1978 - Stepan Shahumyan 100th Anniversary of Birth

1978 - Stepan Shahumyan 100th Anniversary of Birth

Identifier

ANRO-1475

Notes

Stepan Shahumyan was an influential Armenian Bolshevik revolutionary and statesman who played a significant role in the early years of Soviet power. Born on October 13, 1878, in Tiflis (now Tbilisi, Georgia), Shahumyan was educated in Moscow and later became politically active in the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP), which later split into Bolsheviks and Mensheviks.

Shahumyan was a staunch supporter of the Bolshevik faction, led by Vladimir Lenin. As a committed revolutionary, he was arrested and exiled several times due to his involvement in the revolutionary movement. Shahumyan was an active participant in the 1905 Russian Revolution and later in the 1917 Russian Revolution, which led to the establishment of the Soviet government.

During World War I, Shahumyan continued his political activities, mainly in the South Caucasus region. In April 1917, he was appointed as the Commissar for the South Caucasus region by the Russian Provisional Government. Following the October Revolution in 1917, Shahumyan became the head of the Baku Commune in 1918, a short-lived Soviet government in Azerbaijan, which was established after the collapse of the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic.

Stepan Shahumyan's time as the head of the Baku Commune was marked by internal strife and a struggle for power against various factions, including the counter-revolutionary forces, nationalist groups, and foreign intervention. The Baku Commune ultimately fell in July 1918, and Shahumyan, along with other Bolshevik leaders, was captured by their political adversaries while attempting to flee the city.

On September 20, 1918, Stepan Shahumyan, together with 25 other Armenian Bolsheviks, was executed by a firing squad in what is now known as the "September Days" or the "Armenian September Massacres." Shahumyan's death was a significant loss for the Soviet movement in the Caucasus region. He is remembered as a martyr by the Soviet government, and his contributions to the revolutionary cause are celebrated in the history of Soviet Armenia.

Files

1475.jpg

Collection

Citation

“1978 - Stepan Shahumyan 100th Anniversary of Birth,” Armenian Numismatic Research Organization, accessed April 28, 2024, http://armnumres.org/items/show/1475.