Armenian fedayi commander who rejected the Republic of Armenia and held Zangezur with his own division
Born in Shabin-Karahisar in the Ottoman Empire in 1865, he led fedayi units of the Dashnaktsutyun and in the First World War commanded the first Armenian volunteer battalion of the Russian army. Refusing to recognize the Republic of Armenia or the Treaty of Batum, he took control of Zangezur with his Special Striking Division in 1918. The historian Donald Bloxham writes that he sought to make it homogeneously Armenian by destroying Muslim villages, while Antranig Chalabian argues that he saved Zangezur’s Armenians from annihilation. In December 1918 he halted his advance into Karabakh at British request, and in 1919 he disbanded his unit. He died in Fresno, California, in 1927.
Career timeline
1892Joined the Armenian Revolutionary Federation
1914–1916Commander of the first Armenian volunteer battalion, Imperial Russian Army
1918Major-general; commander of the Western Armenian division
1918–1919Commander of the Special Striking Division in Zangezur
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
Armenian-born reformist minister called the "dictator of the heart"
On the morning of March 13, 1881, Alexander II signed Loris-Melikov's reform and declared: "I have given my approval, but I do not hide from myself the fact that it is the first step towards a constitution." Hours later, the tsar was assassinated.
An Armenian nobleman who distinguished himself as a cavalry general in the Caucasus and Russo-Turkish wars, Loris-Melikov's historical weight lies not in his generalship but in his political reforms. After the Winter Palace bombing of 1880, he was granted near-dictatorial powers and pursued the 'dictatorship of the heart': suppressing revolutionary terror while advancing press liberalization, local self-government, and an elected advisory body with zemstvo and city representatives. On the morning of March 13, 1881, Alexander II signed the ukase for Loris-Melikov's consultative commissions, and was assassinated hours later; Alexander III, urged by Pobedonostsev, scrapped the reform and proclaimed inviolable autocracy. The architect of Russia's first constitutional experiment, thwarted by reaction, he personifies the moment reform was lost at the crossroads of reform and autocracy.
Career timeline
1847Transferred to Caucasus; fought in Chechnya and Dagestan
1853–1856Fought in Crimean War at Bayandur and Bashkadyklar
1855Commander of Kars region
1863–1875Governor of Terek Oblast, ataman of Terek Cossacks
1877–1878Commander of Caucasus front in Russo-Turkish War; captured Ardahan and Kars
Armenian fedayi commander who rejected the Republic of Armenia and held Zangezur with his own division
Born in Shabin-Karahisar in the Ottoman Empire in 1865, he led fedayi units of the Dashnaktsutyun and in the First World War commanded the first Armenian volunteer battalion of the Russian army. Refusing to recognize the Republic of Armenia or the Treaty of Batum, he took control of Zangezur with his Special Striking Division in 1918. The historian Donald Bloxham writes that he sought to make it homogeneously Armenian by destroying Muslim villages, while Antranig Chalabian argues that he saved Zangezur’s Armenians from annihilation. In December 1918 he halted his advance into Karabakh at British request, and in 1919 he disbanded his unit. He died in Fresno, California, in 1927.
Career timeline
1892Joined the Armenian Revolutionary Federation
1914–1916Commander of the first Armenian volunteer battalion, Imperial Russian Army
1918Major-general; commander of the Western Armenian division
1918–1919Commander of the Special Striking Division in Zangezur
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
Iskra majority delegate at the 2nd Congress, a pioneer Caucasus Bolshevik who died in prison at 32
At his March 1905 trial in Moscow, Knunyants delivered a searing indictment of tsarism from the dock. He escaped lifelong exile in 1907, only to return to underground work in Baku — and die in Bailov Prison four years later.
An Armenian Bolshevik from Nagorno-Karabakh. He joined the League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class in 1897, was exiled to Baku in 1901, and became central to Caucasian Social Democracy. In 1902 he co-founded the Union of Armenian Social Democrats with Stepan Shaumyan; at the 1903 RSDLP 2nd Congress he sided with the Iskra majority at the moment of the Bolshevik-Menshevik split. A member of the 1905 St. Petersburg Soviet, he was sentenced to lifelong exile, escaped abroad for the 1907 Stuttgart Congress, then returned to underground work in Baku. Arrested in 1910, he died in Bailov Prison at age 32.
Career timeline
1896Entered St. Petersburg Institute of Technology
1897Joined the League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class
1901Exiled to Baku; member of Baku and Caucasus Union committees of the RSDLP
1902Co-founded the Union of Armenian Social Democrats with Stepan Shaumyan
1903Delegate to 2nd RSDLP Congress for Baku — sided with Iskra majority (Bolsheviks)
1904–1905Arrested in Moscow, anti-tsarist speech at trial; member of St. Petersburg Soviet
1905.12Arrested and sentenced to lifelong exile
1907Escaped exile; attended Stuttgart Congress of 2nd International and 4th RSDLP Conference in Helsingfors
