Boskovska, Nada. (2000). “Muscovite Women during the 17th Century.” Forschungen zur osteurop?ische Geschichte 56:47-62. Kollmann, Nancy S. (1983). “The Seclusion of Elite Muscovite Women.” Russian History 10 (2):170-187. Thyret, Isolde. (2001). Between God and Tsar: Religious Symbolism and the Royal Women of Muscovite Russia. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press.
(b. 1945), Armenian philologist and statesman.
The first president of the second independent republic of Armenia (1991-1998), Levon TerENCYCLOPEDIA OF RUSSIAN HISTORY
Petrossian was born in Aleppo, Syria, and migrated to Soviet Armenia with his family in 1946. Ter-Petrossian graduated from Yerevan State University and received his doctorate in philology from Leningrad University. Until 1988 he was an academic researcher in Yerevan.
In 1988 he joined and became a leader of the Karabakh Committee that led the movement in support of the rights of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh-the Armenian-populated enclave in Azerbaijan-and eventually in support of Armenia’s independence. In 1989, having spent six months in prison in Moscow, he was elected member, and in 1990 president, of the Supreme Soviet of the Armenian SSR. Having successfully managed the peaceful transition of power from the Communists, in 1991 he was elected president of Armenia and reelected in 1996. He resigned in February 1998 and currently lives as a private citizen in Yerevan.
Ter-Petrossian has received honorary doctorates from a number of academic institutions, including the universities of Sorbonne and Strasbourg, in recognition of his scholarly research in ancient and medieval philology and history, as well as his contribution to modern Armenian statehood.
The dominant figure in Armenia’s history from 1988 to 1998, Ter-Petrossian initiated fundamental institutional, political, and economic reforms, including a radical land privatization program. He guided the drafting and adoption of a constitution in 1995 that has proven effective in resolving major political crises.
In foreign policy Ter-Petrossian advocated the speedy integration of Armenia in international institutions and processes, and the normalization of relations with all neighbors-including Turkey-as the best guarantee for Armenia’s long-term security and prosperity. In the process, Ter-Petrossian’s pursuit of a special relationship with Russia led to the 1997 comprehensive Treaty of Cooperation and Friendship, which, among other provisions, formalized and regulated the presence of the Russian military base in Armenia.
Ter-Petrossian led the Nagorno-Karabakh war to a successful conclusion with a cease-fire agreement in 1994. He also considered peace with Azerbaijan a necessary precondition for the economic and social development of Armenia. The absence of a final solution to the status problem, which he pursued aggressively, stymied political and economic transformation; it also prevented the normalization of relations with Azerbaijan and Turkey.
Ter-Petrossian’s pragmatic policies invited the opposition of extremist forces. After 1995, criticisms of his administration, including charges of corruption, abuse of power by some ministries, and tampering with elections, increased. His acceptance in 1997 of a compromise solution to the Karabakh problem, opposed by some of his closest associates in the executive branch, led to his resignation. See also: ARMENIA AND ARMENIANS; AZERBAIJAN AND AZERIS; NAGORNO-KARABAKH; NATIONALISM IN THE SOVIET UNION; TURKEY, RELATIONS WITH
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Curtis, Glenn E. (1994). Armenia., Azerbaijan, and Georgia. Washington, DC: Library of Congress. Herzig, Edmond. (1998). The New Caucasus: Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. London: Royal Institute of International Affairs. Libaridian, Gerard J. (1999). The Challenge of Statehood: Armenian Political Thinking Since Independence. Wa-tertown, MA: Blue Crane Books.
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was established on December 30, 1922, on the basis of a union treaty that was subsequently incorporated into the USSR constitution of January 31, 1924. The new federal state consisted of a complicated hierarchy of territorial-administrative units. This hierarchy was subsequently modified by amendment, by the adoption of new constitutions in 1936 and 1977, and by federal law. By the time Mikhail S. Gorbachev became Soviet leader in 1985, the hierarchy consisted of 15 Soviet socialist republics (SSRs, or union republics), 20 autonomous Soviet socialist republics (ASSRs), 8 autonomous oblasts (AOs), and 10 autonomous districts (okruga), for a total of 53 ethnically defined administrative units. There were in addition 120 nonethnically defined administrative units-the oblasts and 7 kraya. In addition, Moscow and Leningrad (St. Petersburg) were designated federal cities with an administrative status equal to that of the oblasts and kraya. With the dissolution of the USSR in December 1991, the fifteen union republics became independent states.
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RUSSIAN HISTORY
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The Soviet successor state with by far the greatest number of territorial-administrative units within it was Russia (known in the Soviet period as the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, or RSFSR, and renamed the Russian Federation in late 1991). Russia, which was also the only Soviet successor state that was formally designated a federation, included 31 ethnically defined administrative units-16 autonomous republics, 5 autonomous oblasts, and 10 autonomous okruga- which together covered approximately one-half of the territory of the RSFSR. In addition, the Russian Federation was made up of 49 oblasts, 6 kraya, and the federal cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Transforming Russia into a genuine federation with a well-designed and constitutionally protected division of powers between the federal government and the subjects of the federation has significantly complicated Russia’s transition from Soviet socialism. In 1991, the 16 autonomous republics and 4 of the 5 autonomous oblasts were given the status of republics. The remaining subjects of the federation-the 49 oblasts, 7 kraya, the federal cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg, the Jewish autonomous oblast, and the 10 autonomous okruga-were in effect equalized under law and became known as Russia’s regions. In April 1992, the Russian legislature recognized the division of Checheno-Ingushetia into separate Chechen and Ingush republics, which brought the total number of republics under Russian law to twenty-one. However, the refusal of Chechnya to accept its status as a constituent unit of the federation, and Chechnya’s insistence on recognition as an independent state, helped precipitate a war between Chechen independence supporters and the federal government in 1994 and again in 1999. See also: CHECHNYA AND CHECHENS; RUSSIAN FEDERATION; UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Constitution of the Russian Federation: With Commentaries and Interpretations by American and Russian Scholars, eds. Vladimir V. Belyakov and Walter J. Raymond. (1994). Lawrenceville, VA: Brunswick Publishing Company, and Moscow: Russia’s Information Agency-Novosti. Gleason, Gregory. (1990). Federalism and Nationalism: The Struggle for Republican Rights in the USSR. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Kaiser, Robert J. (1994). The Geography of Nationalism in Russia and the USSR. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
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Lapidus, Gail W., and Walker, Edward W. (1995). “Nationalism, Regionalism, and Federalism: Center- Periphery Relations in Post-Communist Russia.” In The New Russia: Troubled Transformation, ed. Gail W. Lapidus. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Unger, Aryeh L. (1981). Constitutional Development in the USSR: A Guide to the Soviet Constitutions. New York: Pica Press.
A half-century of Russian history was bloodstained by revolutionary terrorism. Its first outburst was the abortive April 1866 assassination attempt against Tsar Alexander II by Dmitry Karakozov. From then on, extremists
