Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Soviet Armenia'

This thesis examines the immigration to and long-term settlement in post-Soviet Armenia of Armenians from well-established diasporic communities - mostly from Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Canada, and the United States. It argues that diverse levels and combinations of anchoring and floating co-exist in the diasporan returnees' return motivations, post-return integration experiences, and identity and belonging (re)conceptualization processes. They are manifested in the returnees' habitual dispositions, imaginative aspirations, and practical considerations, which develop within a particular sociohistorical environment. The study also considers the changes that occur over time in the structural context and in the ways returnees engage with it. It demonstrates that the inclination of returnees toward more rooted or more mobile directions depends, to a large extent, on their diasporic community background, the generation they belong to, and more immediate factors related to their life-cycle stages. Throughout the analysis, the important role of emotions in the return visions and experiences is highlighted. The thesis makes an empirical contribution by studying the largely uncharted case of Armenian diasporic return in the post-Soviet era. At a more theoretical level, it promotes a balanced approach that goes beyond the overemphasis on mobility and the relative neglect of sedentarism that have characterized many works in the fields of diaspora and migration studies over the past few decades. Underlying this balanced path is the goal of recognizing the equal importance of and complex inter-relationship between human agency and objective structures. To this end, the thesis relies on a theoretical framework based primarily on some of Pierre Bourdieu's key conceptual tools, with certain modifications. Thus, the study frames the topic of long-term diasporic return migration within broader social theory. This way, not only does it link diasporic return to paradigms in migration and diaspora studies, but it also views it from a wider angle of social action.

The thesis examines the effectiveness and relevance of the social fund bottom-up development model in promoting community participation and enhancing local institutional capacity within the social, political and institutional context of post-Soviet Armenia. The thesis uses a case study of the World Bank supported Armenia Social Investment Fund (ASIF) project. One of the objectives of ASIF was to promote participation of local communities in their own economic and social development and to build their capacity for effectively addressing local problems. The research was conducted in seven rural communities in Armenia. The research found that ASIF was not successful in promoting community participation and institutional capacity at a community wide level. It benefited the rural elite, and hence contributed to the perpetuation of the exiting power structures and inequalities in the local communities. The research demonstrates that the extent and nature of participation and local institutional capacity in Armenia are determined by the broader institutional, social and political context within which communities live and function. In particular, participation and local capacity are constrained by the governance environment at the macro and micro levels and high levels of material and social deprivation in local communities. The research findings question the effectiveness and relevance of the social fund bottom-up development model. The bottom-up model is based on the cultural view of institutional change, presuming that changes in the mentality, behavioural patterns and human capabilities can result in greater participation and enhanced local capacity. The research concludes that community based interventions may not be effective in fostering sustainable civic institutions without addressing the structural factors that determine the ability of individuals to realise their potential and become active agents.

It is necessary and desirable for Armenia to retain close relations with Russia in both the short and long term. However, recent concessions to Russia for good relations in the short term may have potentially harmful repercussions for Armenia in the future. These concessions have in part resulted in the Russian dominance in the economic sector, over-dependence on Russia for Armenia’s energy needs, and the perpetuation of Armenian submissiveness to Russian interests. Armenia should, therefore, maintain good relations with Russia while simultaneously securing long-term paths that focus on actual strategic partnership and not dependence. In short, Armenia should return to a foreign policy of complementarism, which was first enacted under the Republic of Armenia’s first president, Levon Ter-Petrossian. Complementarism stresses the importance of pursuing Armenia’s best interest through the adoption of balanced policies and through minimal involvement or identification within regional blocs. The leveraging of Armenia’s long-term interests for close relations with Russia is possibly best exemplified in the state of Armenia’s economy. Like many former Soviet republics, the collapse of entangled Soviet trading patterns and the legacy of its centrally-planned economy still have negative implications for Armenian industry and trade.

