Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic

The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, abbreviated as Armenian SSR (Armenian: Հայկական Սովետական Սոցիալիստական Հանր ապետություն, romanized: Haykakan Sovetakan Sotsialistakan Hanrapetutyun; in Russian: Армянская Советская Социалистич еская Республика, romanized: Armyanskaya Sovetskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika), was one of the fifteen constituent republics of the former Soviet Union. It was created on November 29, 1920, when the Soviets took control of the short-lived Democratic Republic of Armenia, and lasted until 1991. It is also called the Second Republic of Armenia, since its predecessor was known as the First Republic of Armenia.

As part of the Soviet Union, the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic was transformed from a primarily agricultural hinterland to a major center of industrial production, while its population nearly quadrupled from around 880,000 in 1926 to 3.3 million in 1989 due to natural growth and large-scale influx of Armenian Genocide survivors and their descendants. On August 23, 1990, the Declaration of Independence of Armenia was adopted. On September 21, 1991, the independence of the Republic of Armenia was confirmed in a referendum. It was recognized on December 26, 1991 with the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

From 1922 to 1936, it was part of the Federation of Transcaucasian SSR along with the Georgian SSR and the Azerbaijan SSR. On August 23, 1990 it was renamed the Republic of Armenia, but remained in the USSR until its official self-proclamation of independence on September 21, 1991.

History

Armenia joins the Soviet Union

After the painful events that occurred under Ottoman rule such as the Armenian genocide and the subsequent Turkish-Armenian war, the Democratic Republic of Armenia was invaded by the Bolsheviks in 1920, and declared a Soviet Socialist Republic. After this, Turkey and the new Socialist Republic negotiated the Treaty of Kars, in which Turkey ceded Ajaria to the USSR in exchange for the Kars Territory. The territory ceded to Turkey included the ancient town of Ani and Mount Ararat, the spiritual land of Armenia. Today, Armenia does not recognize the Kars treaty.

From March 12, 1922 to December 5, 1936, it was part of the Transcaucasian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic along with the Georgian SSR and the Azerbaijan SSR. Under Soviet rule the Armenian population enjoyed a period of relative stability. They received medicine, food, and other provisions from Moscow and the communist regime was a balm in contrast to the murky end of the years of the Ottoman Empire.^{[citation needed]} The situation was However, difficult for the Church, crushed under Soviet rule.

Stalin's regime

After Lenin's death in 1924, Armenian society and its economy were dramatically changed by the Soviet government.

In 1936, the Transcaucasian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic was dissolved and Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia became separate independent republics. Mount Ararat was included in the coat of arms of the USSR of Armenia, which caused protests from Turkey since Ararat was part of its territory. The Kremlin responded that, although the Turkish symbol was the crescent moon, that did not mean that they were going to scale it. Following this, Armenia suffered another territorial loss when Stalin transferred the areas of Nakhchivan and Nagorno Karabakh to Azerbaijan, both regions having been promised to Armenia by the Bolsheviks in 1920.

In a period of twenty-five years, Armenia was industrialized and educated under strictly pre-designed conditions, and nationalism was strongly suppressed. Stalin took very severe measures to persecute the Armenian Apostolic Church^{[citation needed]}. In the 1920s the Church was stripped of its possessions, in the following decade the Soviets continued smear attacks against the Armenian Apostolic Church that culminated in the assassination of Patriarch Khoren I in 1938, as part of the Great Purge. The Church, however, survived hidden and in the diaspora.

Like other ethnic minorities living in Stalin's Soviet Union, millions of innocent Armenians were executed and deported. In 1936, along with Lavrenti Beria, Stalin worked to deport Armenians to Siberia in an attempt to bring Armenia's population below 700,000 and then justify its annexation by Georgia.

Armenia in World War II

Armenia was spared the devastation and destruction that shook much of the Soviet Union during World War II. The Nazis never reached the South Caucasus. However, Armenia played an important role in helping the allies with its industry and agriculture. In addition, the Armenians of the Soviet 89th Tamanyan Division fought brutal combat against the Wehrmacht in the Battle of the Caucasus, the Battle of the Crimea, the Baltic Offensive, the Vistula-Oder Offensive, and the Battle of Berlin. During an attack on the Heroic City of Novorossiysk that had been taken by Germany, many Armenians entered the list of Heroes of the Soviet Union.

