On 100 anniversary of his death
Summary
Ervand G. Pambukian (Beirut)
Key words – Rostom, ARF Central archive, coding, Bureaus, rough copies, rebellion of Sasun of 1904, assassination attempt on Hamid, Tiflis, Van, Kars, Baku, Batum, Constantinople, Cilicia.
In the Central archive of ARF in Boston there are some voluminous copybooks of which the most important are the ones called rough copies. They include the letters sent by the Western Bureau of ARF that were addressed to the parties and leaders acting in Ottoman Turkey and tsarist Russia. Due to the instructions given by the Bureaus those letters and notes were destroyed by all means after being read as they were containing important information. Thus, only their rewritten versions called rough copies that include extremely significant information are preserved for deciphering the secret correspondence of ARF. Their subsequent number that is included in the present publication in entitled “Western Bureau-rough copies of secret letters written in ink, May, 1904”. It includes two letters written by Christopher Mikaelyan on May, 1904 addressed to Mush, i.e. Askanazyan committee and Eastern Bureau in Tiflis. Though in this copy-book there are also other letters written by other people, but they are written by Rostom who has written the other 67 letters the last of which is dated January 5, 1905.
The important part of letters written by Rostom is addressed to the Eastern Bureau in Tiflis and mainly refers to the issues concerning the rebellion of Sasun of 1904.There are also a number of notes addressed to the various bodies of the party like in Van, Kars, Baku, Constantinople, Cilicia and etc. which deal upon the political problems, as well as, with the issues on the assassination attempt on Sultan Hamid and armament and money delivery.