Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic

Հայկական Սովետական ​​Սոցիալիստական ​​Հանրապետություն Армянская Социалистическая Советская Республика
Hajkakan Sowetakan Sozialistakan Hanrapetut'jun Armjanskaja Sozialistitscheskaja Sowetskaja Respublika
Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic
flag coat of arms
Official language	officially none; de facto Armenian and Russian
Capital	Yerevan
surface	29,800 km²
population	3,287,700
Population density	110.3 inhabitants per km²
National anthem	Hymn of the Armenian SSR
Time zone	UTC + 4

The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (abbreviation ArSSR ; Armenian , official spelling at the time of its existence from 1936 Հայկական Սովետական Սոցիալիստական Հանրապետություն , Hajkakan Sowetakan Sozialistakan Hanrapetutjun , today's spelling Հայկական Խորհրդային Սոցիալիստական Հանրապետություն , Hajkakan Chorhrdajin Sozialistakan Hanrapetutjun ; Russian Армянская Социалистическая Советская Республика , Armjanskaja Sozialistitscheskaja Sovetskaya Respublika ) was de facto a union republic of the Soviet Union from November 29, 1920 and de jure from December 22, 1922 until the declaration of independence on August 30, 1991 . On August 23, 1991, shortly before its independence, it was renamed the Republic of Armenia .

Prehistory and origin

Transcaucasia administrative map

→ Main articles : History of Armenia  and the Democratic Republic of Armenia

As a result of the First World War , a number of independent states emerged in areas that had previously belonged to the German Empire , Austria-Hungary , the Ottoman Empire and the Russian Empire . Only on the periphery of the Russian Socialist Soviet Republic proclaimed on November 17, 1917 , the new states Finland , Estonia , Georgia , Armenia and Azerbaijan emerged ; others - such as Lithuania , Poland , Belarus and Ukraine - declared their independence (since they had previously existed as sovereign states).

The Democratic Republic of Armenia , proclaimed on May 28, 1918 , was ruled by Dashnaks (comparable to the Mensheviks in Russia). She faced a number of problems. On the one hand, troops of the new Turkish counter-government under Mustafa Kemal , who were advancing from the west to the capital Yerevan , threatened the young republic. On the other hand, there were territorial disputes with the neighboring states of Georgia and Azerbaijan. In addition, there was a refugee problem of hundreds of thousands of people who fled Turkey from the genocide of the Armenians . During the ensuing economic crisis and hyperinflation , on November 29, 1920, Armenian Bolsheviks came to power in a bloodless overthrow of the government and proclaimed the Armenian SSR.

Just one day later, on November 30, 1920, Stalin , People's Commissar for Nationality Issues since 1917 , wrote bluntly in Pravda :

“The Caucasus is crucial for the revolution because it is a source of raw materials and food. But it is also crucial because of its location between Europe and Asia, Europe and Turkey, because all economic and strategic connections that are of considerable importance run through here. We have to control this region. "

- Stalin

On December 6, 1920 marched in support of the new government, the 11th Army of the Red Army one. The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, which was subsequently proclaimed by the Russian side, represented the first step in securing the control of the RSFSR over Armenia. At that time, the Armenian SSR was a formally independent state that maintained bilateral relations with the Russian SFSR.

For its part, the Russian SFSR was internationally isolated and suffered another heavy defeat in the Polish-Soviet War . The “international solidarity” failed again; Workers' battalions, of all things, had prevented the Polish defeat. Soviet Russia was on its own in the medium term. The establishment of the state and the procurement of the necessary funds thus gained top priority. The RSFSR endeavored to bind the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic , the Ukrainian SSR , the “unruly” Democratic Republic of Georgia , the Armenian SSR and Azerbaijan as closely as possible. In addition to the existing presence of the Red Army, instruments of this policy were also the local communist groups, which were supported by the Bolsheviks to the best of their ability.

“Lenin is now completely convinced that he and the communists must put all available forces at the service of the Soviet state. The main aim is to give this state back the living space, population and resources that it lost through the revolution. Now is the time to rebuild a Greater Russia and break all aspirations for independence. If these had previously served the revolution, in 1921 they could endanger the existence of the Soviet state. "

- Hélène Carrère d'Encausse

The RSFSR concluded an alliance agreement with the Armenian SSR on September 30, 1921, which further restricted the sovereignty of the Armenian SSR. The second step was complete. On March 12, 1922, the ArSSR became part of the newly established Transcaucasian Federal Socialist Soviet Republic , which also included the Georgian SSR and the Azerbaijani SSR . The European states, however, did not see formal independence as real. That is why only Soviet Russia was invited to the first general assembly of the League of Nations in Genoa on November 1, 1920.