In November 1943, Armenian General Hovhannes Bagramyan (Iván Bagramyan), later Marshal of the Soviet Union, was the first non-Slavic commander assigned to be the commander of a front (army group), in his case the First The Baltic Front, whose mission was to reconquer Belarus, later participated in the Baltic offensive that occupied Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, expelling the Wehrmacht from there, in the Battle of Memel, in the East Prussian offensive and finally in the siege of Königsberg. In 1955, Bagramyan received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Nikita Khrushchev

After Stalin's death in 1953, Nikita Khrushchev became the country's new leader. The Kremlin became permissive to nationalist demonstrations. The process of leaving behind Stalin's policies, promoted by Khrushchev, eased the fears of many Soviets. Furthermore, he used more resources for the production of consumer goods. Almost immediately, Armenia began a rapid cultural and economic renaissance, allowing religious freedoms that became apparent when the Catholic Vazgen I assumed the duties of his office in 1955.

On April 24, 1965, thousands of Armenians demonstrated in the streets of Yerevan during the fiftieth anniversary of the Armenian genocide. Soviet troops entered the city and attempted to restore order. To prevent this from happening again, the Kremlin agreed to have a monument honoring those who lost their lives during those atrocities. In 1967, the monument, made by architects Kalashian and Mkrtchyan was completed in Yerevan. The 44-meter monument symbolized the national rebirth of the Armenians. Twelve tiles were placed in a circle, representing the 12 lost provinces, at that time in the hands of Turkey. In the center of the circle, 1.5 meters deep, there was a flame that never went out. Along the memorial park there is a 100-meter wall with the names of the towns where massacres are known to have taken place.

Perestroika

Mikhail Gorbachev's policy, the so-called Perestroika, fueled Armenians' hopes for a better life under Soviet rule. The Hamshenis who had been deported by Stalin to Kazakhstan began to ask to be sent back to Armenia, a transfer that was denied by the Kremlin due to fear that the Muslim Hamshenis would start conflicts with their Christian Armenian cousins. The Armenians of the region called Nagorno Karabakh, which had been promised to Armenia by the Bolsheviks and transferred to the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic by Stalin, began a peaceful and democratic movement to unify the area with Armenia. The majority of the Armenian population in the area was tired of the forced adaptation to the culture of Azerbaijan. On February 20, 1988, the Armenian deputies of the National Council of Nagorno-Karabakh voted to unify that region with Armenia. In any case, ethnic unrest soon began with a rift between the population of Armenia and Azerbaijan, thus preventing a solid unification of the area.

Independence

On August 23, 1990, one year before the disappearance of the USSR, Armenia declared its independence. This was not officially recognized until September 21, 1991. It was on this day that the new Republic of Armenia was declared and established. Even so, tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan continued to grow, leading to the Nagorno-Karabakh War. Despite a temporary ceasefire since 1994, Armenia remains unresolved in its conflict with Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, despite having more than 30% of Azeri territory under its control. Apart from this, Armenia has experienced substantial development since independence, and despite the blockade by Turkey and Azerbaijan, maintains friendly relations with the other neighboring states Russia, Georgia, and Iran.

Economy

Under the Soviet system, the republic's centralized economy prohibited private ownership of income-generating assets. Beginning in the late 1920s, privately owned farms in Armenia were collectivized and placed under state management, although the peasantry often encountered active resistance. During the same time (1929-1936), the government also started the industrialization process in Armenia.

The economic foundation of the Republic is the socialist system of economy and socialist ownership of the means of production, which has two forms: state ownership and cooperative and collective ownership. In addition to the socialist system of economy, which is the predominant form of economy in the Republic, the law allows small private enterprises of individual peasants and artisans based on their own labor and excluding the exploitation of the labor of others. The economic life of the Republic is determined and guided by the state economic plan.

By 1935, the gross product of agriculture was 132% of that of 1928 and the gross product of industry was 650% of that of 1928. However, the economic revolution of the 1930s came at a great cost: It broke the traditional peasant system and family and village institutions and forced many who lived in the rural countryside to settle in urban areas. The private enterprise came to a virtual end, as it was effectively placed under government control.

Agriculture

In 1986, there were 505 state farms, 281 collective farms in the republic.

Agricultural land amounted to 1.3 million hectares, of which:

• Agricultural land - 0.5 million hectares,
• Pasto - 0.6 million hectares.

Agriculture provided about 53% of the value of gross agricultural production. Agriculture is mainly concentrated in the Ararat Plain, the Shirak Plateau and in the Lake Sevan area. The area of irrigated land - 0.305 million hectares (1986).

The main plant cultivation industries were viticulture (harvesting - 240 thousand tons in 1986) and fruit growing, technical cultivation (tobacco, sugar beet, geranium) and vegetables.