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Red Army invasion of Armenia | |||||||
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Part of the Armenian–Azerbaijani War, the Russian Civil War and the Turkish War of Independence | |||||||
![]() Red Army in Yerevan, November 1920 | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
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Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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The Red Army invasion of Armenia [a] was a military campaign which was carried out by the 11th Army of Soviet Russia from September to 29 November 1920 in order to install a new Soviet government in the First Republic of Armenia, a former territory of the Russian Empire. The invasion coincided with two concurrent events, the Turkish invasion, as well as the anti-government insurrection which was staged by the local Armenian Bolsheviks in the capital, Yerevan, and other cities and populated places within the country. The invasion led to the dissolution of the First Republic of Armenia and the establishment of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic.
The governing party of Armenia was the socialist-nationalist Dashnaktsutyun. The government of Armenia was Western-oriented, mainly due to the fact that U.S. President Woodrow Wilson had drafted a favorable map for Armenia according to the Treaty of Sevres. While the Armenian government believed in the realization of what is now known as Wilsonian Armenia, Bolsheviks and Kemalists claimed the fragility of the newly-established state.
From 19 July to 7 August 1920, the 2nd World Congress of the Communist International was held. Its manifest of which stipulated the following: “In the conflict of Entente with Turkey Armenia played the same programmatic role as Belgium in the conflict with Germany, as Serbia in the conflict with Austria-Hungary. After Republic of Armenia was established – without borders and without potential to live- Wilson refused the Armenian mandate which had been offered him by League of Nations, since the soil of Armenia veils neither oil nor platinum. “Liberated” Armenia is now less protected than it has haver been.” [1]
Inspired by the Bolsheviks’ success in Azerbaijan, Armenian Bolsheviks organized an uprising in May 1920, which resulted in resignation of the government of Vratsian, however new government of Hamo Ohanjanyan managed to suppress the coup with his tough policy.
From one side Kemalist Turkey had the intention to attack Armenia, and from the other side Bolsheviks intended to Sovietize it, therefore it was evident that both would succeed if their actions were synchronized. Soviet Russia was not averse to using the aggression of the Turks in the issue of Sovietization of Armenia, and therefore for this purpose it was necessary to prepare the aggression of the Turks with the appropriate propaganda.
Such a political situation inspired Bolsheviks, and particularly Trotsky, who was a supporter of the idea of permanent revolution. Trotsky wanted to export revolution to the East, initially to Persia, and for that purpose Congress of the Peoples of the East was called in 1-8 September 1920 in Baku. The Congress formulated a council of propaganda and actions of Peoples of the East, which on 17 September adopted a resolution on enforced Sovietization of Armenia with the help of Turkish aggression. [2]
After military defeat of Dashnak forces by Turks in October-November 1920, the Red Army invaded Armenia, where Armenian SSR was established in November 1920. The Red Army continued to face military opposition only in Syunik, where Garegin Njdeh and his soldiers fought until July 1921.
On December 2, 1920, an agreement was signed on behalf of the Dashnak government of Armenia.
Its terms were as follows: [3]
According to historian Brinegar, Sovietization of Armenia was pushed by a faction of Bolsheviks including Narimanov, Joseph Stalin, and Sergo Ordzhonikidze, who considered the occupation of Armenia and Georgia necessary for stability and the elimination of anti-Bolshevik activity in border regions. [4] Additionally, Lenin feared the Entente was planning to use Georgia as a staging ground for retaking Baku, which provided oil to the Soviets. [4]
A 1967 USSR book describes the event as follows [5] :
"On November 29, 1920, an armed uprising of the working people of Armenia, headed by the Communist Party and aided by the Russian people, put an end to the ill-famed Dashnak rule. The years of Dashnak rule (1918-20) are another grim page in the history of the Armenian people. Ceaseless warfare and massacres, anarchy and tyranny, hunger and poverty, pillage and violence, blood and tears—those are the essential features of that period. The country was on the verge of ruin. The economy of Armenia had been greatly deranged. Gross industrial output had decreased in 1919 more than twelve fold as against 1913. Farming and animal husbandry were on the verge of disaster. Gross agricultural output for 1919 had dropped almost sixfold as compared with 1913 and crop areas had decreased more than fourfold. Under the Dashnak rule the peasants had over 14 kinds of taxes to pay. Hunger and poverty gave rise to frequent epidemics. Armenia became a Soviet state, ruled by the working people—the workers and the peasants."
^[a] also known as the Armenian–Soviet War, the Sovietization of Armenia, the Soviet invasion of Armenia, and the Soviet occupation of Armenia.
Simon Vratsian was an Armenian politician and activist of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation. He was one of the leaders of the First Republic of Armenia (1918–1920) and served as its last prime minister for 10 days in 1920. He also headed the Committee for the Salvation of the Fatherland for 40 days during the anti-Bolshevik February Uprising in 1921. While in exile, he continued his political and educational activities in the Armenian diaspora and wrote several books, most notably his six-volume memoir Keankʻi ughinerov and his history of the First Republic of Armenia titled Hayastani Hanrapetutʻiwn.
