This contribution analyzes the novel Yerevan (1931) by Soviet Armenian author Mkrtich Armen as a text of the transitional period. It situates the novel within broader debates on literature, architecture, and ideology in early Soviet Armenia, suggesting that Yerevan reflects the tensions between aesthetic experimentation and ideological conformity. Mnatsakanyan argues that while the novel engages with the themes central to early Soviet literature, such as urban construction, socialist transformation, and the formation of the 'new Soviet man,' its modernist style challenges the conventions of emerging socialist realism.