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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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The retreat of the Russian army was followed by a new wave of Armenian refugees. Around 25,000 people left Erzurum to settle down in Eastern Armenia.

The Christian Russian occupation of Western Armenia, through temporary, would make a great impression on the Armenians who stayed behind in Western Armenia. This occupation broke the constant oppression which the people had been living under, awakening their thoughts and strengthening their character. From this moment on the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire would bear the chains of slavery and oppression with less tolerance. 42

Transcaucasia Under Russian Rule

For a fair judgement of the progress which the Russian regime, despite its disadvantages, achieved in Transcaucasia during the 19th century, it is necessary to review the political atmosphere in 1828, when the entire Transcaucasia (including Batum and Kars) first fell into Russian hands.

Eastern Armenia and Azerbaijan (present-day Azerbaijan was first established in 1918, and until that date the name Azerbaijan refers to the Azerbaijani province in present-day Iran) had been, up to that point, under Persian rule. As Persia weakened during the 18th century, these areas were abandoned and, left to their own fate, were destroyed and destabilased, causing the ruin of the entire region. Eastern Armenia and Azerbaijan were divided into different khanates which were ruled by a governing Khan, who paid annual tax to the regime in Tehran and in return wielded power over the lives and the properties of the inhabitants in his district. 43 These corrupt and merciless Khans found subjects and allies amongst the local lords, including the Turkish and Tartar Begs and Armenian Meliks, who, like the Khans, were possible to buy at the right price, and who also also answered to the Khans. The population in these regions lived a miserable life, such that the total population of the entire Transcaucasia at the beginning of the 19th century had decreased to less than 1.5 million. 44

Russian rule, in contrast, though not necessarily resulting in freedom, brought with it order, laws and security, which allowed gradual development and progress in the country and resulted in the increase of the population in Transcaucasia, from 1.4 million in 1828 to seven million in 1914, whilst the population in the Asiatic part of the Ottoman Empire remained almost constant throughout the 19th century.

The cities developed and expanded at a much faster pace. Tbilisi, which in 1828 had a population of almost 25,000 people, reached 300,000 in 1914 45 and Baku had grown from having barely 8,000 people in 1828 to 250,000 in 1914.

The accompanying economic growth in Transcaucasia was rapid, as we will discuss in the next chapter.