Problems of Soviet Nation-State Building: A Critical Historical Analysis of Armenia

Abstract

Throughout the shaping of the Soviets, the Armenian nation passed its historical way of development as a union member and grew to be administratively represented by two Soviet Armenian ethnic entities — the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (ranked a union republic) and Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (a territory within the Azerbaijan SSR). The First Republic was established in late May 1918 to be replaced by the Second Republic, or Soviet Armenia, in early December 1920. In 1920–1922, the latter was officially referred to as ‘independent Socialist Soviet Republic of Armenia’, and then as a territory within the Transcaucasian Soviet Federation (1922–1936) and the Soviet Union (1936–1991). After Transcaucasian Federation was abolished in 1936, Soviet Armenia was incorporated into the USSR as a self-sufficient union republic under the name Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic. Goals. The study seeks to show the process of nation-state building in the USSR through the example of Armenia. Materials and methods. The article analyzes archival materials represented by official documents and acts dealing with Soviet nation-state building, as well as collections of laws and party decrees. The main research methods employed are the historical/comparative and historical/genetic ones. Results. Soviet Armenia within the USSR, as well as other Soviet republics and autonomies, was no independent state in the conventional sense, but at the same time it was endowed with many attributes and symbols of statehood. Finally, it was Soviet Armenia that — for first time in the history of Armenian statehood — obtained its own Constitution. Conclusions. Soviet Armenia was a nation in the unified Soviet state, and in the conditions of seven decades of unlimited power of the Communist Party preserved and developed the Armenian Soviet statehood to a maximum possible then and there. Most Armenian historians believe the present-day independent Third Republic would never have emerged (since 1991) but for the period of Soviet Armenia.