Dashnak foreign minister and prime minister of the First Republic of Armenia who signed the treaties of Batum and Alexandropol
Born in Tbilisi in 1874 to a prominent Armenian family of noble origins, he trained as a doctor, was mayor of Tbilisi from 1910 to 1917 and in 1914 organized the Armenian volunteer detachments. He joined the Dashnaktsutyun in 1917. As foreign minister of the Republic of Armenia he signed the Treaty of Batum in June 1918, and he was prime minister from May 1919 until he resigned after the May Uprising of 1920. On 3 December 1920 a delegation led by him signed the Treaty of Alexandropol with Kâzım Karabekir, but power had already passed to the Soviet authorities and the treaty is held to be invalid. He went into exile in Paris and died there in 1945.
Career timeline
- 1910–1917Mayor of Tbilisi
- 1917Joined the Dashnaktsutyun
- 1918Foreign minister of Armenia; signed the Treaty of Batum
- 1919–1920Prime minister of Armenia
- 1920Signed the Treaty of Alexandropol
- 1921–1945Exile in Paris
Author of the 1919 Karakhan Manifesto that renounced Tsarist unequal treaties with China
Karakhan became doyen of the Beijing diplomatic corps in 1925. The Bolshevik who scorned bourgeois manners nonetheless rode in a gilded six-horse coach, clad in evening clothes and white kid gloves, to present his credentials. Time magazine called him: "A Bolshevik who can wear white gloves gracefully."
Born into an Armenian lawyer's family in Tiflis, he joined the RSDLP at 15 in 1904, initially as a Menshevik. Siding with the Bolsheviks in 1917, he served as secretary of the Soviet delegation at Brest-Litovsk and became Deputy People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs. In 1919 he drafted and issued the 'Karakhan Manifesto' renouncing all Tsarist unequal treaties and privileges in China, a foundational document of Soviet Asia policy. As ambassador to China he concluded the 1924 Sino-Soviet agreement, and later served as ambassador to Turkey. Arrested in the Great Purge of 1937 on charges of a 'pro-fascist conspiracy,' he was shot and posthumously rehabilitated in 1956.
Career timeline
- 1904Joins RSDLP at 15, initially a Menshevik
- 1917.05Returns to Russia, joins the Mezhraiontsy
- 1917.08VI Congress: Mezhraiontsy merge into the Bolshevik Party
- 1917–1918Secretary, Soviet delegation at Brest-Litovsk peace talks
- 1918–1921Deputy People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs (RSFSR)
- 1921–1922Plenipotentiary Representative of the RSFSR to Poland
- 1922–1923Head of the Eastern Department, NKID
- 1923–1926Plenipotentiary Representative, later Ambassador, to China
- 1925Doyen of the Beijing diplomatic corps
- 1926–1934Deputy People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs (USSR)
- 1934–1937Plenipotentiary Representative of the USSR to Turkey
