Armenia

===Armenian SSR===
{{main|Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic}}
[[File:Emblem of the Armenian SSR.svg|thumb|The coat of arms of [[Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic|Soviet Armenia]] depicting [[Mount Ararat]] in the centre]]

====1922 till WWII====
Armenia was annexed by the [[Red Army]] and along with [[Democratic Republic of Georgia|Georgia]] and [[Azerbaijan Democratic Republic|Azerbaijan]], was incorporated into the [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics]] as part of the [[Transcaucasian SFSR]] (TSFSR) on 4 March 1922.<ref name="main1">{{cite web |url=http://www.countriesquest.com/asia/azerbaijan/history/the_soviet_period.htm |title=The Soviet Period – History – Azerbaijan – Asia |access-date=25 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110929150339/http://www.countriesquest.com/asia/azerbaijan/history/the_soviet_period.htm |archive-date=29 September 2011 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="BSE">[https://web.archive.org/web/20150925080238/http://bse.chemport.ru/zakavkazskaya_federatsiya.shtml Закавказская федерация]. ''Большая советская энциклопедия'', 3-е изд., гл. ред. А. М. Прохоров. Москва: Советская энциклопедия, 1972. Т. 9 ({{cite book|section = Transcaucasian Federation |title = Great Soviet Encyclopedia |editor = A. M. Prokhorov|language = ru |publisher = Soviet Encyclopedia |location = Moscow |year = 1972 |volume = 9|display-editors=etal|title-link = Great Soviet Encyclopedia }})</ref> With this annexation, the Treaty of Alexandropol was superseded by the Turkish-Soviet [[Treaty of Kars]]. In the agreement, Turkey allowed the Soviet Union to assume control over [[Adjara]] with the port city of [[Batumi]] in return for sovereignty over the cities of [[Kars]], [[Ardahan]], and [[Iğdır]], all of which were part of Russian Armenia.<ref name="main1"/><ref name="BSE"/>

The TSFSR existed from 1922 to 1936, when it was divided up into three separate entities ([[Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic|Armenian SSR]], [[Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic|Azerbaijan SSR]], and [[Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic|Georgian SSR]]). Armenians enjoyed a period of relative stability within USSR in contrast to the turbulent final years of the Ottoman Empire. The situation was difficult for the church, which struggled with [[Religion in soviet union|secular policies of USSR]]. After the death of [[Vladimir Lenin]], [[Joseph Stalin]], the general secretary of the [[CPSU|Communist Party]], gradually established himself as the dictator of the USSR. Stalin's reign was characterized by mass repressions, that cost millions of lives all over the USSR.{{Citation needed|reason=Repressions, sure, but millions of lives is a heavily disputed topic, so it would be good to have sources for this in this context|date=September 2023}}

====WWII; post-Stalinist period====
[[File:ArmenianStamps-066-069.jpg|thumb|Armenian [[Marshal of the Soviet Union|Marshal]]s and [[Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union|Admiral]] of World War II on stamps:<br />[[Ivan Bagramyan|Bagramyan]], [[Ivan Isakov|Isakov]], [[Hamazasp Babadzhanian|Babadzhanian]], [[Sergei Khudyakov|Khudyakov]]]]

Armenia was not the scene of any battles in [[Eastern Front (World War II)|World War II]]. An estimated 500,000 Armenians (nearly a third of the population) served in the [[Red Army]] during the war, and 175,000 died.<ref>C. Mouradian, ''L'Armenie sovietique'', pp. 278–79</ref> A total of 117 citizens of Armenia including 10 non ethnic Armenians were awarded [[Hero of the Soviet Union]]. Six special military divisions were formed in Soviet Armenia in 1941–42, partly because so many draftees from the republic could not understand Russian. Five of them, the [[Soviet 89th "Tamanyan" Division|89th]], [[409th Rifle Division|409th]], [[408th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)|408th]], [[390th Rifle Division|390th]], and [[76th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)|76th]] Divisions, would have a distinguished war record, while the sixth was ordered to stay in Armenia to guard the republic's western borders against a possible incursion by neighboring Turkey.
The [[Soviet 89th "Tamanyan" Division|89th Tamanyan Division]], composed of ethnic Armenians, fought in the [[Battle of Berlin]] and entered [[Berlin]].

