Red Army invasion of Armenia

Red Army invasion of Armenia
	Part of the Armenian–Azerbaijani War, the Russian Civil War and the Turkish War of Independence
	; Red Army in Yerevan, November 1920
Date	24 September – 29 November 1920
Location	First Republic of Armenia
Result	Soviet victory
Belligerents
Russian SFSR ; Armenian Bolsheviks ; Azerbaijan SSR Turkish Provisional Government	Armenia
Commanders and leaders
Mikhail Tukhachevsky ; Mikhail Levandovsky ; Mikhail G. Yefremov ; Contents Background ; Treaty ; Soviet rationale ; Notes ; See also ; References ; Further reading ; Kâzım Karabekir	Simon Vratsian ; Alexander Khatisian

Last updated January 25, 2025

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 an invasion by Kemalist Turkey and anti-government insurrections organized by local Armenian Bolsheviks. The invasion led to the dissolution of the First Republic of Armenia and the establishment of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic. Militant resistance continued in southern Armenia under Nzhdeh's self-declared Republic of Mountainous Armenia until July 1921.

Background

Following the collapse of the Ottoman and Russian Empires, Armenia declared independence in 1918. However, the new republic faced immense challenges, including territorial disputes, refugees from the Armenian Genocide, and military threats from Azerbaijan and Turkey. By 1920, Soviet Russia was expanding its influence in the South Caucasus and viewed Armenia as strategically significant. The Armenian government, led by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF, Dashnaktsutyun). sought to negotiate with Soviet leaders to secure recognition of its sovereignty, but these negotiations coincided with Soviet geopolitical strategies and the rise of Kemalist Turkey.

The Sovietization of Armenia was influenced by Soviet support for Turkish Nationalists under Mustafa Kemal. While the Kemalists aimed to annex territory (Western Armenia) promised to Armenia in the Treaty of Sèvres, the Soviets saw the opportunity to use their alliance with Turkey to counter Western powers and establish control over the South Caucasus

This led to coordinated Soviet-Turkish military campaigns, including the occupation of disputed territories like Nakhichevan, Karabakh, Syunik by the Red Army between May and July 1920. These incursions, coupled with internal unrest and the suppression of a May 1920 Bolshevik uprising in Armenia, weakened the Armenian republic and left it isolated.

In September 1920, Turkish forces launched an offensive, capturing Kars and Alexandropol by November 7. Such a political situation inspired Bolsheviks, and particularly Trotsky, who supported the concept of permanent revolution. The Soviet Congress of the Peoples of the East adopted a resolution in September 1920 calling for the Sovietization of Armenia.^[1]

Under military defeat by Turkey, Armenia, under the Treaty of Alexandropol (December 2, 1920), was compelled to forfeit all claims to Western Armenia,^[2] reduce its military to a token force, and accept Turkish oversight, with Turkey assuming control over its transportation and communications, thereby reducing Armenia to a Turkish protectorate. On the same day, a new Armenian government in Yerevan, formed by a coalition of communists, declared Armenia a Soviet republic, renouncing the Treaty of Alexandropol.

The Red Army continued to face military opposition only in Syunik, where Garegin Njdeh an his soldiers fought until July 1921 under the banner of the Republic of Mountainous Armenia.

Treaty

On December 2, 1920, an agreement was signed on behalf of the ARF government of Armenia.

Its terms were as follows:^[3]

Armenia was declared a Soviet Socialist Republic.
A Provisional Military-Revolutionary Committee shall assume power over Armenia until the convention of a Congress of Soviets
Soviet Russia recognized the entire Yerevan province, Zangezur, part of Kars province, some regions of Kazakh province and the territories of Tiflis province as an integral part of the Republic of Armenia, which were part of the Republic of Armenia until September 28, 1920.
The officers of the Army of the Republic of Armenia were released from responsibility for actions initiated prior to the proclamation of Soviet power in Armenia.
The current members of the current Armenian political party (Dashnaktsutyun) and other social parties of the Republic of Armenia were not to be persecuted for membership in these parties.
The composition of the temporary ruling committee was to consist of 5 Bolsheviks and two left confederates.
The government of Soviet Russia was committed to ensuring the security of the territory of Soviet Armenia.

Soviet rationale

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]

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 hasever been.”^[5]

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 book published within the USSR describes the event as follows^[6]:

"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 contains 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 in 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."

Notes

↑ Also known as the Armenian–Soviet War, the Sovietization of Armenia, the Soviet invasion of Armenia, and the Soviet occupation of Armenia.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drastamat Kanayan</span> Armenian revolutionary

Drastamat Kanayan, better known as Dro (Դրո), was an Armenian military commander and politician. He was a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation. He briefly served as Defence Minister of the First Republic of Armenia in 1920, during the country's brief independence. During World War II, he led the Armenian Legion, which consisted of Armenian POWs who opted to fight for Nazi Germany rather than face the brutal conditions of the Nazis' camps.

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 Federation. It was the first Armenian state since the Middle Ages.

The Turkish–Armenian War, known in Turkey as the Eastern Front of the Turkish War of Independence, was a conflict between the First Republic of Armenia and the Turkish National Movement following the collapse of the Treaty of Sèvres in 1920. After the provisional government of Ahmet Tevfik Pasha failed to win support for ratification of the treaty, remnants of the Ottoman Army's XV Corps under the command of Kâzım Karabekir attacked Armenian forces controlling the area surrounding Kars, eventually recapturing most of the territory in the South Caucasus that had been part of the Ottoman Empire prior to the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) and was subsequently ceded by Soviet Russia as part of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

Garegin Ter-Harutyunyan, better known by his nom de guerreGaregin Nzhdeh, was an Armenian statesman, military commander and nationalist revolutionary. 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Movses Silikyan</span> Armenian general (1862–1937)

Movses Silikyan or Silikov was an Armenian general who served in the Imperial Russian Army during World War I and later in the army of the First Republic of Armenia. He is regarded as a national hero in Armenia for his role in the Armenian victory at the Battle of Sardarabad.

