Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic

The situation in Armenia and the USSR significantly changed after the death of Lenin and the rise of Joseph Stalin to Soviet leader. In the Caucasus, Stalin's ally in Georgia, Lavrentiy Beria, sought to consolidate his control over the region, resulting in a political struggle with Armenian First Secretary Aghasi Khanjian. The struggle culminated in Khanjian's assassination by Beria in Tiflis (Tbilisi) on 9 July 1936, beginning the Great Purge in Armenia. At first, Beria framed Khanjian's death as "suicide", but soon condemned him for abetting "rabid nationalist elements".^[28]

After Khanjian's death, Beria promoted his loyalists in Armenia,

The arrest and death of Sahak Ter-Gabrielyan in August 1937 was a turning point in the repressions. When being interrogated by Mughdusi, Ter-Gabrielyan "either jumped or was thrown from" the window of the NKVD building in Yerevan.^[30] Stalin was angered that Mughdusi and Amatuni neglected to inform him about the incident.^[29] In response, in September 1937, he sent Georgy Malenkov, Mikhail Litvin, and later Anastas Mikoyan to oversee a purge of the Communist Party of Armenia. During his trip to Armenia, Mikoyan tried, but failed, to save one individual (Daniel "Danush" Shahverdyan) from being executed.^[29] More than a thousand people were arrested and seven of nine members of the Armenian Politburo were sacked from office.^[31] The trip also resulted in the appointment of a new Armenian Party leadership, headed by Grigory Arutinov, who was approved by Beria.^[32]

The Armenian Apostolic Church was not spared from the repressions. Soviet attacks against the Church under Stalin were known since 1929, but momentarily eased to improve the Soviet Union's relations with the Armenian diaspora. In 1932, Khoren I became Catholicos of All Armenians and assumed the leadership of the church. However, in the late 1930s, the Armenian NKVD, led by Mughdusi and his successor, Viktor Khvorostyan, renewed the attacks against the Church.^[24] These attacks culminated in the 1938 murder of Khoren and the closing of the Catholicate of Ejmiatsin, an act for which Beria is usually held responsible.^[33] However, the Church survived and was later revived when Stalin eased restrictions on religion at the end of World War II.^[24]

In addition to the repression of the Church, tens of thousands of Armenians were executed or deported, as with various other ethnic minorities living in the Soviet Union under Stalin. In 1936, Beria and Stalin worked to deport Armenians to Siberia in an attempt to bring Armenia's population under 700,000 in order to justify an annexation into Georgia.^[34]

At the end of the war, after Germany's capitulation, the Soviet government attempted to annul the Treaty of Kars, allowing it to regain the provinces of Kars, Ardahan, Artvin, and Surmalu. On 7 June 1945, Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov informed the Turkish ambassador in Moscow that the disputed provinces should be returned to Soviet Union in the name of both the Armenian and Georgian Soviet Republics.^[42] Turkey itself was in no condition to fight a war with the Soviet Union, which had emerged as a superpower after the Second World War.^[42] The Soviet territorial claims were supported by the Armenian Catholicos and by all shades of the Armenian diaspora, including the anti-Soviet Dashnaksutiun.^[42] However, with the onset of the Cold War, especially the Truman Doctrine in 1947, Turkey strengthened its ties with the West. The Soviet Union relinquished its claims over the lost territories, and Ankara joined the anti-Soviet NATO military alliance in 1952.^[43]

With the republic suffering heavy losses after the war, Stalin allowed an

Lured by numerous incentives such as food coupons, better housing and other benefits, they were received coldly by the Armenians living in the Republic upon their arrival. The repatriates spoke the Western Armenian dialect, instead of the Eastern Armenian prevalent in Soviet Armenia. They were often addressed as aghbars ("brothers") by Armenians living in the republic, due to their different pronunciation of the word. Initially humorous in tone, usage evolved to carry a more pejorative connotation.^[46]

