Soviet Armenia
Before we continue it is however necessary to take some steps back in the chain of events and take a closer look at the circumstances which the independent Armenia was forced to accept the humiliating peace terms and the transformation to a soviet republic.
Sovietisation and Peace
Defeated and discredited, Armenia's Bureau-government gave way on November 23 to a cabinet headed by Simon Vratsian. To that last cabinet fell the heavy obligation to conclude peace and preserve the physical existence of the Armenian people at almost any price. Only the Social Revolutionary Party agreed to enter a coalition at that grave moment:
Position | Name | Party | Prime minister, Foreign Affairs and interim Internal minister | Simon Vratsian | Dashnaktsoutyoun | Military Affairs | Dro (Drastamat Kanayan) | Dashnaktsoutyoun | Agriculture and State Properties | Arshak Hovhannisian | Dashnaktsoutyoun | Financial Affairs and interim Welfare | Hambardzoum Terterian | Dashnaktsoutyoun | Judicial Affairs and interim Commercial Affairs | Arsham Khondkarian | Social Revolutionary | Education and Culture | Vahan Minakhorian | Social Revolutionary |
For a few days, Vratsian tried persuade Legran that sovietisation would invite greater tragedy, since Armenia would be blocked by Georgia and deprived of external economic aid at a time when Russia itself was gripped by famine. Renunciation of the Sèvres treaty, moreover, would be tantamount to a sentence of death to the Armenian Question, bringing to naught the untold sacrifices in the national movement for emancipation. On November 30 Legran announced that the decision to sovietise Armenia was irreversible. He demanded that Armenia break all bonds with the Western imperialists and unite with the Russian workers and peasants. A few Armenian Bolsheviks had already crossed the frontier on November 29 from Azerbaijan into Karvansarai (Ijevan), where they proclaimed Armenia a Soviet republic and appealed for the intervention of the Red Army.
In these circumstances, Vratsian's government bowed to the inevitable and appointed Dro and Hambardzum Terterian to arrange for the transfer of power. The treaty signed by Legran and the Armenian representatives on December 2 gave some ground for hope. Armenia became an independent Soviet Socialist Republic, and Soviet Russia acknowledged as indisputable parts of that state all lands that had been under the jurisdiction of the Armenian government prior to the Turkish invasion, Zangezour included. Russia was to take immediate steps to furnish the requisite military force to consolidate and defend the republic. Neither the army command nor members of the Dashnaktsoutyoun and other socialist parties were to be persecuted for their previous activities. Power would pass temporarily to a military revolutionary committee composed of five members appointed by the Communist Party and two left-wing Dashnakist members, selected with the approval of the Communist Party. Until that body was organised, the government would be entrusted to Dro, the military commander, and to Otto A. Silin, the plenipotentiary of Soviet Russia. For the government of independent Armenia, all that remained was to issue its final decree: "In view of the general situation in the land created by external circumstances, the Government of Republic of Armenia, in its session of December 2, 1920, decided to resign from office and to relinquish all military and political authority to Dro, the commander in chief, now appointed as minister of war" 97
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