“Ukraine feels left out and demands its own representation. But she is fighting a losing battle. Everything has already been decided in Moscow. On January 27, Kalinin, President of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, announced that Russia would represent the interests of the eight Soviet republics in Genoa - a decision by the ZEK. The republics can only bow to the decision. "

- Hélène Carrère d'Encausse

On December 22nd, the Transcaucasian SFSR, the Russian SFSR , the Ukrainian SSR and the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic founded the USSR . With this third step, the Bolsheviks had formally legitimized their power. Resolutions made in Moscow could now be implemented directly through administrative channels. On July 24, 1923, Armenia was finally divided between Turkey and the USSR in the Treaty of Lausanne .

• Postage stamps in Armenian
• 

  50 rubles, 1922

• 

  500 rubles, 1922

• 

  1000 rubles, 1922

The development as part of the USSR

See also : History of the Soviet Union  and Life in the Soviet Union

Since 1923, the further development of the Armenian SSR is primarily to be seen in connection with the development of the entire Soviet Union. Local uprisings by the Armenians against the forced collectivization carried out since 1928 , as well as the closure of almost all churches , were bloodily suppressed by the Red Army and the police, which were being established. The Armenians also benefited from a certain degree of social liberalization in the Soviet Union. Women were given equal legal status, the improved health system and the new education system were open to almost all citizens. On the other hand, the Stalinist purges from 1934 to 1938 also killed tens of thousands of Armenians.

Political system

The government in the Armenian SSR was just as structured as in the other Soviet republics. The highest governing body of the republic was the Armenian Supreme Soviet . This also included the Supreme Court . Members of the Supreme Soviet remained in office for five years, while regional deputies only remained in office for two and a half years. In office it was compulsory to be a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union . Meetings were held in the Supreme Soviet building in the capital, Yerevan.

Parties other than the Armenian Communist Party were banned. Supporters of old Armenian parties (such as the social democratic-nationalist Armenian Revolutionary Federation and the Democratic-Liberal Party ) were exposed to political persecution. Both old and new Armenian parties had to work underground.

The federal structure of the Soviet Union consisted largely of theory. In fact, the Armenian SSR was ruled by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, or it was dominated by the Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic . The government was responsible for the legislature , administration and jurisdiction as well as for economic development ( planned economy ).

Foreign policy

According to the constitution, the foreign policy of the Soviet Union was incumbent on Moscow. As part of the Soviet foreign policy, however, Yerevan also pursued an “internal foreign policy” towards the Armenian diaspora, with the focus on Lebanon, France and the United States. In Yerevan, the magazine “Heimat” (Armenian Հայրենիք) was published for diaspora Armenians, in which subtle criticism of Soviet realities was allowed. The Social Democratic Hntschak Party, founded in 1887, acted as an ally of the Armenian Communist Party abroad (at the time of its founding there was no difference in meaning between the words “socialist” and “social democratic”, see also the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Russia ). Tensions in Lebanon and New York led to sometimes violent clashes among Armenian activists in the 1950s and 1960s. In the 1970s, Yerevan's influence continued to decline.

Legal and government symbols

According to the Soviet Constitution of 1936, the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic was a state within a federation. Accordingly, it had its own flag, its own coat of arms and its own national anthem. Mount Ararat , which is a national symbol of the Armenians (and is also depicted today in the state coat of arms of the Republic of Armenia ) , was featured in the national coat of arms of the Armenian SSR . The Kemalist Turkey protested by pointing out that the mountain lies on Turkish territory and therefore should not be taken over by Armenia and the Soviet Union. The Soviet Foreign Minister Gromyko countered later by pointing out that, in contrast, Turkey had the moon or a crescent moon (crescent moon) in the flag, although neither the moon nor any part of it belonged to Turkey. (The Soviet Union coat of arms showed a globe under a hammer and sickle.) The hymn of the Armenian SSR was composed by Aram Khachaturian .

