Sarkis Hovhannesi Kasyan or Kasian (''Qosyan'', hy, Սարգիս Հովհաննեսի Կասյան (), , 1876,

Shusha / hy, Շուշի , settlement_type = City , image_skyline = ShushaCollection2021.jpg , image_caption = Landmarks of Shusha, from top left:Ghazanchetsots Cathedral • Yukhari Govhar ...

- December 11, 1937) was an Armenian Soviet statesman, politician, publicist and journalist. He was arrested and later shot in 1937 during the

Great Purge The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Nikolay Yezhov, Yezhov'), was General ...

. He was posthumously rehabilitated.

Biography

Sarkis Kasyan was born on January 28, 1876 in the town of Shushi (Shusha) in the

Elisabethpol Governorate The Elizavetpol Governorate, also known after 1918 as the Ganja Governorate, was a province ('' guberniya'') of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire, with its capital in Yelisavetpol (present-day Ganja). The area of the governorate st ...

of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

. During his childhood, his family moved to

Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...

, where he attended the Baku Realschule. There, Kasyan began participating in underground student organizations and reading banned literature. He was expelled from school in the seventh grade for disobedience. Kasyan left for Germany in 1900 and graduated from Leipzig Commercial Institute and the Faculty of Philosophy of

Berlin University Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...

in 1904. After graduating, he returned to Baku. From 1903 to 1904, he was a supporter of the Social Democrat Hunchakian Party's left wing. He was a member of the

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...

faction of the

Russian Social Democratic Labour Party The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP; in , ''Rossiyskaya sotsial-demokraticheskaya rabochaya partiya (RSDRP)''), also known as the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party or the Russian Social Democratic Party, was a socialist pol ...

from 1905. He was one of the founders of Armenian Bolshevik press in 1905, and worked at a number of Bolshevik newspapers based in

Tiflis Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million pe ...

(Tbilisi) and Baku. He headed the Tiflis communist party organization from 1912 to 1914. From 1914 to 1917 he was in exile in

Astrakhan Astrakhan ( rus, Астрахань, p=ˈastrəxənʲ) is the largest city and administrative centre of Astrakhan Oblast in Southern Russia. The city lies on two banks of the Volga, in the upper part of the Volga Delta, on eleven islands of the ...

and

Vologda Vologda ( rus, Вологда, p=ˈvoləɡdə) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Vologda Oblast, Russia, located on the river Vologda (river), Vologda within the watershed of the Northern Dvina. ...

. From 1919 to 1920 he was chairman of the Armenian committee of the Russian Communist (Bolshevik) Party. Kasyan was one of the signatories of a secret decision made in September 1920 by the leadership of the Communist Party of Armenia which called on members to work to "speed up Armenia's defeat" in the

Turkish–Armenian War The Turkish–Armenian war ( hy, Հայ-թուրքական պատերազմ), known in Turkey as the Eastern Front ( tr, Doğu Cephesi) of the Turkish War of Independence, was a conflict between the First Republic of Armenia and the Turkish Na ...

and "dissolve the Armenian army by all means." From November 1920 he was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Armenia and chairman of the

Revolutionary Committee of Armenia A revolutionary is a person who either participates in, or advocates a revolution. The term ''revolutionary'' can also be used as an adjective, to refer to something that has a major, sudden impact on society or on some aspect of human endeavor. ...

. He signed the declaration of the

Sovietization of Armenia The Red Army invasion of Armenia, also known as the Sovietization or the Soviet invasion of Armenia, the Soviet occupation of Armenia, or Soviet intervention in Armenia was a military campaign which was carried out by the 11th Army of Soviet Ru ...

. On December 2, 1920,

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...

sent him a telegram welcoming the establishment of Soviet Armenia. From 1927 to 1931 he was the chairman of the All-Caucasian Central Executive Committee, and from 1928 to 1930 he was also the chairman of the All-Armenian Central Executive Committee. He was elected a member of the

All-Union Central Executive Committee The All-Union Central Executive Committee (russian: Всесоюзный Центральный исполнительный комитет, Vsesoyuznyy Tsentral'nyy ispolnitel'nyy komitet) was the most authoritative governing body of the USSR d ...

. From 1931 to 1934 he was chairman of the Supreme Court of the

Transcaucasian SFSR , conventional_long_name = Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic , common_name = Transcaucasian SFSR , p1 = Armenian Soviet Socialist RepublicArmenian SSR , flag_p1 = Flag of SSRA ...

. In 1937, during the

, Kasyan was arrested and charged with organizing "a right-wing terrorist organization and armed groups" in Tbilisi in order to assassinate party and government leadership. He was shot on December 11, 1937. He was posthumously rehabilitated. Besides his own political writings, Kasyan translated works by

Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

and

Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ,"Engels"
'' Yerevan Yerevan ( , , hy, Երևան , sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Y ...

․

References

External links

Patriarchs, Kings and Rulers of ArmeniaKasyan at Russian Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kasyan, Sarkis Politicians from Shusha People from Elizavetpol Governorate Communist Party of Armenia (Soviet Union) politicians 1937 deaths 1876 births Armenian atheists Great Purge victims from Armenia Members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union executed by the Soviet Union Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic People