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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 Resurrection of Armenia

The Defence of Transcaucasia (1917-1918)

There were various reasons for the revolution which took place in February 1917 and resulted in the fall of the tsar; foremost amongst these, however, was the Russian inability to create a unanimous and living organism of the union of its different peoples. Unlike the leaders of the British Empire, Russia had not been able to understand how it could facilitate the specific characteristics and features of the respective ethnic populations, and adapt itself to their demographic, rather than insisting that they conform to the Russian ideal.

The February Revolution in Russia brought liberal and socialist forces to power. A temporary government, under the leadership of men such as Lvov, Milionkof and later Kerensky, was established in St Petersburg, men who had always shown interest in the Armenian Question.

During the war, these leaders kept Russia on the side of the allied forces, and tried to create a democratic rule in Russia. Towards the non-Russian peoples they pursued a liberal policy and promised them self-governance, but only recognised the independence and establishment of separate governments of three nations, namely Finland, Poland and Armenia.

The February Revolution brought a period of freedom to some parts of the empire, and officially conferred rule of the liberated parts of Western Armenia to the Armenians.

The October Revolution brought to an end the short-lived government, with the communists taking power. The defeat of Russian democracy, as in 1907, was inevitable as the Russians, unlike the Armenians, were not prepared to fight to preserve democracy. 4

In Transcaucasia, and other border regions of the empire, the communists failed to gain power. The election for the Russian Duma showed a clear preference for the Dashnak party in the Armenian provinces, for the Mensheviks (Georgian social democrats) in Georgia, and for the Mussavat Party in the Tatar populated provinces.

After the fall of the temporary government in St Petersburg, the above three parties refused to join the new communist rule, instead building a temporary government in Transcaucasia, the "Caucasian Commissioner". They also created a Caucasian parliament (Seim), wherein the different parties received mandates in relation to the number of votes they received. The arrangement, however, was merely transitory in the eyes of the powerful in the Caucasus, for the Armenians and the Georgians did not want independence for Transcaucasia, but rather self-governing provinces, integrated into a federal Russia.