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Red Army invasion of Armenia
Part of the Armenian–Azerbaijani War, the Russian Civil War and the Turkish War of Independence
Red Army in Yerevan, November 1920
Date 24 September – 29 November 1920 Location First Republic of Armenia Result Soviet victory
Belligerents
Russian SFSR  Armenian Bolsheviks  Azerbaijan SSR Turkish Provisional Government	Armenia
Commanders and leaders
Mikhail Tukhachevsky Mikhail Levandovsky Mikhail G. Yefremov Kâzım Karabekir	Simon Vratsian Alexander Khatisian

The Red Army invasion of Armenia was a military campaign which was carried out by the 11th Army of Soviet Russia from September to 29 November 1920 in order to install a new Soviet government in the First Republic of Armenia, a former territory of the Russian Empire. The invasion coincided with an invasion by Kemalist Turkey and anti-government insurrections organized by local Armenian Bolsheviks. The invasion led to the dissolution of the First Republic of Armenia and the establishment of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic. Militant resistance continued in southern Armenia under Nzhdeh's self-declared Republic of Mountainous Armenia until July 1921.

Background

Before the intervention of the Soviets, the governing party of Armenia was the socialist-nationalist Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF, Dashnaktsutyun).

Inspired by the Bolsheviks’ success in Azerbaijan, Armenian Bolsheviks organized an uprising in May 1920, which resulted in resignation of the government of Vratsian, however new government of Hamo Ohanjanyan managed to suppress the coup.

In September 1920, Turkish forces launched an offensive, capturing Kars and Alexandropol by November 7. Such a political situation inspired Bolsheviks, and particularly Trotsky, who was a supporter of the idea of permanent revolution. Trotsky wanted to export revolution to the East, initially to Persia, and for that purpose Congress of the Peoples of the East was called in 1-8 September 1920 in Baku. The Congress on 17 September adopted a resolution calling for the Sovietization of Armenia. The Treaty of Alexandropol, signed on 2 December 1920 by the Dasknak government, compelled Armenia to forfeit all of Western Armenia, including Kars and Ardahan, acknowledge the absence of Armenian minorities in Turkey, and agree to the establishment of Nakhichevan as an autonomous Turkish Azeri state. On the same day, a new Armenian government in Yerevan, formed by a coalition of communists, declared Armenia a Soviet republic, renouncing the Treaty of Alexandropol.

The Red Army continued to face military opposition only in Syunik, where Garegin Njdeh an his soldiers fought until July 1921 under the banner of the Republic of Mountainous Armenia.

Treaty

On December 2, 1920, an agreement was signed on behalf of the Dashnak government of Armenia.

Its terms were as follows:

1. Armenia was declared a Soviet Socialist Republic.
2. A Provisional Military-Revolutionary Committee shall assume power over Armenia until the convention of a Congress of Soviets
3. Soviet Russia recognized the entire Yerevan province, Zangezur, part of Kars province, some regions of Kazakh province and the territories of Tiflis province as an integral part of the Republic of Armenia, which were part of the Republic of Armenia until September 28, 1920.
4. The officers of the Army of the Republic of Armenia were released from responsibility for actions initiated prior to the proclamation of Soviet power in Armenia.
5. The current members of the current Armenian political party (Dashnaktsutyun) and other social parties of the Republic of Armenia were not to be persecuted for membership in these parties.
6. The composition of the temporary ruling committee was to consist of 5 Bolsheviks and two left confederates.
7. The government of Soviet Russia was committed to ensuring the security of the territory of Soviet Armenia.

Soviet rationale

According to historian Brinegar, Sovietization of Armenia was pushed by a faction of Bolsheviks including Narimanov, Joseph Stalin, and Sergo Ordzhonikidze, who considered the occupation of Armenia and Georgia necessary for stability and the elimination of anti-Bolshevik activity in border regions.

