Soviet takeover of Armenia
Sovietisation of Armenia on 2 December 1920, as the defeated Dashnak government faced Turkish military pressure and signed the Treaty of Alexandropol. The takeover ended the First Republic and moved Armenia’s survival, borders and institutions into the Soviet system.
- Armenian
- Azerbaijani
- Russian
Account
Background
By late 1920 the First Republic of Armenia was exhausted. Refugees, famine, disease, war with Turkish nationalist forces and disputes with Azerbaijan had overwhelmed the state. The Treaty of Sèvres promised a large Armenia on paper, but the army could not defend even the existing republic.
The takeover
On 2 December 1920, the Dashnak government led by Simon Vratsian ceded power as Soviet forces entered the political field. The same day, Armenian representatives signed the Treaty of Alexandropol with Turkey under duress, accepting terms far harsher than later Soviet-Turkish settlements. Soviet Armenia was proclaimed, and the Communist Party of Armenia became the governing instrument.
Consequences
Sovietisation saved a territorial Armenian republic from further immediate destruction, but at the price of sovereignty editorial. The new Soviet frame allowed Moscow to renegotiate borders with Kemalist Turkey and Soviet Azerbaijan, producing the Kavbiuro decision and the Treaty of Kars. It also ended the ARF's rule and drove much of its state tradition into exile and diaspora.
The event is therefore remembered ambivalently. Soviet and some pragmatic readings stress rescue from annihilation. Dashnak and nationalist readings stress occupation and the loss of Sèvres. Both are partly true: Armenia was preserved as a Soviet republic, but not as the independent state its founders had declared in 1918 editorial.