Part one: New found ratifications on the activity of “The Union of the Patriots”
Summary
Mkrtich D. Danielyan
Key words – Armenian narodniks; national narodnik organization; Police Department; «The Union of Patriots»; ARF Dashnaktsutyun; archive ratifications; Karapet Ter-Khachatryan; leaflet; letter-article; Davit Nersisyan; Tamara Adamyan.
The best representatives of East Armenian youth have actively participated in the heroic and sacrificing struggle of 1870-1880s of Russian narodnikism against the despotism of tsarist Russia by initially joining narodnik then Armenian national-narodnik organizations and groupings. At the crucial moment of transition from the political goals of narodnikism to the issues of Armenian national-liberation movement the best representatives of East Armenian youth in 1882 founded in Moscow the organization of “The Union of Patriots” which in its embryo soon revealed the ideology and main peculiarities of the activity of newly formed organizations and particularly of ARF Dashnaktsutyun. But since this organization, founded in Moscow and subsequently united with the Armenian national-narodnik grouping of Tiflis, has been distinguished by the secretive practices typical for underground structures, the vast majority of the ratifications referring to its history has remained secret for the scientific circles. They are mainly preserved in the Central History State Archive in Moscow, in the State Archive of Russian Federation (Moscow), in the Archive of Russian Foreign Ministry (now the archive of foreign ministry of Russian Empire, Moscow) and in the State Archive of Russia (Saint Petersburg).The first flying sheet of the “Union of the Patriots” entitled “An Invitation for the Armenian Youth” (April, 1882) which the organization has managed to copy with the use of hectograph machines and spread among the youth, the letter-article “The Response of the Former Student to his Fellow-Student”, as well as, the materials on investigations carried out by tsarist Police Department about the revolutionary underground activities of Karapet-Ter-Khachatryan, Davit Nersisyan, Tamara Adamyan and other figures are especially noticable.