How Did I Survive? is the memoirs of Professor Artavazd M. Minasyan, a tale of one man’s life and his survival despite all odds. It is a story that inspires life and hope, one in which good ultimately prevails over evil. It also tells of a country, the former USSR, which has lived through decades of controversies, destruction and injustice, but also hope and aspirations for the better. The author unveils intricate details of his life, describing his fight for survival and what inspired and gave him strength to go on. Covering the period of approximately eighty years from the early 1910s to the early 1990s, the narrative touches upon every significant event of the time and the author’s personal involvement in each case. Indeed, the book is a story of Professor A. M. Minasyan’s iron will and immense belief in, and love for and appreciation of, the gift of life, whether in the days of his hungry childhood, or enduring Stalin’s purges, or facing the enemy one-on-one during World War II, or struggling in peacetime for the right to voice alternative views in science. These situations are enriched with complex nuances and are analysed through the prism of time and the author’s adherence to dialectical critique. As such, one man’s life becomes the reflection of the life of an entire country. In this book, it happens to be the life of Professor Artavazd M. Minasyan, whose dedication to his family, country, nation, and science was far greater than words could describe.