Compared to the German federal states, for example, the Armenian SSR had hardly any real powers. For example, according to the constitution, cultural policy was a matter for the Union Republics . The doctrine of Socialist Realism, for example, which severely restricted artistic freedom throughout the Soviet Union, was adopted in Moscow. In fact , the Soviet Union was governed like a unitary state from the start .

Soviet nationality policy in Transcaucasia

As the uprising in the Georgian SSR on August 28, 1924 showed, Transcaucasia was not yet fully under the control of the RSFSR. This was also due to the fact that even leading Bolsheviks from the Ukraine and the Caucasus were nationally minded. In order to strengthen the supremacy of the RSFSR within the USSR, Stalin in particular took advantage of the contradictions between the peoples of the Caucasus, who turned to the central power to present their problems there. Within the Transcaucasian SFSR , the boundaries between the Armenian SSR and the Azerbaijani SSR have been changed several times. This affected the areas of Nakhichevan , Sangesur and Nagorno-Karabakh , which were inhabited by both Armenians and Azerbaijanis . After several changes, Moscow decided to annex Sangesur to the Armenian SSR, Nakhichevan as the so-called Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and Nagorno-Karabakh with the status of an Autonomous Region of the Azerbaijani SSR . The new borders were drawn in such a way that there was no longer any connection between the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region and the Armenian SSR. In addition, other predominantly Armenian-populated areas, such as the Shahumyan district (named after the Armenian-Soviet politician Stepan Shahumyan ), did not belong to the autonomous region at all. While the Armenians subsequently left Nakhichevan and the Azerbaijani Sangesur more or less voluntarily, the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh continued to smolder.

Neither the Georgians , Azerbaijanis , nor the Armenians were satisfied with the established borders . The Georgians in particular, or more precisely the Georgian Communists, strove to dissolve the Transcaucasian SFSR from their foundation . On December 5, 1936, it was dissolved and the Armenian SSR became a formally independent union republic in the Union of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The borders remained. In 1940, almost 1.5 million people lived in the Armenian SSR, around 85 percent of them Armenians, ten percent of Azerbaijanis , a good two percent of Russians , plus Kurds , Georgians and Greeks .

The fight against the church

The Armenian Apostolic Church was the predominant religion and almost all Armenians professed it. It was doubly weakened at the time of Sovietization. Firstly through expropriations between 1903 and 1905 in the course of the Russification in the Russian Empire and secondly through the genocide of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire 1914–1916. In the 1920s, the Bolsheviks primarily used expropriations and excessive tax demands to bring the church to its knees, which depended on financial support from the diaspora. The Armenian Apostolic Church reacted cautiously so as not to give pretexts for the destruction of the church and in the hope that the repression would ease. In the 1930s, Soviet power shifted to physical extermination. The climax was the murder of the Catholicos of All Armenians Choren I on the night of April 5th to 6th, 1938 (the Catholicos is the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church). The Echmiadzin Catholicosat was closed on August 4, 1938.

“Of the 1,115 clergymen formerly in office in (Russian) Eastern Armenia, only a dozen were in office at this time. In 1938, only four of 850 church buildings remained open. [...] The church-administrative structures were completely destroyed at the end of this process. "

- Gazar

The Armenian Church owed its survival to two main factors. First, the easing of persecution during the Second World War and after the death of Stalin (some executed clergymen were rehabilitated as early as the 1950s), second, the communities in the diaspora, including the Armenian patriarchates of Jerusalem and Antelias (near Beirut ), where also Clergy could be trained. Ultimately, the attempt to destroy Christianity also failed because the Armenians secretly remained faithful to their church. However, the religious and theological knowledge of the population declined - hardly anyone owned a Bible, almost nobody attended church services - and the faith was rather simple to naive.

repatriation

After World War II, the government launched a campaign to persuade Armenians in the diaspora to relocate to the Armenian SSR. Thousands then returned to Armenia. Most of them spoke at least one other language besides Armenian; immigrants from Lebanon, for example, often spoke fluent French and Arabic. Most of them had a good or excellent education and accordingly they made up a disproportionate number of university professors, especially in linguistic faculties. They were often critical of the Soviet system and were patriotic-conservative or nationalistic. (Among the returnees was the Levon Ter-Petrosjans (* 1945) family, who was supposed to found the Armenian National Movement in 1989 and became the first president of independent Armenia after independence in 1991.) They were therefore under special observation by the KGB . Some of the returnees also used their language skills to make control more difficult for the authorities. After it was published in France in 1974 , the book Archipel Gulag , which was banned in the Soviet Union , was distributed among dissidents in the Soviet Union via samizdat . In the ArSSR, however, it was often used in the French translation and not in the original.

