Review the Armenian Revolutionary Movement the Development of Armenian Political Parties

8/13/2019 Review the Armenian Revolutionary Movement the Development of Armenian Political Parties

1/5

The Armenian Revolutionary Movement: The Development of Armenian Political Parties

through the Nineteenth Century by Louise NalbandianReview by: M. K. KrikorianThe Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 43, No. 100 (Dec., 1964), pp. 224-227Published by: the Modern Humanities Research Associationand University College London, School ofSlavonic and East European Studies

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4205632.

Accessed: 26/11/2013 17:08

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at.http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of

content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms

of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Modern Humanities Research Associationand University College London, School of Slavonic and East

European Studiesare collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Slavonic andEast European Review.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 86.3.188.134 on Tue, 26 Nov 2013 17:08:13 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=mhrahttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=uclhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=uclhttp://www.jstor.org/stable/4205632?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/4205632?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=uclhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=uclhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=mhra


2/5

224 THE SLAVONIC REVIEWNalbandian, Louise. TheArmenian evolutionary ovement:The Developmentof Armenian oliticalPartiesthroughheNineteenthCentury.University ofCalifornia Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, Cambridge University

Press, London, I963. ix + 247 pages. Bibliography. Index.Miss L. NALBANDIAN, a San Franciscan of Armenian origin 'and apermanent Research Associate in the Near Eastern Center, University ofCalifornia, Los Angeles, has produced a study of the development ofArmenian political parties in the igth century, which is the first work ofits kind in English.The Armenian liberating movement started at the very moment whenin I375 the kingdom of Cilician Armenia was ruined by the Mamluiks.The last king, Lewon VI, was captured and taken to Egypt and havingbeen saved by ransom, wandered through Europe trying to gain supportfor the restoration of his throne. Thus Lewon VI came to be the founderof a movement which hoped to free ChristianArmenia from the hands ofthe Muslims with the help of Christian Europe.In the middle of the Igth century a fundamental change came about inthe Armenian liberation movement. Whereas beforethe Armenianshopedto be saved through the aid of Christianpowers,now they were convincedthat revolutionary activity was necessaryfor the freedom of Armenia. Thischange was the result of the contact of the Armenian intellectuals withEuropean revolutionary ideas. The West-Armenians were inspired by thehistory and atmosphere of France, while the East-Armenians were in-fluenced by Russian revolutionaries. The reforms for western Armenia(the eastern provinces of Anatolia) which were promised at the Congressof Berlin (I878) were a further factor which stimulated the organisationof political parties. Thus there came into existence the HenchakianRevolutionary Party (I887), which in I909 was named the Social Demo-crat Henchakian Party, and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation(i890). These parties used bloody and revolutionary methods to hastenthe promised reforms. Eventually, on I October I896, the Ottormangovernment issued an imperial decree proclaiming some reforms in theadministration of Eastern Anatolia which were suggested by a EuropeanCommission. These reforms were only partly respected and onlyfor a short time, until about I908 when the Young Turks came intopower.Miss Nalbandian's study is devoted to the history of the parties men-tioned above. The work is entitled The ArmenianRevolutionary ovement,but until 1920 the Armenians did not have 'a revolutionary movement'like France or Russia, or like Greece and Bulgaria. They carried out daringactions of a revolutionarycharacter in courageousself-defence or revenge.A revolutionary movement would have been almost impossible toorganise because firstly historical Armenia was large and dividedamong the Ottomans, Russians and Persians; secondly the Armeniansof Eastern Anatolia, although a prominent racial element, did notconstitute the majority of the population; and thirdly, in spite of thefact that, generally speaking, the Armenians were a prosperous and

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


3/5

REVIEWS 223industrious people, they lacked strong financial resourcesand manpower.Finally, they did not enjoy the permanent support of a resolute foreignpower.

