Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic

The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, also known as Soviet Armenia, or simply Armenia, was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union, located in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Soviet Armenia bordered the Soviet Republics of Azerbaijan and Georgia and the independent states of Iran and Turkey. The capital of the republic was Yerevan and it contained thirty-seven districts (raions). Other major cities in the ArmSSR included Leninakan, Kirovakan, Hrazdan, Etchmiadzin, and Kapan. The republic was governed by Communist Party of Armenia, a branch of the main Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Soviet Armenia was established on 2 December 1920, with the Sovietization of the short-lived First Republic of Armenia. Consequently, historians often refer to it as the Second Republic of Armenia. It became part of the Transcaucasian SFSR, along with neighboring Georgia and Azerbaijan, which comprised one of the four founding republics of the USSR. When the TSFSR was dissolved in 1936, Armenia became a full republic of the Soviet Union.

As part of the Soviet Union, Armenia initially experienced stabilization under the administration of Alexander Miasnikian during Lenin's New Economic Policy (NEP). During its seventy-one year history, the republic was transformed from a largely agricultural hinterland to an important industrial production center, while its population almost quadrupled from around 880,000 in 1926 to 3.3 million in 1989 due to natural growth and large-scale influx of Armenian genocide survivors and their descendants.

Soviet Armenia suffered during the Great Purge of Joseph Stalin, but contributed significantly to the Soviet victory in the Great Patriotic War of World War II. After the death of Stalin, Armenia experienced a new period of liberalization during the Khrushchev Thaw. Following the Brezhnev era, Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms of glasnost and perestroika led to the rise of the Karabakh movement. The republic declared "state sovereignty" on 23 August 1990, boycotted the March 1991 referendum on the New Union Treaty, and on 21 September 1991, held a successful independence referendum. It was recognized on 26 December 1991 with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, although the republic's 1978 Soviet constitution remained in effect with major amendments until 5 July 1995 when the new Armenian constitution was adopted via referendum.