Russification

It started as in the entire Soviet Union a Russification . In the case of Armenia, it was carried out relatively gently, but nonetheless sustainably. Russian was in fact the official language of the whole of the Soviet Union and the Red Army was commanded exclusively in Russian. Because the Soviet conscripts were not organized in separate national units, but in a colorful mix, Russian was the language in which the members of the many peoples of the Soviet Union communicated. There were many Russian schools and many technical subjects were taught almost exclusively in Russian at universities, especially new technical terms (e.g. piston, trunk or television) were adopted from Russian. In addition, everyday Russian terms were spread through movies, television and radio and often found their way into the Armenian colloquial language . The penetration of Russian words went so far that even today many Armenians use Russian to use everyday terms such as kitchen, sausage, etc. In general, Russian was considered a particularly sophisticated form of expression, similar to French in Western Europe.

The nationalist underground organization Armenian Unity Party (AEP), founded at the end of the 1960s and supported , among other things, by the aim of separating Armenia from the Soviet Union, led an even more radical fight against Soviet power . After several members of the AEP were arrested in the mid-1970s, three party members, Stepan Satikjan , Akop Stepanjan and Sawen Bagdasarjan , carried out a terrorist attack in January 1977 in the Pervomaiskaya station of the Moscow subway . Seven people were killed and another 37 injured. The suspected Armenians were found guilty in a court case and executed.

Population composition

According to the 1979 Soviet census, the population of the Armenian SSR was essentially composed of the following ethnic groups:

nationality	Population	Nationalities
Armenians	2,725,000	89.7%
Azerbaijanis	160,800	5.3%
Russians	70,300	2.3%
Kurds	50,800	1.7%
Ukrainians	8,900	0.3%
Assyrians	6,200	0.2%
Greeks	5,700	0.2%
Georgians	1,300	0.04%
Belarusians	1,200	0.04%
Jews	1,000	0.03%
Entire SSR	3,037,300	100.0%

The second World War

On June 22, 1941, the German Reich and its allies invaded the USSR ( Operation Barbarossa ). At first, the Blitzkrieg was a success across the board, but in December the attack on Moscow finally failed . As a reaction, the German Wehrmacht pushed south, on the one hand to have access to raw materials that were important for the war effort in the medium term and, on the other hand, to withdraw them from the Soviet armaments industry. The most important target was the oil fields off Baku on the Caspian Sea. This is how the Caucasus became a war zone. With the company Blau the Wehrmacht succeeded in conquering large parts of the North Caucasus. On August 21, 1942, the German war flag waved on the Elbrus . But in the end the attack was repulsed and after the Soviet victory in the Battle of Stalingrad the Caucasus was finally no longer threatened. The territory of the Armenian SSR and its industries were not directly affected by the war. In addition to heavy industry, the mining and smelting of molybdenum in the south (molybdenum is important for the hardening of armored steel) was important to the war.

The approximately 500,000 conscripts from the ArSSR usually did not fight in separate units, but were fully integrated into the Red Army with the exception of five infantry divisions. Half of them lost their lives in battle. Four marshals of the Soviet Union and 60 generals came from the Armenian SSR , including Hovhannes Baghramjan . On the other hand, several thousand Armenians, including captured Red Army soldiers, fought in “812. Armenian Battalion ”as part of the Eastern Legions .

The 1960s

On April 24, 1965, there was a demonstration in Yerevan with many thousands of participants on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the beginning of the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire , which killed up to 1.5 million Armenians. This was followed by further demonstrations demanding the return of territories from Turkey which, according to the Treaty of Sèvres of 1920, should have been given to the then Armenian Republic. In addition, there were protests against the discrimination against the Armenians in the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region. These were the first major demonstrations by a national movement in the Soviet Union. It was certainly also a reaction to the fact that the construction of a memorial was finally started. In November 1967, 52 years after the genocide and 47 years after the establishment of the Armenian SSR, the then Prime Minister of the ArSSR, Anton Kochinyan, opened the memorial. Since then, tens of thousands of people have visited it every year on April 24th.

The 1988 earthquake

The Church of the Redeemer in Gyumri before 1988

The rubble of the Church of the Redeemer after the earthquake

→ Main article : 1988 Spitak earthquake

On December 7, 1988, at 11:41 a.m. local time, a severe earthquake struck the Lori region in the north of the Armenian SSR, which reached a value of 6.8 on the Richter scale . In addition to the city of Spitak , which was almost completely destroyed, the cities of Leninakan (today Gyumri ) and Kirovakan (today Vanadzor ) as well as many surrounding villages were badly damaged. Many buildings, especially schools and hospitals, did not withstand the earthquake. The winter temperatures and the unprepared authorities made it difficult to rescue survivors. In total, around 25,000 people lost their lives. Some sources speak of up to 50,000 dead.

Mikhail Gorbachev prematurely broke off a visit to the USA and traveled personally to the disaster area. The government let foreign aid workers into the country. This was the first time the Soviet Union accepted foreign aid on a large scale. Donations and relief supplies arrived from all over the world to help the victims through the winter and to rebuild homes. Spitak has been completely rebuilt, at a location a little further from the original location. The severe damage to the infrastructure is still hindering the economic development of the Lori region.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

→ Main article : Nagorno-Karabakh: The 1992-1994 War

The Armenian SSR, alongside the Estonian SSR , the Latvian SSR and the Lithuanian SSR, has been a center of the separatist movements within the USSR since the mid-1980s , which accelerated the dissolution. As in the case of Finland, the Baltic countries and Poland at the beginning of the 1920s, many of the peoples of the USSR sought national liberation above all. For decades, these efforts had been suppressed by violence, sometimes more, sometimes less, in the Soviet Union. But it was precisely this repression that kept the spirit of resistance alive. When the Soviet government under Gorbachev was no longer willing to use force, the separatist movements rose again. They were directed not only against Soviet Russia, but also against neighboring peoples - a legacy of Stalin's " divide and rule " policy . In 1988 the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, a predominantly Armenian-populated autonomous area within the Azerbaijani SSR , flared up again. There were shootings with several hundred dead and mass demonstrations in Armenia and Azerbaijan. On February 28 and 29, anti-Armenian pogroms broke out in the city of Sumgait, north of the Azerbaijani capital Baku , in which dozens of Armenians were killed. As a result, there were bilateral waves of identity cards for the respective minority.

The Polish reporter Ryszard Kapuściński toured the Armenian SSR and Nagorno-Karabakh in 1989 and described the prevailing conditions there. He saw the situation that two Soviet Union republics were at war with one another while the leadership in Moscow did nothing to prevent it as a direct sign of the collapse of the Soviet Union : “This is the end of the Soviets! Back then, in the autumn of 1989, on the journey from Moscow to Yerevan, the empire disintegrated for me. Everything that happened later was just like throwing more debris on a previously piled up rubble dump. "

Mikhail Gorbachev , then General Secretary of the CPSU , presented his point of view in an interview for the Russian newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets on March 2, 2006. According to this, the leadership in Moscow intended to elevate Karabakh to an independent SSR. When, on December 1, 1989, the Supreme Soviet of the Armenian SSR, with the consent of Nagorno-Karabakh, decided to annex it, Gorbachev was not prepared to send troops to Armenia. His statements show not only the unwillingness to use force to resolve the unrest resulting from the conflict, but also the inability due to the already too far disintegration of the Soviet power apparatus. This contributed to the fact that the local communist functionaries - partly out of conviction, partly out of fear for their benefices - did not oppose the unrest or even actively provided administrative resources to the insurgents. In this context, Gorbachev spoke of the fact that the Azerbaijani leadership should be forced to pass on the funds due to Nagorno-Karabakh there.

geography

For the territory from 1936 to 1991 see geography of Armenia , otherwise geography of Azerbaijan , Nagorno-Karabakh and Nakhichevan .

Economy and environment

In the course of the industrialization of the USSR within the framework of the Soviet planned economy , the Armenian SSR developed from an agricultural fringe area of ​​the Soviet Union to an important location for Soviet mechanical engineering , the chemical industry , the textile industry and IT. Many electronic components and robots for the Soviet space and armaments industry were developed here. Copper , molybdenum , gold and various semi-metals were mined. A large number of hydropower plants and the Mezamor nuclear power plant were built, but the ArSSR's economy was heavily dependent on energy supplies because it has hardly any fossil fuels of its own .

