The Leninist-Stalinist Legacy: Seventy Years of Soviet Rule

Abstract

The rebellion led by the Dashnaktsutiun in February 1921 against Soviet rule failed. After the Bolsheviks recaptured Erevan and the reins of power in April, the new government, led by Aleksandr Miasnikyan, imposed virtual dictatorial rule. By mid-1921 most of the anti-Bolshevik leaders had been liquidated: imprisoned, exiled, or killed. As the new Communist government in Erevan consolidated power, it also ensured Armenia’s subordination to Moscow’s rule. The Soviet government for its part was confronted with the onerous task of reconstructing the governmental machinery and the economic system.¹ It was under these conditions that the post-independence government in Armenia formally entered into the ostensibly “federal” structure with the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic in September 1921. The seventy-year history of Soviet imperial rule in Armenia was divided into five phases, each reflecting the policy priorities of the leadership in the Kremlin until economic stagnation and political paralysis led to its demise.