It is claimed{{By whom|date=September 2023}} that the freedom index in the region had seen an improvement after the [[State funeral of Joseph Stalin|death of Joseph Stalin]] in 1953 and the emergence of [[Nikita Khrushchev]] as the new general secretary of the [[CPSU]]. Soon, life in Armenia's SSR began to see rapid improvement. The church, which was limited during the secretaryship of Stalin, was revived when [[Catholicos of All Armenians|Catholicos]] [[Vazgen I]] assumed the duties of his office in 1955. In 1967, a memorial to the victims of the Armenian genocide was built at the [[Tsitsernakaberd]] hill above the [[Hrazdan]] [[Canyon|gorge]] in [[Yerevan]]. This occurred after [[1965 Yerevan demonstrations|mass demonstrations]] took place on the tragic event's fiftieth anniversary in 1965.

====Gorbachev era====

[[File:Karabakh movement demonstration at Yerevan Opera square (4).jpg|thumb|Armenians gather at [[Freedom Square, Yerevan|Theater Square]] in central [[Yerevan]] to claim unification of [[Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast]] with the [[Armenian SSR]] (1988)]]

During the [[Mikhail Gorbachev|Gorbachev]] era of the 1980s, with the reforms of [[Glasnost]] and [[Perestroika]], Armenians began to demand better environmental care for their country, opposing the pollution that Soviet-built factories brought. Tensions also developed between Soviet Azerbaijan and its autonomous district of [[Nagorno-Karabakh]], a majority-Armenian region. About 484,000 [[Armenians in Azerbaijan|Armenians]] lived in Azerbaijan in 1970.<ref>"[http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Azerbaijan+Soviet+Socialist+Republic Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111103114602/http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Azerbaijan+Soviet+Socialist+Republic |date=3 November 2011}}". The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979).</ref> The Armenians of Karabakh demanded unification with Soviet Armenia. Peaceful protests in Armenia supporting the Karabakh Armenians were met with anti-Armenian [[pogrom]]s in Azerbaijan, such as the one in [[Sumgait pogrom|Sumgait]], which was followed by [[Gugark massacre|anti-Azerbaijani violence]] in Armenia.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.rferl.org/a/1088062.html |title=Azerbaijan: Armenians and Azerbaijanis Remember Suffering |archive-url=https://archive.today/20201220163702/https://www.rferl.org/a/1088062.html |archive-date=20 December 2020 |access-date=11 January 2021 |work=[[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty]]|date=9 April 2008 |last1=Naegele |first1=Jolyon }}</ref> Compounding Armenia's problems was a [[1988 Armenian earthquake|devastating earthquake]] in 1988 with a [[moment magnitude scale|moment magnitude]] of 7.2.<ref>Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia 2004. p. 74 by Imogen Gladman, [[Taylor and Francis|Taylor & Francis]] Group</ref>

Gorbachev's inability to alleviate any of Armenia's problems created disillusionment among the Armenians and fed a growing hunger for independence. In May 1990, the New [[Armenian Army]] (NAA) was established, serving as a defence force separate from the Soviet [[Red Army]]. Clashes soon broke out between the NAA and [[Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs|Soviet Internal Security Forces]] (MVD) troops based in Yerevan when Armenians decided to commemorate the establishment of the 1918 First Republic of Armenia. The violence resulted in the deaths of five Armenians killed in a shootout with the MVD at the railway station. Witnesses there claimed that the MVD used excessive force and that they had instigated the fighting.{{Citation needed|date=September 2023}}

Further firefights between Armenian militiamen and Soviet troops occurred in [[Nubarashen|Sovetashen]], near the capital and resulted in the deaths of over 26 people, mostly Armenians. The [[pogrom of Armenians in Baku]] in January 1990 forced almost all of the 200,000 Armenians in the Azerbaijani capital [[Baku]] to flee to Armenia.<ref>[http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/rights/articles/pp021603.shtml Notes from Baku: Black January] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090827072157/http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/rights/articles/pp021603.shtml |date=27 August 2009}}. Rufat Ahmedov. EurasiaNet Human Rights.</ref> On 23 August 1990, Armenia declared its sovereignty on its territory. On 17 March 1991, Armenia, along with the [[Baltic states]], Georgia and [[Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic|Moldova]], boycotted a nationwide [[1991 Soviet Union referendum|referendum]] in which 78% of all voters voted for the retention of the Soviet Union in a reformed form.<ref name="NewsBrief">{{cite web|url=http://soviethistory.org/index.php?action=L2&SubjectID=1991march&Year=1991 |title=The March Referendum |access-date=10 November 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061015092843/http://www.soviethistory.org/index.php?action=L2&SubjectID=1991march&Year=1991 |archive-date=15 October 2006}}</ref>