Also, the tourism was an important industry. In the Soviet Union, the Armenian SSR was from spring to autumn because of the warm climate and in winter because of the ski slopes in the mountains is a popular destination. Two EU-wide known resorts were the famous for its hot springs Jermuk and Tsaghkadzor , where the largest ski Armenia is located.

Cotton , silk, fruits, tobacco and wines were exported to other parts of the Soviet Union. Armenian brandy , formerly also known as "Armenian Cognac", was also an international export hit ¹ . In the Ararat Valley, wine has been grown since the 19th century, from which brandy is made, which is valued for its unusual mildness (see also Yerevan Brandy Company ). Only around 20% of the production of goods came from agriculture and only every tenth job was located there, although extensive irrigation measures increased the proportion of the cultivated area from 60,000 hectares in 1939 to 200,000 hectares in 1943.

On March 7, 1981, after nine years of construction, the Yerevan Metro was opened.

However, the rapid industrialization and enormous expansion of the agricultural area was bought at the cost of great environmental damage. Due to monocultures , overfertilization and deforestation (only 15% instead of 20% of the area was covered by forest ), the soil quality decreased. The Lake Sevan , one and a half times the size of Lake Constance , is the only large water reservoir in the South Caucasus. It was exploited for large-scale irrigation programs, and its level plummeted threateningly. (Incidentally, the engineer who was responsible for the silting up of the Aral Sea was responsible for this.) In the 1980s the lake threatened to lose its ecological balance. Only in recent years has it been possible to slightly raise the water level again with the help of water from rivers in other areas.

As in the entire Soviet Union, the economy was “heavy-duty”, that is, the proportion of heavy industry was very high and that of light industry was low by international comparison. Many of the necessary raw materials were not available in the ArSSR itself and were imported from other republics. A structural change began during perestroika , but it was tackled much too late and much too hesitantly. Here are important reasons for the severe economic crisis in the first years after independence.

¹ In the former socialist countries, the term “ cognac ” was not protected as a concept of origin, but referred to the manufacturing process.

Education, culture and sport

The Soviet education system was open to all classes. The literacy rate reached almost 100 percent. The Yerevan State University was one of the leading universities of the Soviet Union. Many Russian schools were established as part of the Soviet school system. In these schools all instruction was in Russian , only the literature of the respective mother tongue was taught in this. The Armenians were allowed to continue to use their own Armenian script . In addition to the Armenians, only the Georgians in the Soviet Union had their own script (see Georgian alphabet ) , all others used the Cyrillic script or had to use it since 1937/38 . The Latin script , which had been used by many minorities since the 1920s, was completely replaced by the Cyrillic script from 1937/38 (sometimes not implemented until 1939/40) and was only left in the Baltic States after the Second World War . The Soviet education system also included music schools, art schools, dance schools, sports programs, etc., which were available to children for free or almost free of charge. However, this was also used to influence art, and artists' freedom was restricted.

The greatest painter was Martiros Sarjan , who mainly created impressionist works. The most famous actors were Frunsik "Mher" Mkrtschjan (1930-1993) and Armen Dschigarchanjan (* 1935).

The iron curtain was a particular problem for the Armenians. Only around half of them lived in the Soviet Union, the other half lived all over the world after the Armenian genocide , especially in France, Lebanon and Iran. The isolation of the Soviet Union made contact with other Armenians difficult and thus also hindered cultural development.

music

The Armenian folk music could be cultivated undisturbed. But especially the Armenian art music experienced a new bloom. Mikhail Kokshayev said:

“I would like to point out that the first half of the 20th century was a time for Armenian composers in which the 'technical gap' in relation to Europe's musical achievements in the fields of counterpoint, harmony, arrangement and design has been closed. It was a period in which the means of compositional expression were immensely enriched. "

- Mikhail Kokshayev

Aram Chatschaturjan (1903–1978) was the first world-class Armenian composer. His Toccata for piano and his First Symphony from 1934 ushered in a turning point in Armenian music. Khachaturyan convincingly combined Armenian traditions with modern classical music . The saber dance from the ballet Gayaneh became known worldwide through the film One, Two, Three by Billy Wilder . He almost fell out of favor because of "modernism" as did Dmitri Shostakovich . It was a little easier for him than his Russian colleagues, however, because traditional Armenian music anyway contains many intervals that are dissonant to Western ears . He hid some works until Stalin's death in 1953.