Thousands of Armenians were forcibly exiled to the

Khrushchev, in his speech "On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences" delivered before the 20th Party Congress in 1956, Khrushchev sharply denounced Stalin and his crimes. During the subsequent Khrushchev Thaw Soviet leadership loosened the grip of the pervasive NKVD and rehabilitated dead communists executed during the Great Purge, such as Khanjian and Charents, as well as the releasing thousands political prisoners from the Siberian gulag. The works of Raffi and Raphael Patkanian were returned to print.^[50] In 1962, the massive statue of Stalin that towered over Yerevan was pulled down from its pedestal by troops and replaced in 1967 with that of Mother Armenia.^[51][52] Moreover, the Union-wide economic reforms affected Armenia, diversifying its grain production, farmers were permitted to cultivate small plots for their own personal use, and the newly-integrated production of livestock and various irrigation projects increased Armenia's agricultural output.^[50]

Mikoyan was not the only Armenian figure who rose to prominence during this era. Other noted Soviet Armenians included composers Aram Khachaturian, Arno Babajanian, Konstantin Orbelyan, and Tigran Mansurian; scientists Viktor Hambardzumyan and Artem Alikhanyan; actors Armen Dzhigarkhanyan and Frunzik Mkrtchyan; filmmakers Frunze Dovlatyan, Henrik Malyan, Sergei Parajanov, and Artavazd Peleshyan; artists Minas Avetisyan, Yervand Kochar, Hakob Kojoyan, and Tereza Mirzoyan; singers Georgi Minasyan, Raisa Mkrtchyan, and Ruben Matevosyan; and writers Avetik Isahakyan, Silva Kaputikyan, Hrant Matevosyan, Paruyr Sevak, and Hovhannes Shiraz, among many others.^[e]

After

The Brezhnev era saw the rise of corruption and shadow economy. Materials allocated for the building of new homes, such as cement and concrete, were diverted for other uses, and bribery and a lack of oversight produced shoddily built and weakly supported apartment buildings. The underqualified development proved to be vital during the 1988 Armenian earthquake—when the earthquake hit, the Brezhnevka apartments were the most susceptible to collapse, while the older buildings better withstood the quake.^[55] When compared to other republics, the regions of Transcaucasia and Central Asia had the highest levels of corruption.^[56]

In the more politically liberated climate, new intelligentsia appeared in Armenia who despised the prevailing situation, and felt that "the corruption, emigration of talented individuals, pollution and general loss of ethics had put Armenia on the road to disaster". Theis anti-Soviet sentiment resulted in the removal of Anton Kochinyan, the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Armenia from 1966 until 1974, and the promotion of Karen Demirchyan, whose main prerogative was to "clean up the Republic". Demirjian promises and activities raised hopes for those Armenians who demanded concrete changes. His government undertook the battle with corruption and established major construction projects, such as the Yerevan Metro, Karen Demirchyan Complex, the new airport. However, Soviet system was too encumbered, and some Armenians believed that Demirjian government delivered their promises too slow.^[56]

In 1978, during the debate over a new Soviet Constitution, the Armenians unsuccessfully petitioned Moscow for the separation of Mountainous Karabakh and Nakhichevan from Azerbaijan Republic. Around the same time, Moscow considered removing a part of the constitution that guaranteed the use of native languages as the official languages of the republics, but Armenians, alongside Georgians, fervently protested and defeated the proposition.^[56]

In the 1970s a Soviet census revealed that over 99 percent of the people of Armenia (including

Mikhail Gorbachev's introduction of the reforms of glasnost and perestroika in the 1980s fueled Armenian visions of a better life under Soviet rule. Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, which was promised to Armenia by the Bolsheviks but transferred to Soviet Azerbaijan, began a movement to unite the area with Armenia. The majority Armenian population expressed concern about the forced "Azerification" of the region.^[58] On February 20, 1988, the Supreme Soviet of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast voted to unify with Armenia.^[59]