The EU, over time, has garnered international recognition and acclaim as a successful agent of democratisation in third countries. The transitions of Greece, Spain and Portugal in the 1980s coupled with the recent Eastern enlargements of the EU into erstwhile communist space attest to the success of the EU in fostering tangible democratisation. However, as the EU rapidly approaches its institutional capacity, questions remain as to its viability as an agent of democratisation in the post-enlargement setting where the EU can no longer offer full membership as an incentive for political and economic reform. This thesis attempts to examine the viability of the EU as a democratic facilitator in the post-enlargement setting, through examination of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), a policy described by the EU as ‘everything but institutions’. Two mechanisms of normative transfer relative to the ENP were identified in the literature: conditionality, where the EU attaches incentives for successful political and economic reform, and socialisation, a newer notion whereby norms are transferred via interaction through generating close links with domestic actors. It was ascertained that in the context of the ENP, socialisation represented the dominant mechanism for normative change; conditionality was still utilised as a mechanism, however its scope had reduced greatly. To illuminate the phenomenon of EU democratic promotion, the case study of Armenia was chosen, a small but politically intriguing state in the EU’s Eastern Neighbourhood which had experienced (as is the case with the majority of post-Soviet states) stagnation and regression of the democratisation process since independence. Two facets of the EU’s democratisation strategy inherent in the ENP were chosen as empirical research areas: free and fair elections and interaction with domestic civil society organisations (CSOs). Free and fair elections offered evaluation of the conditionality aspects of the ENP through examining the 2008 Armenian presidential election. Interaction with domestic Armenian CSOs presented a rich phenomenon to examine the impact of socialisation in the ENP through utilising a case study examining four democratically minded NGOs. Ultimately, this thesis contends that through the ENP, the EU can no longer effectively wield conditionality as a viable mechanism of normative change and currently lacks the tools or a suitable environment to initialise normative transfers through socialisation. Consequently, it is argued that the EU has had little effect in facilitating democratisation in Armenia since the advent of the ENP.

The urban landscape of Yerevan has experienced tremendous changes since the collapse of the Soviet Union and Armenia’s independence in 1991. Domestic and foreign investments have poured into Yerevan’s building sector, converting many downtown neighborhoods into sleek modern districts that now cater to foreign investors, tourists, and the newly rich Armenian nationals. Large portions of the city’s green parks and other public spaces have been commercialized for private and exclusive use, creating zones that are accessible only to the affluent. In this dissertation I explore the rapidly transforming landscape of Yerevan and its connections to the development of contemporary Armenian national identity. This research was guided by principles of ethnographic inquiry, and I employed diverse methods, including document and archival research, structured and semi-structured interviews and content analysis of news media. I also used geographic information systems (GIS) and satellite images to represent and visualize the stark transformations of spaces in Yerevan. Informed by and contributing to three literatures—on the relationship between landscape and identity formation, on the construction of national identity, and on Soviet and post-Soviet cities—this dissertation investigates how messages about contemporary Armenian national identity are being expressed via the transforming landscape of Armenia’s national capital. In it I describe the ways in which abrupt transformations have resulted in the physical and symbolic eviction of residents, introducing fierce public debates about belonging and exclusion within the changing urban context. I demonstrate that the new additions to Yerevan’s landscape and the symbolic messages that they carry are hotly contested by many long-time residents, who struggle for inclusion of their opinions and interests in the process of re-imagining their national capital. This dissertation illustrates many of the trends that are apparent in post-Soviet and post-Socialist space, while at the same time exposing some unique characteristics of the Armenian case.

The integration of minorities in Georgia is a social problem with consequences on the overall development of this nation. The dissertation focuses exclusively on the Armenian communities living in the territory of Georgia by examining, through an historical perspective, the cultural, social, economical, political and linguistic obstacles that prevent the achievement of full integration. This includes the challenges that both the stratification of Armenian ethnic identity as well as the rise Georgian civic nationalism pose to this issue. Furthermore, the paper provides an analysis of the policies and the institutions of the government of Georgia that deal with minorities, including an evaluation of some specific cases of possible discrimination of ethnic Armenians of Georgia along with the current status of the diplomatic relations between Armenia and Georgia. The main sources used to collect information and data for this study have been scientific papers and publications, websites and articles from newspapers, as well as interviews. The purpose of this research is to inform and raise awareness among the general public about this sensitive but scarcely known issue by providing possible compromises that could satisfy both parties. Finally, considering the recent nationalist unrests and the birth of populist movements in the Caucasus, this dissertation advocates mutually beneficial solutions for the peaceful coexistence in Georgia of both ethnic Georgians and ethnic Armenians.

