The Significance of the Construction of the Shirak Canal and its Reflection on Folklore

The Shirak plain is a region with fertile soils and favorable climatic conditions for agriculture, the first evidence of which is known from the story reported by the historian Movses Khorenatsi on the gluttonous Shara and Shirak granaries. Since the 13^th century the region with ancient irrigation traditions, gradually turned into a desert. During the tsarist rule, and after the Sovietization of Armenia, the issue of extracting water from Akhuryan for irrigation purposes was repeatedly raised, which was realised only in 1922–1925, with the construction of the Shirak Canal.

The construction of the Shirak Canal was a significant event for Soviet Armenia. After Sovietization, Armenia, exhausted by the severe consequences of the First World War, partially solved the problem of irrigation of the Shirak field, which contributed to the development of the regional economy. With the opening of the canal, the cultivation of sugar beet was started in the region, and the volume of grain cultivation expanded.

The Shirak Canal became one of the valuable symbols of Soviet Armenia and turned into a propaganda tool. It indicated the activities of the Bolsheviks, the foundations of Soviet Armenia, being built by the hands of workers and peasants.

The construction of the Shirak Canal is reflected not only in fiction, but also in folklore. Some stories related to the canal have acquired folkloric characteristics, and most of the conversations correspond to archival documents. Samples of lyrical folklore were created among the peasantry until the 1980s.