His student Mikael Tariwerdijew (the Russified form of Tariwerdjan), was the greatest composer of film music in the Soviet Union. Arno Babadschanjan (1921–1983) continued on the path of Khachaturian, but returned in 1950 from Moscow to Yerevan and taught at the local conservatory. Since then, the Armenian SSR has produced a number of first-class pianists and other instrumentalists as well as composers - in addition to Tigran Mansuryan , Eduard Mirsojan , Alexander Arutjunjan and Avet Terterjan should be mentioned in particular .

literature

Only works that were politically unsuspicious, such as the Armenian folk tales, could be freely published. The creative freedom of professional writers was severely restricted , especially during the time of Stalin . In 1937, Yeghi Charents , the greatest Armenian poet of the 20th century, fell victim to the Great Terror . In the years after Stalin's death in 1953, however, his poems reappeared in school lessons, including his most famous work, the poem Armenia . Armenian writers suffered from the doctrine of socialist realism as did their other Soviet colleagues. Above all, Hrant Matewosjan (* 1935) managed to reproduce life in the village authentically. His works have since been translated into a number of languages, including Russian and Persian .

Sports

Boxing and wrestling have been a widespread sport in Armenia since ancient times. This tradition was deliberately revived. Armenian athletes also won many medals for the Soviet Union in weightlifting. Weightlifter Rafael Arkadu Tschimischkjan won the gold medal at the 1952 Summer Olympics in featherweight. In the late 1970s and 1980s, the Armenian SSR represented a legendary trio consisting of Jurik Wardanyan , Oksen Mirsojan and Jurik Sarkisjan , who won medals in series at World and European Championships. At the 1980 Summer Olympics Jurik Wardanjan won the gold medal in the light heavyweight division (up to 82.5 kg) with a world record. After the Armenian athletes had to boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics , they were able to compete again at the 1988 Summer Olympics , with Oksen Mirsojan winning the bantamweight (up to 56 kg) gold medal.

The game of chess flourished again. It reached Armenia early via Persia and was the most popular board game alongside backgammon . Because chess was systematically promoted in the Soviet Union, it was soon no longer just a pastime in the ArSSR, but also developed into a competitive sport. The father of the Soviet-Armenian chess school was Genrich Gasparjan (1910-1995), the first chess master in Armenia, who in 1936 moved to Yerevan. In 1960 he withdrew completely from tournament chess and only worked as a coach until 1990. Tigran Petrosyan , world champion from 1963 to 1969, was a national hero. The Armenian SSR produced many more world-class chess players, including Rafael Vaganian . Also Levon Aronian (* 1982), World Cup winner in 2005, comes still the Soviet chess tradition in Armenia will be maintained.

See also : List of masters of the Armenian SSR in chess

The strongest football club in the Armenian SSR was FC Ararat Yerevan , which has won several Soviet cups. The team achieved the greatest success in Armenian football in 1973 when they became Soviet champions and cup winners. The best international result was the quarter-finals of the 1974/1975 European Cup , in which the team narrowly knocked out the eventual winners FC Bayern Munich .

Gaining independence

Renamed cities (selection)

old	New	renamed
Leninakan	Gyumri	1990
Kirovakan	Vanadzor	after 1989
Ghapan	Kapan	after 1989
Kamo	Gawar	after 1989
Lusawan	Charentsavan	1967
Basargetschar	Wardenis	1969
See also : List of cities in Armenia

In the free parliamentary elections in May 1990, the democratic opposition won an overwhelming victory. Levon Ter-Petrosyan became the new chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Armenian SSR , and Vasgen Manukyan became the new prime minister . In the course of perestroika , independent organizations and parties could be founded in 1990. These included the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (founded in 1890, re-established in Armenia in August 1990), whose members are known as Dashnaks, the Social Democratic Hntchak Party ( Huntschak means “bell”; founded in 1887, re-established in October 1990), the Democratic -Liberal Party (founded in 1885, re-established in June 1991), the Republican Party of Armenia , which emerged from the dissident movement of the 1960s, and the Armenian All-National Movement (founded in November 1990). All these parties belonged to the eleven-member Karabakh Committee , which was based on a total of around 40 organizations and whose chairman was Levon Ter-Petrosyan. There were also paramilitary organizations. The government reacted diplomatically to pressure from Moscow: the units of the Armenian National Movement were subordinated to the government and parliament, respectively, and the radical Armenian National Army dissolved itself at the end of 1990.