L’arrivée de Nikita Khrouchtchev marque un tournant majeur dans la perception des libertés religieuses en U.R.S.S. Les premières décennies de l’expérience soviétique ont vacillé entre un rejet complet de toute spiritualité et une tolérance passagère, mais la construction d’une réflexion autour de la question religieuse comme phénomène complexe et la mobilisation de différentes sphères publiques pour influer sur les croyances des citoyens ne prennent réellement une dimension centralisée qu’à partir de la déstalinisation. Les racines sociales du « brouillard religieux » ont disparu, pourtant les manifestations cultuelles ne s’affaiblissent pas et ce revirement idéologique reflète sans aucun doute un aveu – à demi-mot – que la foi ne peut être uniquement expliquée par des facteurs économiques. Ce constat n’empêche pour autant pas les gouvernants soviétiques de combattre férocement le phénomène religieux comme le montre la campagne khrouchtchévienne qui, contrairement aux persécutions précédentes, s’appuie en grande partie sur le droit comme outil idéologique.Pourtant, la politique religieuse entamée à partir des années 1950 semble poursuivre des finalités dépassant la seule idéologie. Dans une société soviétique en crise, fissurée par des années de décalage entre discours officiel et pratiques quotidiennes, la question spirituelle recouvre en effet des dimensions davantage politiques et sociales. La dialectique entre pouvoirs temporel et spirituel à partir du secrétariat de Nikita Khrouchtchev est d’autant plus complexe dans le cas de la république arménienne, dont le paysage religieux spécifique laisse entrevoir de puissants enjeux internationaux et politiques
The arrival of Nikita Khrushchev marked a significant turning point in the perception of religious freedoms in the USSR. During the initial decades of the Soviet experiment, there was a fluctuation between outright rejection of all spirituality and intermittent tolerance. However, the comprehensive examination of religious matters as a multifaceted phenomenon and the mobilization of various public spheres to influence citizens' beliefs only truly assumed a centralized role during the era of de-Stalinization. The social underpinnings of the so-called "religious fog" had dissipated, yet religious expressions did not wane. This ideological shift undeniably indicated a somewhat reluctant recognition that faith could not be solely explained by economic factors. Nevertheless, this did not deter Soviet authorities from vehemently opposing religious phenomena, exemplified by the Khrushchev campaign, which, unlike previous persecutions, heavily relied on legal measures as an ideological tool.Nonetheless, the religious policy initiated in the 1950s appeared to have objectives that transcended ideology alone. In a Soviet society grappling with crises and marred by years of disparities between official rhetoric and everyday practices, the spiritual question acquired greater political and social dimensions. The interplay between temporal and spiritual authori-ties under Nikita Khrushchev's secretariat becomes even more intricate when examining the case of the Armenian Republic. Its distinctive religious landscape suggests significant interna-tional and political concerns at play

The thesis, which is based on extensive archival materials, explores the origins of the on-going conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan by focusing on the emergence of the first Armenian Republic in 1918 and its territorial issues with Azerbaijan, in order to understand the factors which led to this conflict. It examines the background to the creation of the first Armenian Republic by researching the location of the ‘historical Armenian homeland’, the construction and reconstruction of the notion of the ‘Armenian homeland’, the aspects facilitating the way in which the ideology and strategy of the Armenian national movement developed, and the factors instrumental in the construction of the Armenian identity. The work provides a historical background to the Armenian claims to Garabagh and Nakhchyvan and analyses the ethnic, historical, economic, geographical and security arguments used by the first Armenian Republic to substantiate its vision of the territorial delimitation between Armenia and Azerbaijan with regard to these regions at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. The thesis also considers the positions of the external powers involved in the South Caucasus vis-à-vis the Garabagh and Nakhchyvan issues and assesses the impact of their stance on the settlement of these conflicts.

