Armenians in Russia orRussian Armenians[n 1] (Armenian:Հայերը Ռուսաստանում,romanized: Hayery Rrusastanum;Russian:Армяне в России,romanized: Armyane v Rossii) are one of the country's largest ethnic minorities and the largestArmenian diaspora community outsideArmenia. The 2010 Russian census recorded 1,182,388 Armenians in the country. Various figures estimate that the ethnicArmenian population inRussia is actually more than 2 million. Armenians populate various regions, includingMoscow,Saint Petersburg,Krasnodar Krai in theNorth Caucasus and as far asVladivostok in the East.
The relationship between Armenians and Russian imperial authorities was complex, shaped as often by parallel interests as competing objectives.[6] Large Armenian communities resided both in the Caucasus and in Russian cities well before the modern era. After the destruction of the last remaining independent Armenian states in the Middle Ages, the nobility disintegrated, leaving Armenian society composed of a mass of peasants plus a middle class who were either craftsmen or merchants. Such Armenians were to be found in most towns of Transcaucasia; indeed, at the beginning of the 19th century they formed the majority of the population in cities such asTbilisi. Armenian merchants conducted their trade across the world and many had set up base within Russia. In 1778,Catherine the Great invited Armenian merchants from theCrimea to Russia and they established a settlement atNakhichevan-on-Don, nearRostov-on-Don.[7] The Russian ruling classes welcomed the Armenians' entrepreneurial skills as a boost to the economy, but they also regarded them with some suspicion. The image of the Armenian as a "wily merchant" was already widespread. Russian nobles derived their income from their estates worked by serfs and, with their aristocratic distaste for engaging in business, they had little understanding or sympathy for the way of life of mercantile Armenians. Due to theArmenian genocide, over 300 thousand Armenians migrated to theRussian Empire, specifically within Georgia and Armenia.
Nevertheless, middle-class Armenians prospered under Russian rule and they were the first to seize the new opportunities and transform themselves into a prosperousbourgeoisie whencapitalism andindustrialisation came to Transcaucasia in the later half of the 19th century. The Armenians more easily adapted to the new economic circumstances than their neighbours in Transcaucasia, the Georgians and theAzeris. They became the most powerful element in the municipal life of Tbilisi, the heart of the tsarist administration of the Caucasus as well as its economic center. Armenian entrepreneurs were quick to engage the oil boom which began in Transcaucasia in the 1870s, making investments in the oil fields inBaku in Azerbaijan and the refineries ofBatumi on theBlack Sea coast. All this meant that the tensions between Armenians, Georgians and Azeris in Russian Transcaucasia were not simply ethnic or religious in nature but also were shaped by social and economic considerations. Nevertheless, despite the stereotype of the typical Armenian as a successful businessman, at the end of the 19th century 80 percent of Russian Armenians were still peasants working the land.[8]
Many Armenians were deported around the Soviet Union states, Armenians were in many of the existing Soviet Republics, there still is a sizable population of Armenian's in post-Soviet countries, many whom still speak Russian.
A wave of Armenian's from Middle Eastern countries between 1946-1949 specifically from,Syria,Lebanon, andIraq were called to migrate to theSoviet Union for a better life, due to many of these people were ancestors and victims of the Armenian genocide and displaced them from their homelands in theOttoman Empire. Many whom immigrated faced discrimination, many of these people have assimilated into the modern day Eastern Armenian population, and do not speak the Western Armenian dialect or now speak have a diglossic situation between Western Armenian dialects in informal usage and an Eastern Armenian standard.[9]
According to the Union of Russian Armenians, there are 2.5 million Armenians living in Russia today. According to the same source, about 850,000 are immigrants from Armenia, 350,000 from Azerbaijan and 250,000 from Georgia, including 100,000 from Abkhazia and 180,000 from Central Asia, mostly Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.[11]
The Russian government is encouraging Armenians to immigrate and settle in Russia and is providing financial and settlement incentives.[12]
Armenians in Russia have one of the highest rates of educational attainment. According to the 2002 census 21.4% of Armenians havehigher education, 31.8% have "middle special" education (i.e.vocational education), and 46.1% have secondary education.[13]
The 2010 Russian census put the number of Moscow Armenians at 106,466. Another 63,306 Armenians lived inMoscow region at the time. There are various estimates on the number of Armenians in Moscow: 400,000,[26] 600,000,[27] 1,000,000.[28] Moscow is often regarded as thelargest Armenian community outside Armenia.
In 1708 the first Armenians came to St. Petersburg, and in 1710 in the city already existed "Armenian offices". In 1730, under the leadership of the priest Ivan Sheristanova organized the first parish of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Throughout the 20th century Armenian population of St. Petersburg has been steadily increasing. The number of Armenians in St. Petersburg increased from 1,759 in 1926 to 19,164[18] in 2002.
According toSoviet 1989 census 47% Armenians speakArmenian as native language, 52% speakRussian as native language. At the same time almost all fluent in Russian language. About half of the Armenians have higher education and, consequently, higher social status.[29]
According to the head of Saint Petersburg's Armenian community Karen Mkrtchyan, currently about 100,000 Armenians are living in the region of Saint Petersburg. There are 2 Armenian churches, a Sunday school, "Havatamk" Armenian monthly and a printing house.[30]
The Krasnodar Krai is one of the biggest communities of theArmenian diaspora.[31] According to theRussian 2002 census, there were 274,566 Armenians. 211,397 of them spokeArmenian as their native language and 6,948 hadArmenian citizenship.
According to estimates some 500,000,[32][33] 700,000[34] or 1,000,000[35] Armenians resided in Krasnodar.
Historically, the Don region was home to the largest Armenian community on the territory of the modern Russian Federation. Armenians were resettled from Crimean Khanate in 1779 by orders ofCatherine the Great and founded several settlements around the territory of modernRostov-on-Don. The largest of them,Nakhichevan-on-Don, was merged into the Rostov city in 1928. Armenians still constitute the majority (60%) of population inMyasnikovsky District. In 2010, Rostov-on-Don had the third largest Armenian population of all Russian cities (after Moscow andSochi, Krasnodar Krai).
Norair Sisakian (1907–1966), biochemist, a founder of space biology; pioneer in biochemistry of sub-cell structures and technical biochemistry
Karen Ter-Martirosian (1922–2005), theoretical physicist, known for his contributions to quantum mechanics and quantum field theory, founder of the Elementary Particle Physics chair of the MIPT
^"Interview with Rossiya TV channel".kremlin.ru. President of Russia. 7 October 2020. Archived fromthe original on 7 October 2020.Suffice it to say that some 2 million Azerbaijanis and over 2 million Armenians live in Russia, as far as we know.
^Riegg, Stephen (2020).Russia's Entangled Embrace: The Tsarist Empire and the Armenians, 1801-1914. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.ISBN9781501750113.
^See Suny Chapter 2 "Images of Armenians in the Russian Empire" inLooking Toward Ararat: Armenia in Modern History. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993ISBN0-253-20773-8
Ancestry in Russia