Summary
Ararat M. Hakobyan
Key words – A. Mikoyan, post, nostalgia for 1937, Bolshevik, facts, decree, Communist Party, episode, Karabakh, self-determination, independence.
Recently, the issue of renaming streets, monuments, memorial plaques or other neighborhoods named in memory of several party and state figures of the Soviet era has become the subject of discussions at the social and even governmental levels in Armenia. One of the publicly discussed topics is the issue of placing a statue of Soviet and state figure Anastas Mikoyan in the center of Yerevan. Among the party and state figures of the Soviet era there were people whom the Armenian people valued and respected. However, for decades, the Armenian society as a whole has negatively treated A. Mikoyan because of the indifference of the latter toward the national interests of the Armenian people. Separate documents and materials presented in a number of episodes in this publication indicate the non-Armenian activities of Mikoyan. Thus, only the Armenian Bolsheviks, along with A. Mikoyan, who was the secretary of the Committee in Tbilisi at that time, boycotted and did not participate in the East Armenian Congress considering it a “nationalistic enterprise”. Then, in December 1919, while addressing his pro-Turkish theses to V. Lenin, Mikoyan considered a mistake the Declaration on Turkish-Armenia, adopted by the Soviet government of Russia: according to this declaration, Western Armenians were given the right to free self-determination. In his opinion, it was playing into hands of “Armenian nationalists”. A. Mikoyan believed that the Armenian bourgeoisie cherished insane hopes to “seize a part of Turkey”, and its sponsor – the Entente’s imperialists wanted to rob Turkey and make it a new colony.
Similarly, Mikoyan’s attitude was negative in the issue of the annexation of Karabakh and Zangezur to Armenia.
In addition, he was against the Armenian delegation led by L. Shant to hold talks and sign a peace treaty with Soviet Russia.
And finally, in 1937, A. Mikoyan, already a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of CPSU, who arrived in Armenia at the height of political repression that fell to the share of the Soviet state, has a certain responsibility for expanding the lists of innocent Armenians executed and expelled by hundreds.
Thus, the facts cited above give grounds to conclude that any attempt to perpetuate the name of A. Mikoyan in Armenia is simply immoral (unacceptable).