YOU DIE FIRST AND I'LL DO IT TOMORROW BY SARGIS HOVSEPYAN
Set in post-war Yerevan after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the novel explores Armenia’s shifting identity amid rising tensions between pro-Western aspirations and lingering Russian influence. The city, now populated by Russian “relocates,” becomes a microcosm of political and cultural friction.
Frida, a researcher, investigates the life of an exiled Armenian writer’s wife, uncovering parallels with her grandfather Vaspur’s hidden past in Siberian labor camps. Her quest leads her to Kiril, a supposed Russian human rights defender, who turns out to be a covert agent. As Frida navigates betrayal and political intrigue, the novel unveils Vaspur’s harrowing escape from a cannibalistic survival plot in the 1940s—betrayed by his closest friend, Gaspar.
The dual narrative intertwines personal trauma with national reckoning, portraying Armenia’s struggle to redefine itself beyond imperial shadows. Through archival depth and emotional resonance, the novel critiques Russia’s historical exploitation of its peripheries, drawing chilling metaphors like “walking canned food” to expose the brutal legacy of domination.
Long Synopsis
The novel is set in the capital of Armenia, Yerevan, after February 2022, when Russia’s full-scale invasion in Ukraine was launched and many Russians have fled, quite many of them also to Armenia. Armenia, meanwhile, is in a post-war state after the 2020 Azerbaijani aggression and Armenia’s defeat. Since the Velvet Revolution in 2018 and now after the war, society is torn between a pro-Western government and a pro-Russian opposition. There is a big shift in attitude in society towards Russia, because many blame the outcome of the war on the Russian politics of manipulating the conflicts in the region. Now the city is full of migrants from Russia, who call themselves “relocates” and thus cause debates in the society about their political views and attitudes toward Armenia, as an independent country, rather than a periphery of the Russian Empire.
The protagonist of the novel, Frida, is conducting research on the life of an Armenian classical writer’s wife, who was exiled in the 1940s under the “Family member of the traitor of the nation” criminal article, following her husband’s persecution during the repressions. Her research makes her think of the stories she heard from her grandfather, Vaspur, who also spent some time in the Siberian camps during the same period. She visits him in his village house, wanting to reconnect with him, but the old man is usually grumpy and not willing to share much.
For her research, Frida needs to get access to some Russian archival documents about the camps, so she manages to find a Russian human rights defender, Kiril, who promises to be helpful. But the Russian-Ukrainian war starts, Kiril escapes Russia and comes to Yerevan to stay at Frida’s place until he finds an apartment to rent. Levon, a friend of Frida who seems to be secretly in love with her, suspects that Kiril is not who he claims to be, but it takes some time for Frida to realize that Kiril is a scam and find out that he is a secret agent on a mission, like many among the so-called Russian anti-war migrants.
The second plotline intertwined in the novel is the story of Vaspur, Frida’s grandfather and his friend Gaspar. They were arrested for a mere “domestic dispute” as adolescents and once adults, were sent to exile in the 1940s. Thus, two young men in their 18s find themselves in Siberia, along with thousands of prisoners, among them criminals, intellectuals and innocent working-class people. They “befriend” a criminal boss for protection and survival, and at some point, get included in a plan of an escape of two criminals. But the plan faces challenges when Gaspar doesn’t turn up, and Vaspur goes alone with two strangers. The story of his survival in life-threatening circumstances was kept secret from the whole family for 60 years. Only at the end of the novel does the story of the grandfather uncover the secret that Gaspar betrayed him, when he overheard the criminals talking about using both of them as “walking canned food” in their escape plan. They were to be slaughtered for meat and eaten in the cold and frozen Siberian ice-lands for survival. 60 years later, the two old friends in their 90s meet for the first time and talk about what happened. Gaspar faces the betrayal blame by Vaspur and dies of a heart attack the same evening. Vaspur is under suspicion in the sudden death of his friend. And this is when he tells the whole story to Frida and explains that he didn’t kill Gaspar, the conversation was too much for the old man and his heart couldn’t bear it.
Context of the novel
On the background of the story, you see the country in a stage of an important transformation from a post-Soviet country, under the strong influence of Russia, into a society trying to rethink its past and build an independent country free of the long-standing propaganda about Russia’s unbreakable influence over the region. The disappointment after the role that Russia had in manipulating the regional conflicts, for strengthening their influence in the region, is turning into rage when it comes to the Russian migrants who consider the country a periphery of the Empire and sometimes behave inappropriately, such as expecting everyone talk to them in Russian, etc. In parallel, the story of Siberian camps reveals the details of the life of prisoners, for which the author did extensive research and used the stories from hundreds of archival documents and witness statements. The term “walking canned food” describes how Russia, as the heir of the Empire, still looks at the other countries once under its rule. They are ready to consume these whole nations for their survival and this is how all the regional wars, including the ongoing one against Ukraine, can be explained.