Communist Party of Armenia Հայաստանի կոմունիստական կուսակցություն | |
|---|---|
 | |
| First Secretary | Aram G. Sargsyan(last) |
| Founded | 31 December 1920 |
| Dissolved | 7 September 1991 |
| Split from | Union of Armenian Social Democrats |
| Succeeded by | Democratic Party of Armenia |
| Headquarters | Yerevan |
| Newspaper | Sovetakan Hayastan |
| Membership(1986) | 170,500[1] |
| Ideology | Communism Marxism–Leninism |
| Political position | Far-left |
| National affiliation | CPSU |
| Party flag | |
.svg) | |
TheCommunist Party of Armenia (Armenian:Հայաստանի կոմունիստական կուսակցություն,Russian:Коммунистическая партия Армении) was a branch of theCommunist Party of the Soviet Union within theArmenian SSR, and as such, the sole ruling party in the Armenian SSR.
The first Marxist group in Armenia was founded byStepan Shaumian in 1899 in Jalaloghli (modern-dayStepanavan). In 1902, Shaumian, Bogdan Knunyants and Arshak Zurabov jointly established the Union of Armenian Social Democrats inTiflis (Tbilisi) as a branch of theRussian Social Democratic Labour Party.[2] Like its parent organization, it split into aBolshevik andMenshevik faction.
During the existence of theFirst Republic of Armenia (1918–1920), the Armenian Bolsheviks actively struggled against the government led by theArmenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutiun). In September 1919, the Bolshevik organizations of Armenia created the Armenia Committee (Armenkom) of theRussian Communist Party (Bolsheviks). In May 1920, they led a failedarmed uprising against the ARF-led government.[2] Many of Armenian Bolsheviks were executed or forced to flee to newly sovietizedAzerbaijan following the failed uprising, and the communists' activities in Armenia practically ceased.
On 30 June 1920, the Russian Communist Party authorized the creation of the Communist parties of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, which were to be subordinated to theCaucasian Bureau of the party. Another party called the Communist Party of Armenia, which had been created in 1918 to spread Bolshevik propaganda among Western Armenian refugees, was merged with the main Communist Party of Armenia.[2] In November 1920, the Armenian Revolutionary Committee (Armrevkom, chaired bySarkis Kasyan) was created inBaku to facilitate thesovietization of Armenia. On 29 November 1920, Armrevkom crossed into Armenia from Azerbaijan together with the Red Army and declared the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic.
The Communist Party of Armenia's first congress took place in January 1922, the same year that theSoviet Union was officially founded with theTranscaucasian SFSR (and with it Soviet Armenia) as a constituent member.[2]
Many of the party's leaders were accused of beingTrotskyists orDashnakist and executed in 1937.[1]
In the elections for the Supreme Soviet of the Armenian SSR in 1990, the Communist Party of Armenia came in second to the non-communistPan-Armenian National Movement. On 4 August 1990,Levon Ter-Petrosyan was elected chairman of the Supreme Soviet. This was the first time that a non-communist party had come to power in a Soviet republic. The 19th Congress of the Communist Party of Armenia, held on 7 September 1991, decided to dissolve the party.[3][4] The party's last leader,Aram G. Sargsyan, created theDemocratic Party of Armenia. The same year, the newArmenian Communist Party was established under the leadership ofSergey Badalyan, which considered itself the successor of the Soviet Communist Party of Armenia.
The title of the leader of the party almost always was "First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Armenia".[5]
| No. | Picture | Name (Birth–Death) | Took office | Left office | Political party |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First Secretary | |||||
| 1 |  | Gevorg Alikhanyan (1897–1938) | December 1920 | May 1921 | CPA |
| General Secretary | |||||
| 2 |  | Askanaz Mravyan (1885–1929) | May 1921 | January 1922 | CPSU |
| First Secretary | |||||
| 3 |  | Ashot Hovhannisyan (1887–1972) | January 1922 | 6 July 1927 | CPSU |
| 4 | .svg) | Hayk Ovsepyan (1891–1937) | 6 July 1927 | 8 April 1928 | CPSU |
| 5 | .jpg) | Haykaz Kostanyan (1897–1938) | 8 April 1928 | 7 May 1930 | CPSU |
| 6 |  | Aghasi Khanjian (1901–1936) | 7 May 1930 | 9 July 1936 | CPSU |
| 7 |  | Amatuni Amatuni (1900–1938) | 21 September 1936 | 23 September 1937 | CPSU |
| 8 |  | Grigory Arutinov (1900–1957) | 23 September 1937 | 28 November 1953 | CPSU |
| 9 |  | Suren Tovmasyan (1909–1980) | 28 November 1953 | 28 December 1960 | CPSU |
| 10 | | Yakov Zarobyan (1908–1980) | 28 December 1960 | 5 February 1966 | CPSU |
| 11 |  | Anton Kochinyan (1913–1990) | 5 February 1966 | 27 November 1974 | CPSU |
| 12 |  | Karen Demirchyan (1932–1999) | 27 November 1974 | 21 May 1988 | CPSU |
| 13 | | Suren Harutyunyan (1939–2019) | 21 May 1988 | 5 April 1990 | CPSU |
| 14 | | Vladimir Movsisyan (1934–2014) | 5 April 1990 | 30 November 1990 | CPSU |
| 15 | | Stepan Pogosyan (1932–2012) | 30 November 1990 | 14 May 1991 | CPSU |
| 16 |  | Aram Sargsyan (1949–) | 14 May 1991 | 7 September 1991 | CPSU |
The party published the daily newspaperSovetakan Hayastan ("Soviet Armenia") and the monthly magazineLeninyan Ughiov ("On Lenin's Path").[1]
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