a fragment of urban space, a “speech act,” is due to its rich cultural, political, and historical connotations. The study continues the semiotic research strategy of reading the “Yerevan text” as part of the cultural and semiotic discourse. This is an outline study designed to catalyze further typological research in cultural memory and symbolic practices. The methodological framework encompasses approaches to urban history, semiotics, commemorative practices, and philosophical and anthropological concepts, including essentialism and constructivism. An analysis of the empirical material has revealed that the Noah factory draws on the material and visual memory of the pre-Soviet and Soviet eras, including allusions to the tsarist period (the era of Nicholas II) and Soviet modernization. Visual elements, such as the Pobeda car, form a constructivist perception of the world. Unlike the Noah factory, the ARARAT Yerevan Brandy Factory is saturated with essentialist symbols appealing to the timeless Armenian identity — mythologies and archetypal images (Vahagn, Feast of the Gods, sundial, etc.). An analysis of the naming policy of Armenian brandies has shown that the names combine Armenian historical place names with important Soviet dates (“40-year-old” (1957), “50-year-old” (1967), “60-year-old” (1977)). After the collapse of the USSR, the Soviet names of brandies were replaced, and the authentic Armenian names, referring to the lost historical homeland of Western Armenia, remained. It demonstrates how essentialism manifests itself in two forms: as a national and as a Soviet one, which has been demythologized and forgotten.