Mowses Silikjan

Mowses Silikjan ( Armenian Մովսես Սիլիկյան , Russian Мовсес Михайлович Силикян ; born September 26, 1862 in Vartashen , † 1937 in Yerevan ) was an Armenian general who served in the Russian army until 1918 and became an Armenian national hero through his fight against the Turks.

Life until World War I.

Silikjan was born on September 26, 1862 in the village of Vardashen, today's Oğuz in Azerbaijan . He attended the military high school in Moscow and joined the Russian army on August 28, 1882, and then served in the 155th Infantry Regiment. In 1884 he graduated from the Alexandrovsk Military College and in 1904 the Infantry Officer School. Silikyan became a colonel in the Russian army on December 6, 1910 and was transferred as a commander to the 8th Caucasian Infantry Regiment in March 1914.

World War I and Armenian Democratic Republic

Silikyan served on the Caucasus Front in World War I , first in the 8th Caucasian Regiment, then from November 29, 1915, he became commander of the 6th Caucasian Regiment. He also fought in the resistance in Van in 1915 against the genocide of the Ottoman army against the Armenians . In 1916 he fought in the battles of Mus , Bitlis and Erzurum , for the conquest of Erzurum he was promoted to general and received the Order of George . When, as a result of the October Revolution, the Caucasus Front collapsed in 1917, Silikyan organized Armenian national associations near Yerevan. In January 1918 he became the commander of the first Armenian regiment. When the Ottoman 3rd Army invaded Armenia in May 1918, Silikyan was the commander in chief of the Armenian troops and offered this resistance. The victories in the battles of Bash Abaran and Sardarapat (May 21-26 , 1918) stopped the Ottoman army and preserved Armenia's independence. On June 1, 1919, he became Lieutenant General in the Armenian Army and commanded the Kars-Alexandropol Front during the Turkish-Armenian War in 1920.

Life in the USSR and death

Silikyan was removed from the army after the end of the Democratic Republic of Armenia , but still belonged to the Soviet upper class. On August 8, 1937, he was arrested and shortly thereafter in the wake of Stalin's purges shot . He was pardoned posthumously in 1958 .

Individual evidence

↑ Silikyan Movses | historyofarmenia.am.am. Retrieved April 22, 2018 .
↑ Jonathan D. Smele: Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916-1926 . Rowman & Littlefield, 2015, ISBN 978-1-4422-5281-3 ( google.de [accessed April 22, 2018]).

personal data
SURNAME	Silikjan, Mowses
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Armenian general in the Imperial Russian Army
DATE OF BIRTH	September 26, 1862
PLACE OF BIRTH	Vartashen , Russian Empire
DATE OF DEATH	1937
Place of death	Yerevan

[1] Silikyan Movses | historyofarmenia.am.am. Retrieved April 22, 2018 .

[2] Jonathan D. Smele: Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916-1926 . Rowman & Littlefield, 2015, ISBN 978-1-4422-5281-3 ( google.de [accessed April 22, 2018]).