Armenia's ties with Russia
For many centuries, Armenia has either lost its independence and fallen under the rule of foreign invaders, or regained its independence. Its boundaries were changing. The constant pogroms and persecution of Armenians have led to the fact that some regions of Armenia have been depopulated. The remains of Armenian cities, fortresses, and irrigation structures have been preserved throughout the Armenian Highlands. In the first third of the 19th century, according to the Treaty of Turkmanchay, Eastern Armenia became part of Russia. The Armenian region was formed from the Erivan and Nakhichevan khanates. In 1828-1829 . As a result of the Russian-Turkish war, the Armenian cities of Kars, Ardagan, Bayazet, Erzurum were ceded to Russia, which, however, were returned to Turkey under the Adrianople Peace Treaty (1829). In the first three decades of the XIX century, about 150 thousand Armenians migrated from Iran and Turkey to Eastern Armenia. The act of Armenia's annexation to Russia had a huge progressive significance. He predetermined the entire further course of Armenia's socio-economic and political development. The people of Eastern Armenia were forever freed from the threat of physical destruction and embarked on the path of progressive development, linking their fate with the fate of the Russian people. The writer-educator X. Russian Russians, revolutionary democrat M. Nalbandian, national poet O. Tumanyan and other Armenian enlighteners, expressing the aspirations of the masses, saw in the Russian people, in familiarization with Russian culture, with the Russian advanced social movement, the salvation of their people and the possibility of their economic and cultural development.
However, Armenia, being a backward suburb of tsarist Russia, had an extremely underdeveloped economy. The industry was represented by small, semi-industrial enterprises, mainly processing agricultural raw materials. The only large enterprises were copper mines and copper smelters in Alaverdi and Zangezur. A significant part of the industrial enterprises were in the hands of foreign capital. Primitive technology prevailed in agriculture. Animal husbandry was extensive.
Transcaucasia's entry onto the path of capitalist development strengthened its economic ties with Russia, which, in turn, even more closely linked the national liberation movement of the peoples of the region with the Russian workers' movement.