Demonstrations took place in Yerevan in support of the Karabakh Armenians, and grew into what became known as the Karabakh movement. By the beginning of 1988, nearly one million Armenians from several regions of the republic engaged in these demonstrations, centered on Yerevan's Theater Square (currently Freedom Square).^[60] However, in neighboring Azerbaijan, violence against Armenians erupted in the city of Sumgait.^[61] Ethnic rioting soon broke out between Armenians and Azeris, preventing any peaceful resolution from taking place. Armenians became increasingly disillusioned with the Kremlin's response toward the issue. Gorbachev, who had until then been viewed favorably in Armenia, saw his standing among Armenians deteriorate significantly.^[62]

Tension between the central government in Moscow and the local government in Yerevan heightened in the final years of the Soviet Union. The reasons largely stemmed from Moscow's perceived indecision on Karabakh, ongoing difficulties with earthquake relief, and the shortcomings of the Soviet economy.^[63] On August 23, 1990, the Supreme Soviet of the Armenian SSR adopted the Declaration of Independence of Armenia, declaring the Republic of Armenia to be a subject of international law.^[64][65] On 17 March 1991, Armenia, along with the Baltics, Georgia and Moldova, boycotted the union-wide referendum in which 78% of all voters voted for the retention of the Soviet Union in a reformed form.^[66] Armenia confirmed its independence in a referendum on 21 September 1991 after the unsuccessful coup attempt in Moscow by the CPSU hardliners.^[67]

The republic's independence became official with the

Administrative divisions of the Armenian SSR

Administrative divisions of the Armenian SSR in 1928

The structure of government in the Armenian SSR was identical to that of the other Soviet republics. The First Secretary was the administrative head of the republic, and the head of government was the Chairman of the Council of Ministers. The republic's legislative body was the Armenian Supreme Soviet, which included the highest judicial branch of the republic, the supreme court. Members of the Supreme Soviet served for a term of five years, whereas regional deputies served for two and a half years. All officials holding office were mandated to be members of the Communist Party and sessions were convened in the Supreme Soviet building in Yerevan.^[70]

The

Like all the other republics of the Soviet Union, Armenia had its own flag and coat of arms. According to Nikita Khrushchev, the latter became a source of dispute between the Soviet Union and Turkey in the 1950s, when Ankara objected the coat of arms that would include Mount Ararat, which holds a deep symbolic importance for Armenians but has been located on Turkish territory since early 20th century. Turkey felt that the presence of such an image implied Soviet designs on Turkish territory. Khrushchev retorted by asking, "Why do you have a moon depicted on your flag? After all, the moon doesn't belong to Turkey, not even half the moon. Do you want to take over the whole universe?" Turkey dropped the issue after this.^[76]

Under the centralized economy, the Armenian Republic imposed a ban on private property—beginning in the late 1920s, privately owned farms in Armenia were collectivized and placed under the directive of the state, which was often met with active resistance from the peasantry. The communist society collectively owned the means of production, divided into state property and cooperative and collective-farm property. The economic life of the Republic was determined and guided by the state economic plan.^[77]

In the nansent Soviet Armenia eighty percent of its population engaged in agriculture. During the 1929–1936, the government began the process of industrialization in Armenia, and by 1935, the gross product from agriculture reached the 132% and the gross product from industry reached the 650%, both compared to the production in 1928. The economic revolution of the 1930s, however, came with a cost, breaking up the traditional peasant family and village institution and compelling many living in the rural countryside to settle in urban areas.^[78] At the time of the republic's dissolution, close to 80 percent of its population lived in urban centers and engaged in heavy industry, management, and services.^[79]

During Nikita Khrushchev's secretaryship, the large collective farms were divided into smaller ones, and farmers were permitted to cultivate small plots for their own personal use. Armenia was permitted to plant other crops besides grain—including the production of tobacco, vegetables, grapes and other fruits—more suitable to Armenia's soil and climate. The newly-introduced production of livestock and various irrigation projects increased Armenia's agricultural output. However, the lack of land suitable for farming meant the republic's agricultural output was less compared to other republics.^[80]