L'héritage soviétique, les développements récents dans le secteur de l'enseignement supérieur arménien qui se sont produits durant les trois dernières décennies en Arménie et son intégration dans l'Espace européen de l'enseignement supérieur, conditionnent les nouveaux défis du secteur et la nécessité d'une révision du système de régulation de l'enseignement supérieur. Cette révision doit permettre la mise en place de mécanismes plus efficaces de régulation de l'enseignement supérieur et d'assurance qualité dont l’État arménien a besoin, afin de répondre aux enjeux du secteur arménien de l'enseignement supérieur et pour contribuer à son développement. Notre recherche propose, en vue d'applications au contexte arménien, une analyse des structures, des relations et des processus à travers lesquels la politique d'enseignement supérieur est développée, introduite et révisée au plan national et sous l'influence de la coopération internationale. Cette recherche nous a permis tout d'abord de décrire les principaux modèles théoriques de la gouvernance dans l'enseignement supérieur : le concept de coordination de l'enseignement supérieur, la configuration universitaire et l'utilisation d'un égaliseur de la gouvernance, afin de mettre en lumière et de comprendre les interactions complexes des multiples acteurs impliqués dans ce processus. Ensuite, elle met en valeur l'application et les effets des modèles de régulation par l'Etat de l'enseignement supérieur, ainsi que ses instruments comme le cadre législatif dans le contexte de la politique publique, le degré d'autonomie des établissements et les mécanismes de financement. Ce travail s'intéresse enfin à la politique d'assurance qualité comme domaine d'action politique au service de la régulation de l'enseignement supérieur. A la suite de ces considérations d'ordre conceptuel et de clarifications portant sur les notions de la qualité et de l'assurance qualité dans l'enseignement supérieur, ainsi qu'une présentation de ses mécanismes comme l'audit, l'évaluation et l'accréditation, nous examinons, en les discutant, les choix politiques fondamentaux relatifs aux objectifs, à l'organisation générale, ainsi qu'aux outils opérationnels du système d'assurance qualité en faveur desquels un gouvernement souhaite opter pour garantir la qualité de l'enseignement supérieur. Sur la base des résultats d'études qualitatives et quantitatives réalisées auprès d'experts et d'enseignants et ceux de l'analyse de l'évolution des caractéristiques, de la politique, des instruments de la régulation, ainsi que du système d'assurance qualité de l'enseignement supérieur arménien, toute une série des propositions portant sur l'évolution du système de régulation de l'enseignement supérieur et de l'assurance qualité sont présentées dans cette étude. En particulier, pour se débarrasser de l'héritage soviétique dans les domaines de l'élaboration et de l'organisation des programmes d'enseignement supérieur et pour contribuer à la pertinence des formations en licence et master en vue de l'application du cadre national des qualifications éducatives, des projets concrets de « Cadre national arménien des formations en licence », de « Cadre national arménien des formations en master », ainsi que de « Référentiel national de l'enseignement supérieur en Licence : spécialité « Gestion » sont élaborés jusque dans leurs détails et présentés en annexes à ce travail. Cette recherche devrait permettre aux décideurs politiques, aux responsables d'établissements d'enseignement supérieur, aux enseignants et plus généralement à toutes les parties prenantes intéressées, de mieux comprendre les changements complexes intervenus dans le système d'enseignement supérieur arménien post-soviétique sous l'influence du Processus de Bologne et ainsi contribuer à l'évolution de la régulation du secteur, afin de répondre aux défis de l'enseignement supérieur arménien
The Soviet heritage, the recent developments in the sphere of Armenian higher education throughout the last three decades and the integration of the Republic of Armenia into the European Higher Education Area have blazed the path for new challenges in the sector and outlined the necessity to revise the regulatory framework of higher education. The said revision will allow for the implementation of more efficient mechanisms of higher education regulation and quality assurance that Armenia faces with the aim of responding to the objectives of the sector of Armenian higher education and the contribution to the development of the latter. Our research, which addresses Armenian context, offers analysis of structures, relations and procedures through which the policy of higher education is developed, introduced and revised nationally and the impact it has on international cooperation. This research will first and foremost permit to describe the principle theoretical models of governance in higher education: the concept of coordination of higher education, university configuration («La configuration universitaire»), governance equalizer with the aim of shredding light on and understanding the complex interactions of multitude actors involved in these processes. Moreover, our research highlights the implementation and the effects of regulatory models exercised by the State towards higher education, as well as the toolkit like, for instance, legislative framework within the context of public policy, the level of autonomy of institutions and the mechanisms of financing. This paper will also be of interest within the framework of quality assurance as a procedure of regulating higher education. Following the conceptual considerations and clarifications around such notions as are the quality and the quality assurance in higher education, as well as the presentation of such mechanisms as audit, evaluation and accreditations, we have undertaken the examination of fundamental political choices related to the objectives, general organization, as well as operational tools of the system of quality assurance, highlighting the ones a government would like to own in order to guarantee the quality assurance of higher education. Based on the results of qualitative and quantitative studies realized with experts and teachers, as well as the ones obtained from the analysis of the evolution of characteristics, politics, the instruments of regulation, as well as the system of quality assurance of Armenian higher education, a series of suggestions related to the evolution of the regulatory system of higher education and quality assurance are presented in this document. More particularly, with the aim of eliminating the Soviet heritage in such domains as are the development and the organization of academic programmes of higher education and for contributing the concord of Bachelor's and Master's programmes with the National Framework of Qualifications, concrete documents have been elaborated and are presented in the annex of this paper: «Armenian National Framework of BA studies», «Armenian National Framework of MA studies» and «Armenian Subject Benchmark Statement : Management». This research will allow political decision-makers, people who are responsible for institutions of higher education, teachers and other interested stakeholders to understand more profoundly the complex changes which occurred in the Post-Soviet system of higher education of Armenia as a result of Bologna Process and to contribute to the evolution of the sector with the aim of responding to the needs of Armenian higher education

