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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 Years of Reaction, 1907-1912

The influence of Dashnaktsoutiun, however, like that of all revolutionary societies in Russia, waned after 1907. The Romanov dynasty had emerged, shaken but intact, from the Revolution and the war with Japan. Emboldened by the disunity among the opposition groups and the failure of new strike movements, the secret police again arrested, imprisoned, or exiled thousands of suspected political enemies. In Transcaucasia, the Armenian populace recoiled after the sensational events of 1903-1907. The political pendulum moved rapidly toward the right as the first years of the Russian reaction began. Dashnaktsoutiun was deprived of much of its vigour because of internal splintering and mass arrests, while weaker organisations such as the Armenian Marxist groups became inactive. P. A. Stolypin, the inexorable enemy of the revolutionaries and President of the Russian Council of Ministers, struck ruthlessly at the Armenian political and civic leaders. 67 Many languished in tsarist prisons until brought to trial before the Russian Senate early in 1912. Alexander Kerensky, future premier of Russia, and Pavel Miliukov, influential politician, historian, and journalist, were among the defenders of the accused, only fifty-two of whom were finally sentenced, most to amazingly light terms. 68 This was the final manifestation of the Stolypin reaction, for soon the Balkan wars, considerations of Russian foreign policy, and the prospect of a new Russo-Turkish conflagration transformed the Romanovs and Dashnaktsoutiun into collaborators.

During the century of Russian domination in Transcaucasia, the Armenian political mind had been moulded and solidified. Despite the fact that the tsarist protection did not fulfil initial Armenian expectations, the influences of the relatively advanced Russian culture stimulated the growth of Armenian national consciousness. It was, however, not official Russia but the oppositional movement of Russia which was strongly reflected in the political, administrative, social, and economic views of the Armenians. By the end of the century, this people had definite aspirations. It was not independence that was sought but local native administration and the re-division of Transcaucasia into distinct ethnic provinces. For the first times in centuries, Armenians constituted a majority in the territory around Yerevan, but this was not enough to satisfy them. Their gaze was upon the peripheral areas of the Plateau. That the intensification of such views led to further misunderstandings with other Transcaucasian peoples needs little explanations.

Yet the Armenians of Russia did not limit their concern to the Caucasus. The land on which they lived often seemed much less significant to them and warranted less attention than the "real homeland", Western Armenia. It was in the zeal to liberate this area that the political comprehension of the Armenians revealed its greatest naiveté and weakness. The entire nation was easily aroused by the prospect of foreign intervention in the affairs of the Ottoman Empire. Thus, the memories of the disappointments of 1828-1829, 1877-1878, 1894-1896, 69 of Europe's repeated ineffectiveness in compelling Ottoman reforms, and of the reactionary domestic policy of the Romanov tsars were repressed in 1912, when the Armenians turned once again to St. Petersburg and the other capitals of Europe for the realisation of their most sacred goal – freedom and autonomy for Western Armenia.