Uploaded May 2022 | Updated September 2026, 3 days ago
During my time in Armenia, I decided to pay a visit to the city of Gyumri. This once was a massively prosperous city, but the gods had other plans...
#davelegenda #armenia #travel
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On Patreon, you will be able to enjoy extra content in the form of:
- exclusive full-length videos from Russia and the Former Soviet Union
- blooper scenes and funny moments
- deleted scenes
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After leaving Russia, here I am starting my series in the Caucasus. Today, it's Armenia time!
At 11:41 on the 7th December 1988, an earthquake struck northern Armenia killing between 25,000 and 50,000, and injuring up to 130,000 people. The quake lasted just 20 seconds, but the dust cleared to scenes of utter devastation. Armenia was then part of the Soviet Union, and most residential buildings in the region were shoddy Soviet-era apartment blocks that crumpled into piles of rubble.
Since I was in Yerevan, I decided to go a bus stop and find a marshrutka to the second largest city of Armenia, Gyumri. Gyumri was the city closest to the epicentre of the 1988 earthquake and it is yet to recover from that devastating disaster. Many quake-damaged buildings are still easily recognisable on the street, and its population currently sits at 114,000 people, down from a peak of 230,000 before the earthquake.
The shock occurred on a chilly Wednesday of December, when most workers and schoolchildren were inside. Many of the clocks around the city froze at the moment the earthquake struck. It was a radical event that defined the future of Gyumri for many years to come.
Of the 78 high-rise apartment blocks in the city, that were built when Gyumri was known as Leninakan, during Soviet times, just six survived the quake. Most of the buildings erected during the imperial era were instead able to withstand the devastating effects of the earthquake.The official communist party newspaper Pravda said that poor construction, like other issues of neglect in the Soviet system, could be blamed on the period of stagnation that began with Leonid Brezhnev. Most Soviet buildings were engineered to resist magnitudes between 4 and 5, but this one was of course 6.8.
Don’t get me wrong, reconstruction works have been underway throughout the years, at least in the centre of Gyumri. It’s the outskirts of town that have been mostly neglected, as reconstruction was hampered by the critical economic situation of the city following the earthquake of 1988. Unemployment still runs rampant in the city, with 90% of households having their men working in Russia.
As the town was almost levelled, some 150,000 survivors were left homeless in the mountainous north of Armenia just as winter was approaching. As foreign aid descended on Armenia, Gyumri's airport, which usually received around four arrivals per day at the time, was soon fielding as many as 180.
During my time in Armenia, I decided to pay a visit to the city of Gyumri. This once was a massively prosperous city, but the gods had other plans...
#davelegenda #armenia #travel
There are two channels that I'd like for you to take a look at if you enjoy my content: follow me on INSTAGRAM at @davelegenda and take a look at my profile on Patreon where I regularly post behind-the-scenes stuff. For more details:
❗❗❗ I recently opened a Patreon at patreon.com/davelegenda ❗❗❗
On Patreon, you will be able to enjoy extra content in the form of:
- exclusive full-length videos from Russia and the Former Soviet Union
- blooper scenes and funny moments
- deleted scenes
FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA:
📷 INSTA: instagram.com/davelegenda
🟦 FB: facebook.com/LEGENDTRAV/
🎵 Tik Tok: tiktok.com/@davelegenda
After leaving Russia, here I am starting my series in the Caucasus. Today, it's Armenia time!
At 11:41 on the 7th December 1988, an earthquake struck northern Armenia killing between 25,000 and 50,000, and injuring up to 130,000 people. The quake lasted just 20 seconds, but the dust cleared to scenes of utter devastation. Armenia was then part of the Soviet Union, and most residential buildings in the region were shoddy Soviet-era apartment blocks that crumpled into piles of rubble.
Since I was in Yerevan, I decided to go a bus stop and find a marshrutka to the second largest city of Armenia, Gyumri. Gyumri was the city closest to the epicentre of the 1988 earthquake and it is yet to recover from that devastating disaster. Many quake-damaged buildings are still easily recognisable on the street, and its population currently sits at 114,000 people, down from a peak of 230,000 before the earthquake.
The shock occurred on a chilly Wednesday of December, when most workers and schoolchildren were inside. Many of the clocks around the city froze at the moment the earthquake struck. It was a radical event that defined the future of Gyumri for many years to come.
Of the 78 high-rise apartment blocks in the city, that were built when Gyumri was known as Leninakan, during Soviet times, just six survived the quake. Most of the buildings erected during the imperial era were instead able to withstand the devastating effects of the earthquake.The official communist party newspaper Pravda said that poor construction, like other issues of neglect in the Soviet system, could be blamed on the period of stagnation that began with Leonid Brezhnev. Most Soviet buildings were engineered to resist magnitudes between 4 and 5, but this one was of course 6.8.
Don’t get me wrong, reconstruction works have been underway throughout the years, at least in the centre of Gyumri. It’s the outskirts of town that have been mostly neglected, as reconstruction was hampered by the critical economic situation of the city following the earthquake of 1988. Unemployment still runs rampant in the city, with 90% of households having their men working in Russia.
As the town was almost levelled, some 150,000 survivors were left homeless in the mountainous north of Armenia just as winter was approaching. As foreign aid descended on Armenia, Gyumri's airport, which usually received around four arrivals per day at the time, was soon fielding as many as 180.