Le poète arménien Yéghiché Tcharents (1897-1937) devient victime des répressions staliniennes des années 30. Tcharents est déjà un poète connu lorsque la révolution éclate en Russie. Il voit dans la révolution le sauveur de son peuple au destin tragique. Il croit aux idéaux humanistes de Lénine comme beaucoup de ses contemporains. Cependant, le pouvoir totalitaire de Staline change son regard politique. Sa poésie reflète ses inquiétudes. En 1933, le recueil de poèmes Livre du chemin, un compte-rendu de sa vision poétique de la construction de la nouvelle société, ainsi que de l’éducation de l’homme soviétique, est censuré. Il est publié à nouveau avec des modifications. Tcharents, le poète de tous les combats, ne parvient pas à cacher son désaccord, sa désillusion vis-à-vis du pouvoir politique. Il témoigne à travers sa poésie. Le système répressif ne le laisse plus en paix. Il est inculpé comme contre-révolutionnaire, trotskiste, nationaliste, terroriste. En juillet 1936, il est assigné à résidence. La poésie demeure l’unique espace où il pense et écrit librement. Malade et conscient de l’imminence de sa mort, il survit grâce à sa poésie, dans son univers de visions. L’argumentation de la thèse est construite sur l’analyse littéraire des textes du corpus : le Livre du chemin et les textes poétiques de 1935 à 1937 de Tcharents. Une étude concise du contexte historico-politique de sa poésie et une analyse littéraire de son œuvre avant 1933 sont aussi proposées, permettant de mieux percevoir la complexité des relations entre le poète-individu et son époque, et enfin, de réunir tous les éléments nécessaires de traduction faisant partie de l’objectif de cette étude doctorale
The Armenian poet Yeghishe Charents (1897-1937) becomes victim of Stalin’s repressions in the Thirties. Charents is already known as a poet when the revolution bursts in Russia. He sees in the revolution the saver of his people with the tragic destiny. Like many of his contemporaries he believes in the humanistic ideals of Lenin. However, the totalitarian power of Stalin changes his political views. His poetry reflects his concerns. In 1933, the collection of poems Book of the way, a report of his poetic vision of the new society, as well as the education of the Soviet man, is censored. It is published with changes. Charents, the poet actively involved in a number of social issues, cannot hide his dissension and disillusion with respect to the political power. He bespeaks through his poetry. The repressive system does not leave him any more in peace. He is accused of being a contra-revolutionist, trotskyist, nationalist, terrorist. In July 1936, he is put under house arrest. Poetry remains the sole space where he thinks and writes freely. Ill and aware of the imminence of his death, he survives in his universe of visions thanks to his poetry.The argumentation of this doctoral thesis is built on the literary analysis of the texts in the corpus: the Book of the way and the poetic texts of 1935 to 1937. A concise study of the historical-political context of his poetry and a literary analysis of his work before 1933 are also proposed. This allows to better perceive the complexity of the relations between the poet-individual and his time and, finally joins all the elements necessary for the translation, which is an objective of this doctoral study