Wilsonian Armenia was the unimplemented boundary configuration of the First Republic of Armenia in the Treaty of Sèvres, as drawn by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson's Department of State. The Treaty of Sèvres was a peace treaty that had been drafted and signed between the Western Allied Powers and the defeated government of the Ottoman Empire in August 1920, but it was never ratified and was subsequently superseded by the Treaty of Lausanne. The proposed boundaries of Wilsonian Armenia incorporated portions of the Ottoman vilayets of Erzurum, Bitlis, Van, and Trabzon, which had Armenian populations of varying sizes. The inclusion of portions of Trabzon Vilayet was intended to provide the First Republic of Armenia with an outlet to the Black Sea at the port of Trabzon. A proposed Republic of Pontus was discussed at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, but the Greek government of Eleftherios Venizelos feared the precarious position of such a state, so a portion of it was instead included in the proposed state of Wilsonian Armenia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Kars (1920)</span> Battles involving Armenian National movement

The Battle of Kars was the largest battle of the Turkish–Armenian War, which took place on October 30, 1920. It was fought between forces loyal to the Grand National Assembly under the command of Kâzım Karabekir and the army of the First Republic of Armenia. Karabekir's army captured the fortified city of Kars after launching a massive assault, taking minor casualties and capturing around 3,000 Armenian soldiers, as well as several high-ranking Armenian military officers and civilian officials. The swift capture of Kars opened the path for Turkish forces to advance towards Armenia's largest city at the time, Alexandropol, and effectively decided the outcome of the Turkish–Armenian War in the Kemalists' favor.

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.

Hamazasp "Hamo" Ohanjanyan was an Armenian medical doctor, revolutionary, and politician of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF/Dashnaktsutiun).

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.

The Armenian national movement included social, cultural, but primarily political and military movements that reached their height during World War I and the following years, initially seeking improved status for Armenians in the Ottoman and Russian Empires but eventually attempting to achieve an Armenian state.

Ruben Ter Minasian was an Armenian politician and revolutionary of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) who played an important role in the Armenian national liberation movement and later in the First Republic of Armenia.

The Kars oblast was a province (oblast) of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire between 1878 and 1917. Its capital was the city of Kars, presently in Turkey. The oblast bordered the Ottoman Empire to the west, the Batum Oblast to the north, the Tiflis Governorate to the northeast, and the Erivan Governorate to the east. The Kars oblast included parts of the contemporary provinces of Kars, Ardahan, and Erzurum Province of Turkey, and the Amasia Community of the Shirak Province of Armenia.

The Nakhichevan uezd was a county (uezd) of the Erivan Governorate of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire. It bordered the governorate's Sharur-Daralayaz uezd to the north, the Zangezur uezd of the Elizavetpol Governorate to the east, and Iran to the south. The uezd's administrative center was the city of Nakhichevan.

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.

Artashes Stepani Chilingarian, better known as Ruben Darbinian, was an Armenian politician, activist and writer. He was a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) political party. In 1920, he served as the minister of justice of the First Republic of Armenia. He was also a renowned contributor to and editor of a number of Armenian publications in Tbilisi, Baku, and Boston.

The Kars okrug was a district (okrug) of the Kars Oblast of the Russian Empire between 1878 and 1918. Its capital was the city of Kars, presently part of the Kars Province of Turkey and the Amasia District of Armenia. The okrug bordered with the Ardahan okrug in the north, the Kagizman okrug in the south, the Olti okrug in the west, and the Erivan Governorate to its east.

Avis (Avetis) Soghomoni Nurijanyan was a Bolshevik revolutionary and Soviet politician of Armenian origin who served as the People's Commissar for Military Affairs of the Armenian SSR from 1920 to 1921 and People's Commissar for Internal Affairs in 1921. He is infamous for his role in carrying out mass repressions immediately following the Sovietization of Armenia.

The Muslim uprisings in Kars and Sharur–Nakhichevan were a series of insurgencies by local Muslims against the administration of the First Republic of Armenia, beginning on 1 July 1919 and ending 28 July 1920. The areas of uprising were persuaded into insurrection by the sedition of Turkish and Azerbaijani agents who were trying to destabilise Armenia in order to form a pan-Turkic corridor between their nations.

References

↑ Sahakyan, Ruben (28 June 2021). "ПЕРВЫЙ СЪЕЗД НАРОДОВ ВОСТОКА (стенографический отчёт: Армения и Армянский вопрос) Рубен Саакян". Pan-Armenian Digital Library.
↑ Richard G. Hovannisian, The Contest for Kars (1914–1921), p. 316, Kars and Ani, Mazda Publishers 2011 (in Armenian).
↑ "Sovietization of Armenia". Seventeen Moments in Soviet History. 2015-08-26. Retrieved 2022-12-05.
1 2 Brinegar, Sara (2017). "The Oil Deal: Nariman Narimanov and the Sovietization of Azerbaijan". Slavic Review. 76 (2): 372–394. doi:10.1017/slr.2017.83. ISSN 0037-6779. JSTOR 26565087. S2CID 164460883.
↑ ИнфоРост, Н. П. "Второй конгресс Коминтерна. 19 июля-7 августа 1920 г. Манифест II конгресса Коммунистического Интернационала". docs.historyrussia.org. Retrieved 2022-11-04.
↑ Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic. University of Alberta Libraries. [Moscow], [Novosti Press Agency Pub. House]. 1972.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)