Larissa Harutyunyan

Larissa Harutyunyan, a former radio operator and mother of 4 children, sits on the bed of her daughter who works in a puppet theatre in Stepanakert. Larissa was born in the Martakert region and she moved, after the marriage, to Sarov, a small farming village not far from the frontline. In 1992 the Azeri forces bombed the village against the expectations because there were rumours that it would not be targeted. Surprised and scared she escaped with her slippers, one of his sons was three years old and was hit by shrapnel in the head but luckily survived. They arrived to Stepanakert where they lived for a while in a crowded school before moving to Shushi after the liberation the same year. There they changed houses three times before her husband was injured a few months later and they went to Russia in order to cure him. He died and they had to bury him there in 1994. Soon after, without knowing what to do, they came back to Shushi and they survive thanks to a war pension.