|
Soviet Union [USSR] Armenians
The first Armenians inhabited the territory of the present-day
Armenian Republic as early as the seventh century B.C. The first
Armenian state, however, came into existence in the second century
B.C. At least part of Armenia was able to retain a degree of
independence until the beginning of the seventeenth century, when
it was divided between the Ottoman Empire and the Persian Savafid
Empire. The fate of the Armenians was particularly harsh in the
Ottoman Empire. Persecution of Armenians by the Ottoman Turks
reached its peak in 1915, when the government forcibly deported
Armenians to Syria and Mesopotamia. Estimates of Armenians who were
killed or otherwise perished at that time range as high as 1.5
million people. Only a small number of Armenians--about 120,000--
remained in Turkey in the 1970s.
The Armenian Republic encompasses the territory of Persian
Armenia, which was conquered by Russia in 1828. Here, as elsewhere
in the Russian Empire, cultural nationalism of the nineteenth
century was an important factor in the development of Armenian
national consciousness. With the coming of the Bolshevik
Revolution, Armenian nationalists joined the Georgians and the
Azerbaydzhanis to form the short-lived Transcaucasian Federated
Republic. By May 1918, the union of the three peoples broke up into
three independent republics. Armenian independence lasted only
until November 1920, when, with the help of the Red Army, the
Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed. In March 1922,
the republic joined again with Georgia and Azerbaydzhan to form the
Transcaucasian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, which--together
with the Russian, Belorussian, and Ukrainian republics--joined to
form the Soviet Union in December of that year. In December 1936,
the Soviet government broke the federation into three separate
union republics.
In the 1920s, the Soviet regime gave Armenians the same
opportunity as it gave other nationalities to revitalize their
culture and language. The onset of Stalin's rule at the end of the
1920s, however, brought dramatic changes. Together with forced
collectivization of agriculture and rapid industrial development,
the Soviet regime tightened political controls over the Armenian
people and applied to them, as to others, its policy of
Russification.
Two-thirds of the more than 4.6 million Armenians living in the
Soviet Union resided in the Armenian Republic, the smallest and
least populous of the three Caucasian republics. The Armenian
Republic was the most ethnically homogeneous of all the Soviet
republics. Over 93 percent of the population of the Armenian
Republic in 1989 were Armenians. Only the Azerbaydzhanis formed a
substantial national minority in Armenia. No other republic,
however, had such a large percentage of its nationals living
outside its borders. Large numbers of Armenians lived in the
Azerbaydzhan, Georgian, and Russian republics.
Armenians speak a unique Indo-European language, which uses an
equally unique script. The vast majority of the Armenians living in
the Soviet Union and over 99 percent of the Armenians in the
Armenian Republic regarded Armenian as their first language.
The citizens of the Armenian Republic rank among the most
highly educated people in the Soviet Union. In the 1970s, the
republic ranked second among the republics in the number of
individuals with higher and secondary education per thousand
people. Armenians also ranked second among Soviet nationalities in
the number of scientific workers per thousand people.
Armenians were the third most urbanized nationality in 1970s.
Some 68 percent of the Armenian Republic's population resided in
towns and cities. The major city in the Armenian Republic was
Yerevan, the capital, with nearly 1.2 million people in 1989. Two
other cities, Leninakan and Kirovakan, had populations of more than
100,000.
Armenian representation in the CPSU has been quite high
relative to their share of the Soviet population. Armenians also
dominated in the party apparatus of the Armenian Republic.
Data as of May 1989
|
