This photograph was taken in December 1951 in Yerevan (my grandmother was 21!). Long braids are a symbol of feminine beauty in Armenia and the Caucasus. Folk songs, old and new, reference a woman’s “մետաքս հյուս” (silken braid(s)) to tell of her beauty. The braids here are not my grandmother’s own, but are merely attached for the sake of the photograph. The writing (in Russian) on the back tells me that this photograph was meant as a gift to a woman named Zhenya (женя). Presumably, the gift was not completed. My grandmother says that she is to have this photograph but that “it’s better to look at it because you’ve remembered, than remember only because you’ve looked.”