The Armenian Church in Soviet Armenia

This book is part of the Peter Lang Humanities list.
Every volume is peer reviewed and meets
the highest quality standards for content and production.

Jakub Osiecki

The Armenian Church
in Soviet Armenia

The Policies of the Armenian Bolsheviks
and the Armenian Church,
1920–1932

Translated by
Paweł Siemianowski
and Artur Zwolski

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Osiecki, Jakub, author. | Siemianowski, Paweł, translator. |

Zwolski, Artur, translator.

Title: The Armenian church in Soviet Armenia: the policies of the Armenian

Bolsheviks and the Armenian church, 1920–1932/Jakub Osiecki;

translated by Paweł Siemianowski

and Artur Zwokski.

Other titles: Apostolski Kościół Ormiański w Armenii sowieckiej w latach

1920–1932. English

Description: New York: Peter Lang, 2020.

Originally published by Księgarnia Akademicka, 2016.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

In English, translated from Polish.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019036643 | ISBN 978-1-4331-6969-4 (hardback: alk. paper)

ISBN 978-1-4331-6970-0 (ebook pdf)

ISBN 978-1-4331-6971-7 (epub) | ISBN 978-1-4331-6972-4 (mobi)

Subjects: LCSH: Armenian Church—History—20th century. | Hayastani

Komunistakan Partia—History. | Communism and Christianity—

Armenian Church—History. | Communism and Christianity—

Soviet Union—History. | Catholicoi and catholicate (Armenian Church)—

History. | Religion and state—Soviet Union—History. | Armenia

(Republic)—Church history—20th century.

Classification: LCC BX123.3 .O754 | DDC 281/.6209475609042—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019036643

DOI 10.3726/b15660

Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.

Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the “Deutsche

Nationalbibliografie”; detailed bibliographic data are available

Contents

Why and how were Armenian Bolsheviks able to almost destroy Christianity in Armenia? To understand that, we need to take a look carefully at the situation of the Armenian Church before 1920. In the 19th and the beginning of 20th century, the ideology of secularism became very popular especially among Armenian intellectuals. It seems necessary to bring closer also the sociopolitical situation of the Church in Ottoman Empire and Tsarist Russia. The Church was gradually losing its position in society. Emancipation of layman and popular slogans of social revolution and secularism itself needs to underline. If we study the political programs of Armenian parties, such as Dashnaktsutyiun or Hnchak, we realize that the division of the Church and the state and capture of the Church educational system (parochial schools) were vivid ideas for Armenian socialists already at the end of the 19th century. In 1894 in the newspaper Droshak Armenian journalists were calling for “fight with conservative clergy” and taking the lands from the Church and giving it to peasants. This ideology of secularism found its reflection in the legal system of First Armenian Republic. Almost the entire net of parochial schools run by the Armenian clergy was seized by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Armenia. It has to be underlined that the first step to secular education in Armenia was made before Sovietization.

For that reason, the Bolsheviks’ struggle with the Church and anti-religious propaganda and persecution has to be elaborated as a longer process. Of course the Bolsheviks’ “storming the heaven” cannot be compared with the policy of Dashnaks toward the Church, but to understand fully the phenomena of anti-church activity in Soviet Armenia and demolishing of the Armenian Church on South Caucasus we have to bear in mind that some major events happened straight after the Armenian Genocide and after the long-lasting conflict with Azerbaijan and Ottoman and Turkish forces. We could presume that the Armenian nation and the Church were too exhausted to fight back communists.

However, the authors mentioned above did not have an access to recently opened Armenian GPU Archive (Files “Hayastani Yekegheciner”). The author had a unique opportunity to work with the Armenian GPU and KGB documents regarding the Armenian Church. It does not mean that all archival sources now are accessible for researchers. Sadly, some documents concerning the Armenian Church are classified as secret. For example, on the agenda of the session of the Bureau in 1932 only those that concerned the election of catholicos were designated as secret. Moreover, each session of the Bureau of the Central Committee would be supplemented with a folder containing additional materials, such as copies of speeches, lectures, papers, reports, and documents from previous sessions. In many cases, such folders especially after 1928 are missing.

I was able to acquire crucial information not only from the Armenian National Archive, but also from the Georgian Historical Archive. Thanks to the support of Natalia Gladchenko from the Department of Public and International Relations at the National Archives of Georgia the author had a chance to work with the archival documents from the confidential collection – fond no. 60c-607. To make this study more comprehensive, the author conducted his research also in the Vatican Archive (Secretary of the State Archive) and in the Archbishop of Canterbury Archive.

The aim of this research is to answer the question on the legal and socio-political conditions of destroying the Church in Soviet Armenia. Did the Armenian Bolsheviks run independent from Moscow policy toward the Church or they were just implementing the decisions of Russian communist? What was the type of agitation and propaganda used by the Bolsheviks in Armenia, and who was the receiver of this anti-religious content? Also significant is the Church’s answer on the GPU/KGB anti-religious activity. Did the Church (laymen and clergy) attempt to compete against the Bolsheviks’ policy?