Survival of a Perverse Nation traces the ways in which contemporary Armenian anxieties are congealing into the figure of the “homosexual.” As in other post-Soviet republics, homosexuality has increasingly become defined as the crisis of the times, and is understood by many as a destructive force linked to European encroachment. In Armenia, a growing right-wing nationalist movement since 2012 has been targeting LGBT and feminist activists. I suggest that this movement has arisen out of Armenia’s concerns regarding proper social and biological reproduction in the face of high rates of emigration of especially men in search of work. Many in the country blame this emigration on a post-Soviet oligarchy, with close ties to the government. This oligarchy, having quickly and massively privatized and liquidated industry and land during the war over the region of Nagorno-Karabagh (1990-1994) with Azerbaijan, created widespread un(der)employment. A national narrative attributing the nation’s survival of the 1915 Genocide and dispersion of its populations to strong morality preserved by institutions such as the Church and the family has now, in the post-Soviet era, ruptured into one of moral “perversion.” This dissertation is based on 15 months of ethnographic research, during which I participated in the work of two local non-governmental organizations: Public Information and Need for Knowledge, an LGBT rights organization and Women’s Resource Center, a feminist organization. I also conducted interviews with 150 households across Yerevan, the capital city, and did in-depth interviews with other activists, right-wing nationalists and journalists. Through psychoanalytic frameworks, as well as studies of kinship, I show how sovereignty – the longed for dream for Armenians over the last century – is felt to have failed because of the moral corruption of the illegitimate figures that fill Armenian seats of authority. I, thus, examine the ways in which a missing father of the household is discursively linked to the lack of strong leadership by a corrupt government, producing a prevalent feeling of moral disintegration that nationalists displace onto the “homosexual.”

Dissertation

During the twentieth century, Soviet Armenian society has been witness to numerous situations in which national identity has become an expression of cultural paradox. From the 1940's to the 1990's, Armenia has been in a transitory state, oscillating between seemingly contradictory categories of East/West, capitalism/communism, traditional/modern, past/present and death/survival. Despite this state of flux, Armenian self-representations insistently point to a collective identity that defines itself as firmly rooted, fixed in space and enduring in understandings. This project explores stories and histories, especially anecdotes collected in the course of fieldwork in Soviet Armenia conducted over two extended periods from 1987 to 1992. What was sought were mechanisms that lend to culture the malleability to bend and twist without radical rupture, allowing culture to reinvent itself endlessly in the face of social pressures and to allow space for new cultural constructions of meaning. I chart the deeply contradictory symbolic structure of Soviet Armenian society as an instrument by which these reworkings are achieved. In so doing, it becomes clear that contradiction does not lead to cultural paralysis. On the contrary, the articulation of contradiction within a narrative mode allows for mediation of difference in a manner that is non-divisive. Further, I trace the modern history of Armenia to reveal the ways in which Armenians manage the affects of Sovietization, of the Diaspora and repatriation, and of Armenian independence and emergence into a new geo-political matrix. Special attention is given to the Soviet Nationality Policy of the 1920's and 1940's and to the disastrous earthquake of 1988, both of which have led to a renewed sense of nationalism and of peoplehood among the Armenians. In tracing symbolic repertoires, I reveal the transitory character of meanings and their implicational associations as culture repositions itself and renegotiates contradictions in new settings.

