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The Decree "About Western Armenia"
Upon its formation, the Sovnarkom took measures to free Russian from the imperialistic war and to recall the occupying armies from Persia and the Armenian Plateau. The term "self-determination" was utilised repeatedly in both instances. Armenian Bolsheviks hailed the Leninist declarations. For half a century, European diplomacy had only added to the oppression and misery of the Ottoman minorities, whereas the Sovnarkom now repudiated secret, traditional diplomacy and offered self-determination instead. But even in their praise, the Armenian followers of Lenin were unable to disguise their concern completely. Soon after the November Revolution, Lenin, at his Smolny Institute headquarters, received Vahan Terian, youthful, talented poet, and Sargis Lukashin, party activist. After preliminary discussions, Lenin requested that his comrades prepare a brief on the Armenian situation and submit drafts for a suitable proclamation for use by the Commissariat for Nationalities. Terian, resuming the responsibility, promptly presented the work to Lenin and Stalin. After describing the untold suffering of Armenians under the Ottoman yoke, the poet-Bolshevik assailed the tsarist Kerensky machinations, which were intended to prevent the revival of devastated Armenia. Unfortunately, he continued, Dashnaktsoutiun, having captured the mind of the masses during the preceding decades, had led the people down the path toward destruction. Terian extolled the nationality policy of the Soviet government but earnestly requested that Russian troops remain in Western Armenia until its sovereignty was guaranteed and arrangements for honest, unhindered referendums, solid governmental order, and local militia had been made. 22 Even Stepan Shahoumian, appointed Extraordinary Commissar for the Caucasus by the Sovnarkom on December 29, was not immune to feelings of doubt. A bitter enemy of all forms of nationalism and, like Lenin, convinced that only rapid Russian disengagement from the war could save the country, Shahoumian comprehended, nonetheless, that recalling the armies on the principle of self-determination without first securing the safety of the inhabitants might correspond to the letter but certainly not to the spirit of Bolshevik ideals. 23
The question of the Caucasus front and Western Armenia was often included on the Sovnarkom's agenda during December, 1917. The decree drafted by Terian for the Nationalities Commissariat was studied and altered, but its adoption was delayed until January 11, 1918, seemingly because of discord among government members. Signed by Lenin and Stalin, the declaration "About Western [Turkish] Armenia" appeared in Pravda two days later. 24 In the same issue, the Commissar for Nationalities wrote:
"So-called ‘Western Armenia' is the only country, it seems, that Russia occupied ‘by right of war.' This is that ‘little corner of paradise' which for many years has served (and still serves) as the object of the voracious diplomatic appetites of the West and the bloody administrative exercises of the East. Pogroms and massacres of Armenians, on the one hand, and pharisaic ‘intercession' of the diplomats of all countries, as a cover for new massacres, on the other, and as result a blood-soaked, deceived, and enslaved Armenia…
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22) S. T. Alikhanian, "Haikakan Gortzeri Komisariatsi gortzouneoutyoune (1917-1921)" [Activity of the Commissariat of Armenian Affairs (1917-1921)] (Yerevan, 1958), pp. 7-13.
23) S. Vratsian, "Hayastani bolshevikian mourji yev trkakan Sali midjev" [Armenia between the Bolshevik Hammer and the Turkish Anvil] (Beirut, 1953), pp. 15-16; St. Shahoumian, "Yerker" [Works], III (Yerevan, 1958), 37-39; A. N. Mnatskanian, "Revoliutsian Andrkovkasoum yev Rousastani patviraknere, 1917-1921" [The Revolution in Transcaucasia and the Envoys of Russia, 1917-1921] (Yerevan, 1961), p. 272.
24) B. A. Borian, "Armeniia, mezhdunarodnaia diplomatiia i SSSR, II" (Moscow-Leningrad, 1929), pp. 260-261, claims that the final provisions of the decree did not at all resemble those suggested by the Armenians. He feels that Terian had little to do with adoption of the proclamation, which was necessitated by considerations of Soviet Eastern policy.
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