by David Zenian
More than two million Armenians now live in Russia, a country which has been home to generations of Armenians from as far back as late 1300 when traders, artisans and intellectuals traveled north from the Crimea and the Caucasus in search of a better life.
Centuries of Armenian Life in Russia
Armenians have served in the Russian military, played a major role in industry, science and the arts, thus strengthening the ties between the two Christian peoples—one which has always been a super-power and the other, a small nation which has often found itself caught between regional conflicts and advancing armies.
One of the early records of an Armenian community presence in Moscow is found in a detailed account of a major fire which devastated the city in 1390. There, the records indicate that some Armenian homes were destroyed.
Over the decades that followed, thousands of Armenians settled in the Russian city of Kazan where according to a 1552 census, some 5,000 Armenians were firmly established.
The origins of the early Armenians in Russia are traced more to the Crimean Peninsula than Armenia proper. It was from the Crimea, where the Armenians had settled after the fall of the Armenian city of Ani, that merchants and artisans made their way north via the Volga river to the Russian hinterland.
In Kazan, east of Moscow, as well as Astrakhan on the Caspian Sea, two cities which were occupied by Ivan the Great in 1552 and 1556 respectively thus securing the Volga River for the Russians, Armenians found an anchor from where they launched their trade routes into the Russian hinterland.
In a manuscript by Karapet Paghishents dated 1500, the author describes a visit by an Armenian delegation to Moscow to discuss ways of improving trade with Russia.
A similar account of the Armenian presence in Russia is found in an eye-witness account of a Viennese merchant dated 1557 in which he describes the activities of Armenian merchants in Astrakhan, Kazan, Novgorod and Moscow.
But indications are that the early Armenian merchants were transient traders who moved from one major city to another without establishing real communities, but nevertheless, built Armenian churches and even had a priest to administer to their spiritual needs.
Over the next few hundred years, and especially after the last quarter of the 17th century, Armenian communities began taking shape in Russia as a result of the difficult conditions in the Caucasus, Iran and Turkey. First in hundreds and then thousands, Armenian "refugees" joined their more fortunate compatriots, thanks to the goodwill of Russian rulers and local princes.
In a special decree issued by Peter the Great in 1723 Armenians were given special privileges and encouraged to settle down. A later decree issued in 1736, gave those Armenians serving in the Russian army the right to establish permanent residence in many Russian cities.
According to available historical documents, an eight-fold increase in the Armenian population was recorded in Astrakhan alone around the middle of the 18th century, thus necessitating the establishment of a diocese in 1773 under the leadership of Archbishop Hovsep Arghoutian.
Like most church leaders of his time, Archbishop Arghoutian was also a historian who studied and recorded the movements of Armenians within Russia.
According to records kept by Arghoutian, 3,500 Armenians lived in Astrakhan in 1782—most being immigrants from the already established Armenian community in Iran.
The Armenian presence in Imperial Russia began flourishing, along with Armenian-Russian relations, during the reign of Catherine the Great (1762-1796), who, after her war with the Ottomans, relocated her Armenian subjects from the Crimea to what is today known as Rostov-na-Donu—which still has a very large Armenian population.
An estimated 12,500 Armenians were involved in the mass relocation which took place in August and September of 1778.
Faced with a harsh winter, the new immigrants turned to their community leaders for help and intervention with the Russian throne.
With the help of such already established Armenians as Hovhannes Lazaryan (Ivan Lazarev) and Archbishop Arghoutian, Catherine received a delegation in 1779 and gave her new subjects special rights and privileges to allow them to not only settle down permanently, but also create the means for them to improve their financial and economic situation.
It was also during Catherine's reign that several prominent Armenian families made it to the higher echelons of Russian life. Among them were the Lazarevs (the Lazaryans) who founded the Lazarev Institute of Oriental Languages in Moscow.
It was also the Lazarevs who founded the Armenian College in Moscow in 1815. The same building now houses the Armenian Embassy in Moscow.
Other members of the Lazarev family including Ivan Lazarev, a senior advisor to the Russian government who also played an instrumental role in strengthening relations between the Russian and Armenian people, founded an iron smelting and iron making plant in 1788 which stayed with the Lazarev family until the Russian revolution.
One important Russian city where the Armenians also settled well before their mass relocation from the Crimea was St. Petersburg.
According to historians, a small Armenian community had already taken shape in St. Petersburg a mere seven years after the city's establishment in 1710.
The first settlers were traders, industrialists and solders and officers serving in the Russian armed forces.
In as early as 1730, the community had its resident priest, and soon after, a street called Armenia. In the decades that followed, several Armenian churches were built in St. Petersburg, including St. Catherine's Armenian Church which still stands today and is the focal point of the present-day Armenian community in the old Russian city.
As much as St. Petersburg was a major center of Armenian pride, Moscow Armenians also trace their roots to ancient times.
According to available historical records, an influential group of Armenian businessmen were already active in the Moscow region as far back as 1662 and more so in the mid-1700's when a 2,000 strong-community was established.
With their rapid spread across major Russian landscape, Armenians soon began to take prominent positions in the nation's trade, especially in the Astrakhan region north of the Caspian Sea where records indicate that more than 81 percent of Russia's import trade was in the hands of Armenian businessmen.
Over the centuries, several of the Armenian communities were granted self-rule, and others were allowed to have their own judiciary to handle community grievances. One such city was Astrakhan where an Armenian judiciary functioned as late as the early 1840's.
Improved relations between the two people also meant an active political role for Russia in Armenian affairs.
From 1797 and 1889 Russia took more than an active interest in the Caucasus, including Armenia which later fell under communist rule in the early 1900's and remained part of the Soviet Union until independence in 1991.
