Voices from the Past: Excerpts from Writings of Armenian Revolutionaries

On
the verge of the modern era, both empires were in decline... and desperate to repel
the revolutionary-socialist and liberal-democratic ideas emanating from Europe—and
to suppress the national liberation movements of the peoples under their rule.

The
Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) was founded in those days of
sociopolitical ferment, in 1890, in Tbilisi, Georgia. The principal aim of the new
organization was the liberation of Armenians under Ottoman rule, but its goals
soon evolved to include freedom for Armenians under Russian rule, as well.

The
biographies and writings of ARF-affiliated statesmen, intellectuals, military
commanders, revolutionaries, and rank-and-file fighters included in this book reflect
the arch of Armenian history from the 1890s to the 1940s. They contain not
merely points of view but larger ideas, ideologies, worldviews, and hard-won
life-lessons that energized and guided the lives of individual party members,
the collective outlook of ARF, as well as the movement the party engendered.

That
said, this compilation is merely a small sampling of the thousands of
personalities and their works that could have been included. Nevertheless, it
contains invaluable insights that would benefit those who would involve
themselves in the affairs of Armenia and the Diaspora today, for the past has
much to teach those seeking to build the future.