The re-appropriation of the past: History and politics in Soviet Armenia, 1988--1991

Historical narratives played an important role in the undermining of Soviet rule in Armenia during the final years of the Soviet Union. Competing, non-Communist interpretations of history influenced large segments of the population, which in turn led to a "divorce from Sovietism," and ultimately to secession from the USSR. History was contested terrain over which battles were waged for the "hearts and minds of the nation." In the Armenian case, history was a tool for mobilizing the resources of the nation in its struggle against Soviet central authorities as well as its neighbor Azerbaijan.;The political mobilization and manipulation of history by the Soviets over many decades succeeded in subordinating history to the ideological and strategic needs of the Communist Party. During the relative freedom of glasnost, Armenians began to reassess their past and take issue with the prevailing grand historical narrative of Armenian history constructed by the Soviets. In this narrative, Russia played the role of liberator and savior of the Armenian people, with the Armenians themselves cast in a subordinate role. Given the hardships suffered by the Armenians in the past, including the 1915 Genocide by the Ottoman Turks, this Soviet Armenian grand historical narrative remained the dominant paradigm until the beginning of 1988 and the advent of the Karabagh movement in Armenia.;The present study argues that a major paradigm shift occurred in February 1988, when Armenians in the Azerbaijani city of Sumgait were subjected to a pogrom. This one event, more than any other, shattered the tacit social contract between the Soviet state and the Armenian people, whereby loyalty was exchanged for the physical inviolability of the Armenian nation. This social contract was itself based on a particular construction and reading of history. After Sumgait, Armenians began to explore the causes for their inclusion within the USSR. Based on fieldwork in Soviet Armenia from 1988 to 1991, as well as subsequent archival research, this work demonstrates how, from 1988 to the end of the Soviet Union in 1991, the de-construction of Soviet history in Armenia contributed to a vigorous debate regarding the state of affairs in the country. A re-assessment of the Armenian past and the undoing of Soviet revisionism undermined the pillars of Soviet rule in Armenia and led to an irreversible crisis of legitimacy.