ARMENIA, SOVIET REPUBLIC OF. - The smallest (29,900 sq. km.) of the sixteen federated Republics constituting the U.S.S.R., among which it was admitted in 1936, after having been (since 1922) a member of the Transcaucasian Federation. The Armenian Republic (A.S.S.R.), although it does not accommodate within its own territory any minor units dependent on it, nevertheless encloses within its borders the autonomous Republic of Nakhichevan, which is connected with the neighboring federated Republic of Azerbaijan (v.). On the other hand, if the Armenian Republic also embraces (to the E) zones not inhabited by Armenians, it does not, by contrast, unite all the Armenians who fall within the Caucasian region pertaining to the U.S.S.R. At a short distance from its borders, in fact, the small autonomous Territory (Autonomus Oblast) of Nagorno Karabakh (or Mountain K.), whose population consists in very large majority of Armenians, remains entirely included within the Republic of Azerbaijan, on which it also depends administratively.
The Armenian Soviet Republic corresponds, in substance, to the left (northern) side of the Aras basin, on the slopes of the Lesser Caucasus, and presents, notwithstanding its modest extent, a notable variety of landscape and climatic conditions. It is a mountainous region, predominantly volcanic, in which broad and monotonous plateaus (even above 2,000 m.) separated and dominated by lofty snow-capped peaks (Alagöz, 4,045 m.), alternate with depressed strips, on which the population generally tends to concentrate. The climate is typically continental, with characteristics of marked harshness, due both to aridity (200-700 mm. of annual precipitation) and to the considerable average altitude; for this reason, in the spontaneous vegetation the steppe (of stipa) largely predominates, and the meadow in the summit areas, while the forest is reduced to small patches.
The economy of the A. S. S. R. is still centered on agriculture, which the Soviet regime has sought to extend through artificial irrigation (using the waters of Lake Sevan, capable of bringing to life 130,000 ha. of good land) and to strengthen through specialized crops (cotton, fruit, vines). Livestock raising has also made progress (dairy industry), but what best characterizes the country's modern development is above all the strong impetus given to its industrialization (foundry, steel industry, chemical, textile, food industries), favored by the use of hydroelectric energy and by the exploitation of local mineral resources (copper) that until a few years ago were also poorly known.
The population, made up of 85% Armenians, 10% Turco-Tatars and 2.4% Russians, rose from 880,000 to 1.3 million inhabitants between 1926 and 1939; in the same period the urban population more than doubled (the relative percentage grew from 19 to 29%).
The two most conspicuous inhabited centers are the capital Erivan, already a flourishing agricultural market in the heart of a fertile basin irrigated by the waters of the Zanga (at about 1,000 m. of altitude), and today pulsating with industries (its population grew from 65,000 to 200,000 inhabitants between 1926 and 1939), and Leninakan (formerly Alexandropol), a troop station (1,450 m. in altitude) on the Tiflis-Qars military road, which has today also become a notable manufacturing center (textiles, food).
Despite its modest demographic and economic size, the Armenian Republic presents, within the framework of the U. S. S. R., a particular geopolitical interest, given its position on the frontier of two States (Turkey and Persia) that count, within their population, Armenian ethnic minorities.
Bibliography5 works
Giuseppe Caraci