The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, also known as the Azerbaijan People's Republic, was the first secular democratic republic in the Turkic and Muslim worlds. The ADR was founded by the Azerbaijani National Council in Tiflis on 28 May 1918 after the collapse of the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic, and ceased to exist on April 28, 1920. Its established borders were with Russia to the north, the Democratic Republic of Georgia to the north-west, the Republic of Armenia to the west, and Iran to the south. It had a population of around 3 million. Ganja was the temporary capital of the Republic as Baku was under Bolshevik control. The name of "Azerbaijan" which the leading Musavat party adopted, for political reasons, was, prior to the establishment of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic in 1918, exclusively used to identify the adjacent region of contemporary northwestern Iran.
The First Republic of Armenia, officially known at the time of its existence as the Republic of Armenia, was an independent Armenian state that existed from May 1918 to 2 December 1920 in the Armenian-populated territories of the former Russian Empire known as Eastern or Russian Armenia. The republic was established in May 1918, with its capital in the city of Yerevan, after the dissolution of the short-lived Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic. It was the first Armenian state since the Middle Ages.
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Garegin Ter-Harutyunyan, better known by his nom de guerreGaregin Nzhdeh, was an Armenian statesman, military commander and nationalist political thinker. As a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, he was involved in the national liberation struggle and revolutionary activities during the First Balkan War and World War I and became one of the key political and military leaders of the First Republic of Armenia (1918–1921). He is widely admired as a charismatic national hero by Armenians.
The Armenian-Azerbaijani war (1918–1920) was a conflict that took place in the South Caucasus in regions with a mixed Armenian-Azerbaijani population, broadly encompassing what are now modern-day Azerbaijan and Armenia. It began during the final months of World War I and ended with the establishment of Soviet rule.
Hovhannes Kajaznuni or Katchaznouni was an Armenian architect and politician who served as the first prime minister of the First Republic of Armenia from 6 June 1918 to 7 August 1919. He was a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation.
The Southern Front was a military theatre of the Russian Civil War.
Hamazasp "Hamo" Ohanjanyan was an Armenian medical doctor, revolutionary, and politician of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF/Dashnaktsutiun). He served as the third Prime Minister of the First Republic of Armenia from May 5 to November 23, 1920.
The Republic of Mountainous Armenia, also known as simply Mountainous Armenia, was an anti-Bolshevik Armenian state roughly corresponding with the territory that is now the present-day Armenian provinces of Vayots Dzor and Syunik, and some parts of the present-day Republic of Azerbaijan in the west. It was established by military commander and Armenian political thinker Garegin Nzhdeh and his allies with the support of local guerrilla forces, following the suppression of the February Uprising in April 1921. It was not recognized by any country but existed until mid-July of the same year.
Musayelyan is a village in the Ashotsk Municipality of the Shirak Province of Armenia. The St. Trdat church built in 1896 is located in the village.
Khosrov bey Alipasha bey oghlu Sultanov, also spelled as Khosrow Sultanov, was an Azerbaijani statesman, General Governor of Karabakh and Minister of Defense of the Azerbaijani Democratic Republic.
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Soviet Union–Turkey relations were the diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and the Republic of Turkey.
The Armenian National Congress was a political congress established to provide representation for the Armenians of Russia. It first met at the Artistic Theatre in Tbilisi on 11 October [O.S. 28 September] 1917. Its formation was prompted by the opportunities the Russian Revolution provided for Armenians towards the end of World War I.
The May Uprising was a coup d'état attempt by the Armenian Bolsheviks that started in Alexandropol on May 10, 1920. It was eventually suppressed by the Armenian government on May 14 and its leaders executed. Although the revolt failed, Armenia was taken over by the soviets after the 11th Army of Soviet Russia invaded the country in November 1920 and the Turkish Nationalists occupied the western half of the country. The revolt and its executed leaders were praised during the Soviet period from 1920 until the late 1980s, when the Karabakh movement began and anti-Soviet sentiment rose in Armenia – The revolt remains a controversial topic in Armenia.
The 11th Army was a field army of the Red Army during the Russian Civil War, which fought on the Caspian-Caucasian Front. It took a prominent part in the sovietization of the three republics of the southern Caucasus in 1920–21, when Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia were brought within the orbit of Soviet Russia.
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The First Republic of Armenia was the first independent Armenian state since the Cilician Kingdom of Armenia, proclaimed on 28 May 1918 in the territory of present Armenia. The republic lasted until 2 December 1920 when it was partitioned by the Russian SFSR and the Turkish Nationalist forces. In the two and a half years of its existence, the republic was composed of 9 mostly Dashnak-dominated cabinets.
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