South Caucasus from 1918 to 1921: history and historical parallels with the contemporary era

Abstract

The republics that make up the South Caucasus today gained brief independence after the fall of the Tsarist Empire, before the integration of the region into Bolshevik Russia. This period, even though short, gives interesting historical background to understand the present. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to study the South Caucasian republics from 1918 to 1921 at the regional and international levels, paying particular attention to the historical continuities with the contemporary era (since 1991). The results of the study show three main parallels between the early twentieth century (1918–1921) and the present. First, the region is still internally divided (e.g. the unresolved conflicts). Second, externally, it is torn between sometimes opposing powers (e.g. Russia and the Western powers). Finally, third, the partnerships with international or regional powers still remain asymmetrical; consequently, the need to cooperate with Russia exceeds the aspirations of the Western powers toward the South Caucasus. Based on archival research, this study contributes to the historiography of the region and gives a framework for understanding the South Caucasus in contemporary international relations.

Keywords:

• South Caucasus
• Russia
• Allies
• Western powers

Acknowledgements

This article is the result of research conducted in the League of Nations Archives in Geneva and the Hoover Institution Archives in Palo Alto. I thank Andre Liebich for his comments on an earlier version (Part One of my doctoral thesis) of this article.

Notes

1. South Caucasus or Transcaucasia refers to the territories stretching in the south of the Caucasus mountain rage; North Caucasus, or Ciscaucasia, to the territories stretching in the north of the Caucasus mountain rage.

2. Armenia was first a part of the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (TFSSR) with Azerbaijan and Georgia (1922–1936). From 1936 (dissolution of the TFSSR) to 1991, Armenia was a Soviet Socialist Republic.

3. “The term Tatar was used to denote at that time around ten Turkic or Turko-Tatar peoples” (Carrère d'Encausse 2005, 169).

4. According to the first Soviet population census of 1926, only 47% of Armenians of the Soviet Union lived in Armenia. This percentage will grow significantly under Soviet rule (59%, 1959; 68.6%, 1979; and 69.8%, 1989), however without exceeding 70% (Arutyunyan 2001, 13).

5. The data of the Imperial Census of 1897 are available on the website of Demoskop Weekly. Accessed January 2016. http://demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/emp_lan_97_uezd.php?reg=0.

6. The data covering the Soviet period (1939 and 1989) are provided by Demoskop Weekly, the post-Soviet period, by the respective national statistical services. Demoskop Weekly. Accessed December 2014. http://demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/sng_nac_39.php?reg=4; National Statistical Service of the Republic of Armenia (ArmStat). Statistical Yearbook of Armenia 2012; 2011; 2010; 2006; 2004; and 2001. Yerevan. Accessed 20 November 2014. http://www.armstat.info/en/?nid=45; State Statistical Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan (Azstat). 2009. “Population of Azerbaijan.” Accessed November 2014. http://www.stat.gov.az/source/demoqraphy/ap/indexen.php; Department of Statistics of Georgia. 2008. “Statistical Yearbook of Georgia.” Accessed 20 November 2014. http://dwvg.ge/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Yearbook_2008_Final1.pdf.

7. In 1995, Javakheti and Meskheti (or Samtskhe) were merged into one province of Samtskhe-Javakheti (Cornell 2002b, 271). Over 95% of the population of Javakheti (Akhalkalaki and Ninotsminda municipalities) are Armenian. This percentage is much lower in the province of Samtskhe-Javakheti: 55% (Georgian census of 2002).

8. Georgia was part of the CIS from 1993 to 2009.

Additional information

Funding

Research at the Hoover Institution Archives (Stanford University) was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) as part of a research fellowship [PBGEP1-131181].