The career of prolific Armenian pianist and composer Alexander Arutiunian [Alek’sandr Harut’unyan] spanned the Soviet age in Armenia (1920–1991), and his Trumpet Concerto (1950) achieved worldwide recognition and acclaim. Despite the importance of this work to trumpeters internationally, the information and context necessary for performers and scholars to understand Arutiunian’s Concerto and other works has not been previously available in English. Prior to this study, the composer’s biography, compositional style, and works have not been the subject of any significant published research by English-language scholars. This dissertation demonstrates that Arutiunian’s early compositional style was nurtured and influenced by the antecedents of Armenian folk music and early Armenian nationalist composers. To establish the nature of these influences, this discussion begins by exploring Armenian peasant song and professional folk-singer (ashugh) traditions, and traces the development of early Armenian nationalist composers including Komitas, Romanos Melik’yan, Aleksandr Spendiaryan, Sargis Barkhudaryan, and Aram Khachaturian. During his early schooling in the 1930s, Arutiunian studied both Armenian folk music and the music of these Armenian nationalist composers and developed a style which incorporated, emulated, and expanded on those precedents. During the 1940s, Arutiunian’s advanced training in Yerevan and Moscow led to a broadening of scope and internationalization of his style. He drew new influence from the distinct motives of Khachaturian, the Neo-Classical and modernist influence of Prokofiev, and the contrapuntal approach of Genrikh Litinsky. Following the Stalinist denunciations of 1948 (Zhdanov decree or Zhdanovshchina), Arutiunian’s Big Soviet style emerged, and is so-called because it blended his early style with the grand, dramatic, and Romantic tradition of Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. His first composition in this vein, Cantata About the Motherland (1948), was considerably more conservative than his other works but it so successfully fit the political requirements of Socialist Realism that it earned him the Soviet Union’s highest artistic honor, the Stalin Prize. In the wake of this achievement, Arutiunian’s Big Soviet style rapidly developed, producing major successes in his Festive Overture (1949) and Trumpet Concerto (1950). This study is based primarily on the examination of rare Soviet-era scores and recordings and the new translation of Russian- and Armenian-language primary and secondary sources, including Arutiunian’s own Memoirs (2000). The resulting descriptive and contextual analysis establishes the nature of Arutiunian’s compositional output up to 1950 and the influences that Armenian and Soviet antecedents had upon his music. It lays the foundation of background, context, and connections for performers and scholars to understand the idioms and stylistic conventions found in Arutiunian’s early works, culminating with a detailed examination of his Trumpet Concerto (1950).

Le poète arménien Yéghiché Tcharents (1897-1937) devient victime des répressions staliniennes des années 30. Tcharents est déjà un poète connu lorsque la révolution éclate en Russie. Il voit dans la révolution le sauveur de son peuple au destin tragique. Il croit aux idéaux humanistes de Lénine comme beaucoup de ses contemporains. Cependant, le pouvoir totalitaire de Staline change son regard politique. Sa poésie reflète ses inquiétudes. En 1933, le recueil de poèmes Livre du chemin, un compte-rendu de sa vision poétique de la construction de la nouvelle société, ainsi que de l’éducation de l’homme soviétique, est censuré. Il est publié à nouveau avec des modifications. Tcharents, le poète de tous les combats, ne parvient pas à cacher son désaccord, sa désillusion vis-à-vis du pouvoir politique. Il témoigne à travers sa poésie. Le système répressif ne le laisse plus en paix. Il est inculpé comme contre-révolutionnaire, trotskiste, nationaliste, terroriste. En juillet 1936, il est assigné à résidence. La poésie demeure l’unique espace où il pense et écrit librement. Malade et conscient de l’imminence de sa mort, il survit grâce à sa poésie, dans son univers de visions. L’argumentation de la thèse est construite sur l’analyse littéraire des textes du corpus : le Livre du chemin et les textes poétiques de 1935 à 1937 de Tcharents. Une étude concise du contexte historico-politique de sa poésie et une analyse littéraire de son œuvre avant 1933 sont aussi proposées, permettant de mieux percevoir la complexité des relations entre le poète-individu et son époque, et enfin, de réunir tous les éléments nécessaires de traduction faisant partie de l’objectif de cette étude doctorale
The Armenian poet Yeghishe Charents (1897-1937) becomes victim of Stalin’s repressions in the Thirties. Charents is already known as a poet when the revolution bursts in Russia. He sees in the revolution the saver of his people with the tragic destiny. Like many of his contemporaries he believes in the humanistic ideals of Lenin. However, the totalitarian power of Stalin changes his political views. His poetry reflects his concerns. In 1933, the collection of poems Book of the way, a report of his poetic vision of the new society, as well as the education of the Soviet man, is censored. It is published with changes. Charents, the poet actively involved in a number of social issues, cannot hide his dissension and disillusion with respect to the political power. He bespeaks through his poetry. The repressive system does not leave him any more in peace. He is accused of being a contra-revolutionist, trotskyist, nationalist, terrorist. In July 1936, he is put under house arrest. Poetry remains the sole space where he thinks and writes freely. Ill and aware of the imminence of his death, he survives in his universe of visions thanks to his poetry.The argumentation of this doctoral thesis is built on the literary analysis of the texts in the corpus: the Book of the way and the poetic texts of 1935 to 1937. A concise study of the historical-political context of his poetry and a literary analysis of his work before 1933 are also proposed. This allows to better perceive the complexity of the relations between the poet-individual and his time and, finally joins all the elements necessary for the translation, which is an objective of this doctoral study