In the first two chapters, 'An Outline of Armenia's Struggle for Free-dom' and 'The Ideological Background and Sources of the ArmenianNational Awakening', the author has introduced the reader to the historyof the Armenian political parties, but the various geographical, historical,cultural and ideological notes are not well integrated and as a result givea confused impression. In the third chapter the story is more interestingand develops smoothly. 'Revolutionary Activity in Turkish Armenia,I860-I885' depicts the Armenian uprisingsin Zeytun (now Suleymanlh),Van and Erzurum, and the unions which had political interests and pre-ceded the later parties. These societies were: The Union of Salvation inVan (I872), the Black CrossSociety, also in Van (I878) and the Protectorsof the Fatherland in Erzurum (i 88i). The fourth chapter gives an his-torical survey of the Armenakan Party (I885-96) which was organised inVan by the students of Mkrtich Porthugalian (I848-I92I), a renownedintellectual from Istanbul. The purpose of the party was to 'win for theArmenians the right to rule over themselves through revolution'. SinceI885 Porthugalian himself had been in Marseilles where he published(i August i885) the journal Armenia,which became the organ of theArmenakan party. The Armenakanswere involved in revolutionaryacti-vity in I889 when they importedfire-armsfromPersiato Van, and in I896when they resisted oppression and massacre by the Turks. Chapter fivegives the history of the Henchakian Party from I887 to I896. It wasfounded by East-Armenianstudents at Geneva in August I887; its leaderwas Awetis Nazarbekian (named also Nazarbek or Lerentz) one of whosecompanions was his fiancee,Mariam Vardanian (known as Maro), aformer member of a Russian secret revolutionarygroup in St Petersburg.From a social point of view the party was Marxist socialist and politicallyits aim was the restoration of the independence of Turkish Armenia byoutside help and through inside revolutionary activity. The party's organwas the journal Henchak The Bell) which first appeared in NovemberI887, in Geneva. The methods of administration, propaganda and terrorfollowed the Russian NarodnayaVolya,and in December i89I the partyjoined the Oriental Federation of Macedonian, Albanian, Cretan andGreek revolutionariesin order to pursue their cause on a broad front. OnI5 July I890 the Henchaks demonstrated at Kum Kapu, where the Ar-menian Patriarchate was and still is located, 'to awaken the maltreatedArmenians and to make the Sublime Porte fully aware of the miseries ofthe Armenians'; in August I894 they led the open and armed resistance ofSasun (now Kabilcevaz) against the Kurdish and Turkishchiefswho con-tinued to claim heavy protection tributes; on 30 September I895 theyprotested and demonstrated at Babi Ali, Istanbul, against the delay ininstituting the reformsin the eastern provinces, and on I2 October i 895they led a rebellion in Zeytun which lasted fourmonths and was only con-cluded on the intervention of the European powers. These revolutionaryactivities of the Henchaksforcedthe Ottoman government to carryout the



4/5

226 THE SLAVONIC REVIEWreforms promised at the Congress of Berlin, but on the other hand theyexcited the anger of the Turks.In chapter six the author describes the 'RevolutionaryActivities amongthe Armenians of Russia, I868-I890'. Here we learn about the revolu-tionary groups which came to the defenceof TurkishArmenia. These were:the Goodwill Society of Alexandropol (Leninakan), Russian Armenia,which was founded in i868; the Bureau of the Devoted to the Fatherland,organisedin the Medz Karakilisevillage of Alexandropolon 20 June 1874;the committee of NarodnayaVolya ormed at Tiflis and consistingof Geor-gians and Armenians, which in i88i-2 had its own Armenian circle; ananonymous society in Erevan which acted 'during the eighties'; the secretsociety Strength in Karabagh; the Union of Patriots founded at Moscowin the spring of I882, and the Young Armenia Society established inTiflis under the leadership of ChristaphorMichaelian in the winter ofI889. These organisationswere inspiredby the successfulrevolutions of theBalkan peoples. Miss Nalbandian comments: 'The successfulrevolutionsin Greece and Bulgaria helped to convince Russian Armenian revolu-tionaries that the Armenians could also be liberated from the OttomanEmpire. They saw in the Balkans the beneficial results of revolution andurged in their writingsthat the Armenians use the same methods to achieveimmediate ndependence'p. 149).The last chapter is entitled 'The Armenian Revolutionary Federationor Dashnaktsuthiun, I890-I896'. (Throughout the chapter, pp. I5I-78,the word 'Federation' in the headings is 27 times misprinted as 'Founda-tion'.) This strong party was founded at Tiflis in summer I890 by Christa-phor Michaelian (I859-I905), Stephan Zorian or Rostom (I867-I9:19)and Simon Zawarian (i866-i 9I3). The Dashnakswere socialist Marxists,and using political means they pursued 'the political and economic free-dom of Turkish Armenia'. In their programme and methods they werevery close to the Henchakians, in fact at the beginning the two partieswere united for a shortwhile. The Dashnakspublisheda newspapercalledDroshak (The Flag) and they achieved close relations with the YoungTurks and Christian Balkans. The climax of their indiscreet activity wasthe siege of the Ottoman Bank at Galata on 26 August I896, the purposeof which was to compel the European powers to put into effect the ad-ministrative reforms of Turkish Armenia. This demonstration cost thelives of more than 6,ooo Armenians. The party continues to exist today,but since I920-I it has abandoned socialism and is engaged in an anti-communist campaign. At the end of the study, the author concludes: 'Itcan be said of them without reservation that they workedat restoringthehonour of their people and they believed as passionately as did their fifth-century ancestors who fought at Awarayr: We die as mortals, that wethrough our death may be placed among those who are immortal '(p.i 85)Although Miss Nalbandian is not an historian,nevertheless she is a suc-cessfulportrayerof history, and her book is a very usefuland comprehen-sive account of the activities of the Armenian revolutionary groups andparties from I86o to I896. In compiling her work, the author has made