Flag of the Republic of Armenia

On August 23, 1991, the Armenian SSR was renamed the Republic of Armenia (Armenian Հայաստանի Հանրապետություն, Hajastani Hanrapetut'jun ) based on the first republic , and a day later the flag of the Democratic Republic of Armenia was reintroduced. A referendum was held on September 21, in which 95% of the electorate took part, 94.39% of whom voted for "an independent and democratic republic of Armenia outside the USSR". The following day, August 30, 1991, the Armenian parliament declared independence from the Soviet Union. The successor state is the Republic of Armenia . It is noteworthy that in the period after independence the Armenian Communist Party did not manage to enter parliament once - this is unique among all successor states of the Soviet Union and a further indication of how little support for Soviet rule was.

See also

• 

  Portal: Soviet Union  - overview of existing articles on the topic

literature

• Hans Viehrig: The Armenian Socialist Soviet Republic. Society for German-Soviet Friendship, 1967.
• Hacik Rafi Gazer : The Armenian Church in Soviet Armenia between the World Wars. Anatomy of an annihilation. LIT-VERLAG, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-8258-5555-4 .
• Ryszard Kapuściński : Empire. Soviet forays. Eichborn, Frankfurt am Main 1993, ISBN 3-8218-4436-1 .
• Hambardzumyan et al .: Soviet Armenia: Division and Inner Politics of the Government. Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia vol. XII. Yerevan, ASSR, 1987.
• Thomas de Waal: Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War. New York University Press, New York 2003, ISBN 978-0-8147-1945-9 .
• Richard Hovannisian: The Armenian People from Ancient to Modern Times. Palgrave Macmillan, New York 2004, ISBN 978-1-4039-6421-2 .
• Jörg Baberowski : The enemy is everywhere: Stalinism in the Caucasus. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Munich 2003, ISBN 978-3-421-05622-1 .

Web links

Commons : Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Information from the Friedrich Ebert Foundation
• A History of Armenia. by Vahan M. Kurkjian , April 25, 2005
• Armenica: History of Armenia (English, Swedish)
• Everything about Armenia (German, English)
• Заседание политбюро ЦК КПСС (29 февраля 1988 года) ( Memento of May 18, 2006 in the Internet Archive ), Minutes of the meeting of the Politburo of the CPSU on February 28, 1988 on the Sumgait pogrom and the unrest in general (Russian)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ quoted from Hélène Carrère d'Encause: Lenin. Piper Verlag, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-492-04199-X , p. 404.
2. ↑ d'Encause, p. 384.
3. ↑ d'Encause, p. 409.
4. ↑ Viktor Hambardzumyan et al. Soviet Armenia: Division and Inner Politics of the Government. Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia vol. XII. Yerevan, Armenian SSR 1987, pp. 11-12.
5. ↑ www.hist.msu.ru - Constitution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ( Russian )
6. ↑ Armenia. Atlas of Ethnic Conflicts, Border Disputes & Ideological Clashes ( Memento from February 1, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) by Andrew Anderson, 2005.
7. ^ Gazer, p. 321.
8. ↑ Simon Payaslian: The Political Economy of Human Rights in Armenia. Authoritarianism and Democracy in a former Soviet Republic . IBTauris, London / New-York 2011, ISBN 978-1-84885-811-4 , pp. 86-87 .
9. ↑ VV Pokshishevskiy (ed.): Soviet Census: a Demogr. evaluation. Akad. Verl.-Ges., Wiesbaden 1980.
10. ↑ www.hayastan.com
11. ↑ www.armenica.org
12. ↑ George J. Andreopoulos: Genocide: conceptual and historical dimensions. P. 116.
13. ↑ Kapuściński, p. 403 f.
14. ↑ www.mk.ru - Interview with Mikhail Gorbachev about the Nagorno-Karabakh war ( Russian )
15. ↑ Gerhard Simon: Nationalism and Nationality Policy in the Soviet Union. From dictatorship to post-Stalinist society. Baden-Baden 1986. p. 172.
16. ↑ The Armenian Music Today. A description of the state ( memento from August 16, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) by Mikhail Kokschajew, paper from June 15, 2002

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on May 4, 2006 .