From 19 July to 7 August 1920, the 2nd World Congress of the Communist International was held. Its manifest of which stipulated the following: “In the conflict of Entente with Turkey Armenia played the same programmatic role as Belgium in the conflict with Germany, as Serbia in the conflict with Austria-Hungary. After Republic of Armenia was established – without borders and without potential to live- Wilson refused the Armenian mandate which had been offered him by League of Nations, since the soil of Armenia veils neither oil nor platinum. “Liberated” Armenia is now less protected than it has ever been.”  

Additionally, Lenin feared the Entente was planning to use Georgia as a staging ground for retaking Baku, which provided oil to the Soviets.

A 1967 book published within the USSR describes the event as follows:

"On November 29, 1920, an armed uprising of the working people of Armenia, headed by the Communist Party and aided by the Russian people, put an end to the ill-famed Dashnak rule. The years of Dashnak rule (1918-20) are another grim page in the history of the Armenian people. Ceaseless warfare and massacres, anarchy contains tyranny, hunger and poverty, pillage and violence, blood and tears—those are the essential features of that period. The country was on the verge of ruin. The economy of Armenia had been greatly deranged. Gross industrial output had decreased in 1919 more than twelve fold as against 1913. Farming and animal husbandry were on the verge of disaster. Gross agricultural output in 1919 had dropped almost sixfold as compared with 1913 and crop areas had decreased more than fourfold. Under the Dashnak rule, the peasants had over 14 kinds of taxes to pay. Hunger and poverty gave rise to frequent epidemics. Armenia became a Soviet state, ruled by the working people—the workers and the peasants."

Notes

1. Also known as the Armenian–Soviet War, the Sovietization of Armenia, the Soviet invasion of Armenia, and the Soviet occupation of Armenia.

See also

• Turkish–Armenian War
• May uprisings

References

1. Sahakyan, Ruben (28 June 2021). "ПЕРВЫЙ СЪЕЗД НАРОДОВ ВОСТОКА (стенографический отчёт: Армения и Армянский вопрос) Рубен Саакян". Pan-Armenian Digital Library.
2. Richard G. Hovannisian, The Contest for Kars (1914–1921), p. 316, Kars and Ani, Mazda Publishers 2011 (in Armenian).
3. "Sovietization of Armenia". Seventeen Moments in Soviet History. 2015-08-26. Retrieved 2022-12-05.
4. ^ Brinegar, Sara (2017). "The Oil Deal: Nariman Narimanov and the Sovietization of Azerbaijan". Slavic Review. 76 (2): 372–394. doi:10.1017/slr.2017.83. ISSN 0037-6779. JSTOR 26565087. S2CID 164460883.
5. ИнфоРост, Н. П. "Второй конгресс Коминтерна. 19 июля-7 августа 1920 г. Манифест II конгресса Коммунистического Интернационала". docs.historyrussia.org. Retrieved 2022-11-04.
6. Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic. University of Alberta Libraries. , . 1972.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)

Further reading

• Hovannisian, Richard G (1967). Armenia on the Road to Independence, 1918. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520005747. OCLC 1028172352.
• Hovannisian, Richard G. (1971). The Republic of Armenia: The First Year, 1918–1919. Vol. 1. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520019843.
• Hovannisian, Richard G. (1982). The Republic of Armenia: From Versailles to London, 1919–1920. Vol. 2. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520041868.
• Hovannisian, Richard G. (1996a). The Republic of Armenia: From London to Sèvres, February–August 1920. Vol. 3. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520088030.
• Hovannisian, Richard G. (1996b). The Republic of Armenia: Between Crescent and Sickle: Partition and Sovietization. Vol. 4. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520088047.
• Kazemzadeh, Firuz (1951). The Struggle for Transcaucasia (1917–1921). New York City: Philosophical Library. ISBN 978-0-95-600040-8.
• (in Armenian) Khatisian, Alexander. Հայաստանի Հանրապետութեան Ծագումն ու Զարգացումը (The Birth and Development of the Armenian Republic). Athens: Nor Or Publishing, 1930.
• (in French) Ter Minassian, Anahide. La République d’Arménie: 1918-1920. Bruxelles: Editions Complexe, 1989.

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