Armenian victims of the Great Purge includedArmenian intellectuals, writers, artists, Bolshevik and later Soviet statesmen, military commanders, and religious figures. Orchestrated byJoseph Stalin, theGreat Purge was a campaign of political repression and persecution in theSoviet Union against supposed "enemies of the people," including members of theCommunist Party, the peasantry, writers and intellectuals, and other unaffiliated persons. The worst period, underNKVD headNikolay Yezhov, was known as theYezhovschina ('period of Yezhov'). In the years from 1936 to 1938, thousands of people suffered from Stalinist repressions inSoviet Armenia.
The start of the Great Purge in Armenia is usually dated to 9 July 1936, with the assassination of Armenian First SecretaryAghasi Khanjian byLavrentiy Beria inTiflis (Tbilisi). The death was the result of a political struggle between Beria and Khanjian. At first, Beria framed Khanjian's death as "suicide," but soon condemned him for abetting "rabid nationalist elements among the Armenian intelligentsia."[1] After Khanjian's death, Beria promoted his loyalists in Armenia,Amatuni Amatuni as Armenian First Secretary and Khachik Mughdusi[hy] as chief of the Armenian NKVD. Under the command of Beria's allies, the campaign against "enemies" intensified. Many leading Armenian intellectuals were arrested, includingYeghishe Charents,Axel Bakunts,Vahram Alazan,Gurgen Mahari,Vahan Totovents, Nersik Stepanyan[hy], and others. According to Amatuni in a June 1937 letter to Stalin, 1,365 people were arrested in the ten months after the death of Khanjian, among them 900 "Dashnak-Trotskiites."[2] The Armenian leadership of theNagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) also suffered in the repressions. Under Azerbaijani First SecretaryMir Jafar Baghirov, several NKAO leaders were arrested, including local party chairman Suren Badamyan[ru].[3]
The death ofSahak Ter-Gabrielyan in August 1937 was a turning point in the repressions in Armenia. While being interrogated by Mughdusi's men, Ter-Gabrielyan "either jumped or was pushed from the third-floor window" of the NKVD building inYerevan.[4] Stalin was angered that Mughdusi and Amatuni neglected to inform him about the incident. In response, in September 1937, he sentGeorgy Malenkov, Mikhail Litvin[ru], and laterAnastas Mikoyan to oversee a purge of theCommunist Party of Armenia.[5] During the trip, Mikoyan tried, but failed, to save one individual (Danush Shahverdyan) from the repressions.[6] More than a thousand people were arrested and seven of nine members of the Armenian Politburo were sacked from office.[7] The trip resulted in the appointment of a new Armenian Party leadership, headed byGrigory Arutinov, who was approved by Beria.[8]
TheArmenian Apostolic Church was not spared from the repressions. Soviet attacks against the Church under Stalin were known since 1929, but momentarily eased to improve the Soviet Union's relations with theArmenian diaspora. In 1932,Khoren I becameCatholicos of All Armenians and assumed the leadership of the church. However, in the late 1930s, the Armenian NKVD, led by Mughdusi and his successor, Viktor Khvorostyan[ru], renewed the attacks against the Church.[9] These attacks culminated in the 1938 murder of Khoren and the closing of the Catholicate ofEtchmiadzin, an act for which Beria is usually held responsible.[10] However, the Church survived and was later revived when Stalin eased restrictions on religion at the end ofWorld War II.[9] In addition to the repression of the Church, thousands of Armenians were forcibly exiled to theAltai Krai in 1949.[11][12] Many wererepatriated Armenians who arrived from theArmenian diaspora.[13]
AfterStalin's death, Anastas Mikoyan called for the rehabilitation of Charents in a speech in Yerevan on 11 March 1954, beginningde-Stalinization and theThaw in Armenia.[14] Behind the scenes, Mikoyan personally assisted Armenian leaders in therehabilitation of countless former "enemies" in the republic.[15] Armenian party scholarLev Shaumyan, the son ofStepan Shaumian, also played an influential role in assisting Mikoyan andNikita Khrushchev on rehabilitations, in advance of Khrushchev's "Secret Speech" at the20th Party Congress in February 1956.[16]
Below is the incomplete list of persons from the Armenian SSR, or persons of ethnic Armenian origin, who became victims ofStalinism and died during the Great Purge. This list does not include those individuals, such asVahram Alazan,Gurgen Mahari, and Vagharshak Norents[hy], who survived the repressions and theGulag.
| Death date | Name | Photo | Occupation | Rehabilitation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 July 1936[1] | Aghasi Khanjian |  | First Secretary of the Communist Party of Armenia, 1930-1936 | 17 January 1956[17] |
| 25 August 1936[18] | Vagarshak Ter-Vaganyan |  | Bolshevik revolutionary | 13 June 1988[19] |
| 8 July 1937[1] | Axel Bakunts |  | Writer | 2 March 1955[20] |
| 8 July 1937[1] | Nersik Stepanyan[hy] | Soviet economist, statesman | 9 June 1956[17] | |
| 21 August 1937[4] | Sahak Ter-Gabrielyan |  | Bolshevik revolutionary | 26 April 1956[17] |
| 1937[21] | Sarkis Kasyan |  | Bolshevik revolutionary | |
| 20 September 1937[22] | Lev Karakhan |  | Bolshevik revolutionary | |
| 22 November 1937[23] | Movses Silikyan |  | Military commander in the Russian and Armenian armies | |
| 27 November 1937[24] | Yeghishe Charents |  | Poet, "the main Armenian poet of the 20th century"[25] | 25 May 1955[26][a] |
| 27 November 1937[27] | Ruben Rubenov | Politician, First Secretary of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan, 1933 | 17 November 1954[27] | |
| 10 December 1937[28] | Christophor Araratov |  | Military commander in the Russian and Armenian armies | |
| 11 December 1937[29] | Hayk Bzhishkyan |  | Bolshevik revolutionary, military commander | 21 January 1956[30] |
| 11 December 1937[31] | Sargis Lukashin |  | Statesman, the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of Armenia, 1922-1925 | 29 February 1956[31] |
| 13 February 1938[32] | Gevorg Alikhanyan |  | Statesman, First Secretary of the Communist Party of Armenia, 1920-21, stepfather ofYelena Bonner | 24 October 1954[32] |
| 19 March 1938[33] | Ashkharbek Kalantar |  | Archaeologist | |
| 6 April 1938[34] | Khoren I |  | Head of the Armenian Apostolic Church | |
| 21 April 1938[35] | Suren Shadunts |  | Politician, First Secretary of the Communist Party of Tajikistan, 1934-1937 | 29 September 1956[35] |
| 18 July 1938[36] | Vahan Totovents |  | Writer | 29 January 1955[20] |
| 1 August 1938[37] | Alexander Bekzadyan |  | Soviet politician | 11 February 1956[37] |
| 1938[38] | Hovhannes Katchaznouni |  | Former Dashnak politician, Prime Minister of Armenia, 1918-1919 | |
| 26 February 1939[39] | Levon Mirzoyan |  | Politician, First Secretary of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan, 1926-29; First Secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan, 1937-38 | 10 December 1955[39] |
| 24 October 1941[6] | Danush Shahverdyan | Armenian Bolshevik revolutionary, Soviet statesman | 25 September 1954[40] | |
| 1943[41] | Zabel Yesayan |  | Novelist |