The Brezhnev era signified the prospering tourism sector, which constituted a substantial fraction of Soviet Armenia's economy. Hotels and museums were opened and cultural exchange programs were established.^[57]

The military forces of the Armenian SSR were provided by the Soviet Army's 7th Guards Combined Arms Army of the Transcaucasian Military District. It was organized into the following:

• HQ of the 7th Guards Combined Arms Army - Yerevan^[82]
• 15th Motor Rifle Division, Kirovakan^[83]
• 127th Motor Rifle Division, Leninakan (today the Russian 102nd Military Base
  )
• 164th Motor Rifle Division
  , Yerevan
• 7th Fortified Area, Leninakan – Originally formed as 55th Fortified Region on 4 February 1941 and covered Turkish border during World War II. Became a part of the 7th Guards Army during the late 1980s.[84]
• 9th Fortified Area,
  Ejmiatsin – Originally formed as 69th Fortified Region at Kazan in April 1942. Fought in Battle of the Caucasus and later transferred to Ejmiatsin as part of the 45th Army. Became a part of the 7th Guards Army during the late 1980s.^[84]

Bibliography

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• Corley, Felix (1996-03-01). "The Armenian Church under the Soviet regime, part 1: The leadership of Kevork". Religion, State and Society. 24 (1): 9–53.
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• Hewsen, Robert H. (1981). "Matenadaran (The Mashtotz Institute of Ancient Manuscripts)". In Wieczynski, Joseph L. (ed.). The Modern Encyclopedia of Russian and Soviet History (Vol 21). Gulf Breeze, Fla: Academic International Press. pp. 136–138.
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• Hovannisian, Richard G. (1971). "Russian Armenia. A Century of Tsarist Rule". Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas. 19 (1): 31–48.
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• Maddex, Robert L. (2008). Constitutions of the world (3rd ed.). Washington, DC: CQ Press.
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• ISBN 9789004705432. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help
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• Panossian, Razmik (2006). The Armenians: From Kings And Priests to Merchants And Commissars. New York: Columbia University Press.
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• Payaslian, Simon (2007). The History of Armenia: From the Origins to the Present. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
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• Suny, Ronald Grigor (1997). "Soviet Armenia". In Hovannisian, Richard G. (ed.). The Armenian people from ancient to modern times, Volume 2: Foreign dominion to statehood: the fifteenth century to the twentieth century. New York: St. Martin's Press. pp. 347–388.
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Further reading

• Aghayan, Tsatur (1967–1970). Հայ Ժողովրդի Պատմություն [History of the Armenian People] (in Armenian). Vol. 7 and 8. Yerevan: Armenian Academy of Sciences.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
• Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia, 12 volumes (in Armenian). Yerevan: Armenian Academy of Sciences. 1974–1987.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
• Aslanyan, A. A (1971). Soviet Armenia. Moscow: Progress Publishers.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
• Geghamyan, Gurgen M (1978). Սոցիալ-տնտեսական փոփոխությունները Հայաստանում ՆԵՊ-ի տարիներին (1921-1936) [Socio-Economic Changes in the Armenia during the NEP Years] (in Armenian). Yerevan: Armenian Academy of Sciences.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
• Miller, Donald E; Miller, Lorna Touryan (2003). Armenia: Portraits of Survival and Hope. Berkeley: University of California Press.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
• Shaginian [Shahinyan], Marietta S (1954). Journey through Soviet Armenia. Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
• Virabyan, Amatuni (2001). Հայաստանը Ստալինից մինչև Խրուշչով: Հասարակական-քաղաքական կյանքը 1945-1957 թթ [Armenia from Stalin to Khrushchev: Social-political life, 1945-1957] (in Armenian). Yerevan: Gitutyun Publishing.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
• Yeghenian, Aghavnie Y (1932). The Red Flag at Ararat. New York: The Women's Press.
• Kochinyan, Anton. Armenia: big strides in an ancient land. UHM Library Digital Image Collections. Retrieved February 27, 2025.

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