NEW BOOK: BOURNOUTIAN’S “1823 RUSSIAN SURVEY OF THE KARABAGH PROVINCE”
Sep 22, 2011
Costa Mesa, California — Mazda Press announces the publication of
Dr. George Bournoutian’s new book: The 1823 Russian Survey of the
Karabagh Province: A Primary Source on the Demography and Economy of
Karabagh in the Early 19th Century.
At the end of 1822, following the flight of Mahdi-qoli Khan of Karabagh
to Iran, Russia annexed the province and sent two officials to conduct
a survey of the population of Karabagh and the taxes collected by
the last khan. The survey, composed of 35 registers in Russian,
was completed in the spring of 1823 and send to Tiflis, the Russian
headquarters for the Caucasus. In 1866 the government printing office
in Tiflis published a very small quantity of the survey for official
use. The document became rare and, for all intents and purposes,
unobtainable.
Following the demands of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabagh
for self-determination, Azeri historians, led by the late Ziya
Buniatov, started a campaign to deny the Armenian historic presence
in the region. First, they prepared new editions of books by local
Persian-speaking Muslim chroniclers (written in the 18-19th centuries
and published in Baku in Russian and Azeri translations between 1921
and 1970), and blatantly deleted most references to the Armenians.
Second, they sent the new editions free of charge to many university
libraries in Europe, Russia and the US. Third, they announced that the
Armenians of Mountainous Karabagh had arrived there only after 1828,
when Russia, following the Treaty of Turkmenchay had encouraged the
settlement of thousands of Armenians from Iran into the region. This
became and remains the official Azeri view (see the Azerbaijan Embassy
in DC website).
Although, Bournoutian in his three previous books, as well as
two articles has totally refuted the Azeri claims, the absence of
concrete population figures for Karabagh presented a problem. One
either had to rely on Armenian sources (written between the 16th
and 19th centuries and unacceptable to the Azeris as biased) or the
abovementioned out-of-print Russian and Azeri unadulterated versions.
Although both sources mention an Armenian presence in the region,
they either present unsubstantiated and exaggerated figures or have
no demographic information whatsoever.
The 1823 Russian Survey of Karabagh, conducted by neutral officials,
lists the number of families and their ethnicity in some 300 villages
and 300 nomad pastures. It also lists the various taxes paid to the
khan’s treasury by each group. It proves conclusively that, in 1822,
six years prior to 1828, the Armenians formed the overwhelming
majority (some 97%) in the five districts, which later formed
Nagorno- Karabagh. Furthermore, the Armenian villages were larger,
more productive and the Armenians paid more taxes per capita than the
Muslims. The high economic productivity of the Armenian villages is
a further indication of their long presence in the region.
Bournoutian’s annotated translation (first in any language) from
the Russian original edition (located at the former Lenin Library
in Moscow) of this 380-page survey, has a great deal of other
information on the demography and economy of Karabagh, which will
be of primary interest to scholars of Transcaucasia. It includes a
lengthy introduction and commentary, an appendix and maps and should,
once and for all, end the discussion regarding the Armenian historic
presence in or claims to Nagorno- Karabagh.
The book (xiv + 467pp., $45.00), available in mid-October can be
ordered from Mazda Press, Amazon, Barnes and Nobles, or Armenian
bookstores.