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Index

Armenia

The Urartu Civilisation

Victory for Independence

Artashisian Dynasty on the Armenian Throne

Armenia caught between Rome and the Arsacids

The Acceptance of Christianity

Defending Christianity

Armenia Under the Bagratouni Dynasty

Cilicia - the New Armenia

Armenia Under Turanian Rule

The Renaissance or the Resurrection of Armenia

The Eastern Question

Russia in the Caucasus

The Armenian Question

Battle on Two Fronts

Tsarist Russia Against the Armenians

The Revolution of the Young Turks and the Armenian People on the Eve of World War I

The First World War

The Resurrection of Armenia

Armenia on the Road to Independence, 1918

- Armenia on the Road to Independence, 1918

Eastern Armenia

Western Armenia

"The Fateful Years" (1914-1917)

"Hopes and Emotions" (March-October, 1917)

The Bolshevik Revolution and Armenia

Transcaucasia Adrift (November, 1917

Dilemmas (March-April, 1918)

War and Independence (April-May, 1918)

The Republics of Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia

The Suppliants (June-October, 1918)

In conclusion

Soviet Armenia

The Second Independent Republic of Armenia

Epilogue

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"Hopes and Emotions" (March-October, 1917)

"The March Revolution"

"Never! Never has the future seemed so beautiful, victory so near, as now, in these dreamlike days of hope and emotion…. Thrones are shattered and chains broken, while crowned bandits tremble before the merciless judgement of the world." 1 Such, in spring, 1917, was the opinion of Horizon, Dashnaktsoutiun's Tiflis organ and one of the most widely circulated papers in Transcaucasia. The unexpected, the seemingly impossible had occurred when the Romanov dynasty was overthrown. On March 8, thousands of angry citizens, rioting in Petrograd because of the bread shortage, were joined by mobs of striking and locked-out workers, as well as by many women commemorating a feminist-movement holiday. Thus, the spontaneous rising yearned for by the Russian Populists of the 1870's materialised in 1917. On March 12, the Volinsky Guard Regiment joined the demonstrators, now turned insurgents, and the representatives of labour and the army established the Petrograd Soviet 2 of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, under the chairmanship of the Georgian Menshevik N. S. Chkheidze. At the same time the State Duma refused to comply with an order to disperse and instead formed the Temporary Committee, which, after appealing in vain for concessions from the Tsar, demanded his abdication. In the midst of chaos, Nicholas II abdicated on March 15 in favour of his brother Michael, who had the sense to reject the honour until the people of Russia, through a national assembly, had expressed their desires. On the same day, Petrograd Soviet and the Duma's Temporary Committee sanctioned the creation of the Provisional Government, headed by Prince G. E. Lvov, prominent Constitutional Democrat and president of the Zemstvo Union. Among his cabinet members were P. N. Miliukov, Foreign Affairs; A. I. Guchkov, War and Navy; and A. F. Kerensky, Justice. This government of liberals was readily accepted by Russia's wartime allies. The "Democratic Revolution" was manifest. 3

M. V. Rodzianko, President of the Duma and its Temporary Committee, notified Grand Duke Nicholas Nicholaevich of the Petrograd events and requested that the Viceroy for the Caucasus cooperate with the acting administration by immediately eliminating press censorship. The Viceroy's assistant, Prince Orlov, in a circular dated March 16, 1917, informed all officials in the Caucasus of the political change and appealed for the maintenance of order. The Grand Due himself issued a similar request, advising the populace to comply with the directives of Prince Lvov's Provisional Government.

News of the Petrograd revolution electrified Transcaucasia. Delirious demonstrations of rejoicing burst forth from the occupied territories of Western Armenia to Baku and from the Caucasus Mountains to North Persia. The malicious, the "divide and rule" tsarist regime had been smashed. Sidewalk orators excited the masses by painting scenes of a promising future. Georgians, Moslems, and Armenians together proclaimed their loyalty to the Provisional Government and emphasized the firm belief that in their brotherhood was the assurance of a democratic, progressive Transcaucasian region within the new Russian Republic. The Tiflis headquarters of Dashnaktsoutiun was the site of festive celebrations, as the leaders and unknowns of that revolutionary society were captivated by the emotions and hopes of the moment. There were, however, a few who did not share the enthusiasm of their comrades. Rostom Zorian, one of the party's founders and a seasoned foe of the tsarism, bewailed the abdication of Nicholas II as he exclaimed to his friends, "You don't understand what is happening; revolution during the rime of war! That is death for the Armenian people." 5 Events of the following months were to bear out the accuracy of that statement.