The impact of Soviet policies in Armenia

Matossian, Mary Allerton Kilbourne

Book

The impact of Soviet policies in Armenia

E. J. Brill • Leiden • Published In 1962 • Pages:

By: Matossian, Mary Allerton Kilbourne.

Abstract
At the end of the First World War, Russian (Eastern) Armenia became a Soviet Socialist Republic and Western Armenia was ceded to Turkey as the culmination to mass deportations and massacres of its Armenian population, giving rise to a powerful Armenian nationalist movement. This book focuses on two strategies through which Soviet officials attempted to address this problem. The first was a political program of recruiting communists from the ranks of Armenian intellectuals and ethnic politicians. The second was modernizing traditional Armenian institutions by enforcing use of the Russian language, promoting Marxism, secularizing state structures, and organizing smallholder farmers into collectives and/or having them work for government-controlled enterprises. While highly successful in transforming traditional Armenian economy and administrative practices, these policies failed to replace Armenian identity and political aspirations with a sense of belonging to the Soviet Union or a global socialist community.

Aftermath of combat

Form and rules of government

Social relationships and groups

Classes

Religious denominations

Priesthood

Religious experience