5/5

REVIEWS 227use of some manuscript theses and of many printed documents and booksin Armenian and European languages. Unfortunately she has neglectedthe archive materials of Europe, and also the Turkish sources almostcompletely. Nevertheless, hers is a valuable book which provides theEnglish reader with an impartial short history of the Armenian revolu-tionary movement, and one hopes that Miss Nalbandian will now carryher researches still further.

Vienna M. K. KRIKORIAN

Adams,ArthurE. Bolsheviksn theUkraine, heSecond ampaign9I8-I9I9.Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn., and London, I963.ix + 440 pages. Index. Maps. Bibliography.

THE Russian civil war, climax of the great revolutionary crisis on theoutcome of which depended the futureshape of Russiansociety, is scarcely,if at all, inferior in historical importance to the October revolution itself.Yet comparatively little has been published on the subject in the Englishlanguage: any addition, therefore, to the information made available tothe student of the period is to be warmly welcomed.The Russian civil war, as is well known, presentsa bewilderingkaleido-scope of rapidly shifting fronts, of military leaders, governments, parties,aspirations,occupationsand interventions,in which even the line between'White' and 'Red' was not always clearly drawn. One of the most troubledregionsin thissecond 'Time of Troubles'was, of course,the Ukraine. Here,the revolutionaryevents of February and October were superimposedonthe traditional tensions created by age-old aspirations for autonomy, bythe rivalries of khokhol nd katsap,cossack and peasant, peasant and pro-letarian, Ukrainian, Pole and Jew, of right bank and left, the men of Kiev

and the men of Kharkov. Moreover, as one of the major granaries ofEurope, the Ukraine in I9I8 was of vital importanceboth to the blockadedcentral powers (and hence, obversely, also to the embattled Entente) andto the grain-starved bolsheviks of the industrial north. The operation ofthese and other forces (not least amongst them the Ukrainian peasant'shealthy views of his own interests)made the Ukraine, for a time, one of thecockpits of struggling Europe.It is with two loosely connected incidents of the 'strugglefor the Ukraine'that the present volume is primarily concerned. The first of these involvesthe activities of atamanGrigor'yev,a military adventurer 'with remarkablecapacities for vodka and fighting', who gained spectacular if ephemeralsuccesses in the southern Ukraine, and, for a short time, held a kind ofbalance in the Ukraine between the bolsheviks and their opponents. Likehis better known and more idealistic contemporary and rival batkoMakhno, he found himself, thanks to the strength of his peasant-partisandetachments, placed in a position where, whilst none of the major partiesin the civil war either could or would wholly trust him, none would readilyincur his enmity. Potentially, the cossack-freebooterwas a usefultemporary


Review the Armenian Revolutionary Movement the Development of Armenian Political Parties

Documents

Transcript of Review the Armenian Revolutionary Movement the Development of Armenian Political Parties