Roving Revolutionaries: Armenians and the Connected Revolutions in the Russian, Iranian, and Ottoman Worlds

by Houri Berberian

Three of the formative revolutions that shook the early twentieth-century world occurred almost simultaneously in regions bordering each other. Though the Russian, Iranian, and Young Turk Revolutions all exploded between 1904 and 1911, they have never been studied through their linkages until now.  Roving Revolutionaries  probes the interconnected aspects of these three revolutions through the involvement of the Armenian revolutionaries—minorities in all of these empires—whose movements and participation within and across frontiers tell us a great deal about the global transformations that were taking shape. Exploring the geographical and ideological boundary crossings that occurred, Houri Berberian’s archivally grounded analysis of the circulation of revolutionaries, ideas, and print tells the story of peoples and ideologies in upheaval and collaborating with each other, and in so doing it illuminates our understanding of revolutions and movements.

Genres: History

320 pages, Paperback

Published April 16, 2019

Reviews

[Joanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Berberian makes the case that Armenians played a key part in the Ottoman, Iranian, and Russian revolutions in the first decade of the twentieth century, and she also argues convincingly that we should look at the interplay of constitutionalism, federalism, and socialism rather than simply calling it “Armenian nationalism” and leaving it at that. Yet the book leaves many questions unaddressed. Yes, revolutionaries, arms, and printed material circulated among the three empires, but what were the major events in which the former two were involved? How did the revolutionaries share not only political ideas but tactical approaches, such as instigating protests, strikes, etc.? Finally, the book gives no real sense of the personalities of the revolutionaries themselves or the conditions against which they were rebelling, making this a rather colorless history despite its innovative approach.

[catsonthebeach · Rating 4 out of 5]

Roving Revolutionaries: Armenians and the Connected Revolutions in the Russian, Iranian, and Ottoman Worlds is a book written by a single author, Houri Berberian. The bulk of the main text is divided into just five chapters. It was published in 2019 by the University of California press, the university system for which Berberian works. At the University of Irvine, Berberian is the Presidential Chair in Armenian Studies in the School of Humanities. Berberian’s focus is on Modern Armenian and Middle Eastern History with a focus on revolution, women and gender. Berbain often refers to herself and uses personal pronouns. This book was provided as a source for the Young Turks revolution, even though it and Berberian are far more focused on the Armenians during that period. This is not necessarily a contradiction, as the thesis of Berberian's book could best be described as the Russian, Iranian, and Ottoman revolutions in the first decades of the 20th century were connected, shared similar revolutionary attributes, and all impacted Armenians and influenced decisions made by Armenian revolutionaries. Berberine uses sources and references in several languages, including classical and western Armenian, Persian, and Russian. She claims to have done a majority of the translations herself.
Berberian's academic focus on the concept of “revolution” is clear, she attempts to provide at least a working definition in every chapter, but especially the first. She also chooses to focus on the 1905 Russian revolution, which she acknowledges that until the revolution in 1917, was a decisive failure and therefore not always accepted as a revolution. She accounts for this criticism, as well as the larger criticism of what constitutes a revolution, by saying, “It would be just as imprudent to dismiss revolutions because they do not measure up to the few classic social revolutions such as the French (1789) and the Russian (1917)”. None of the revolutions this book focuses on are, as Berberian puts it, “classic” revolutions. In fact, she chooses to focus on the 1905-1907 revolution in Russian and the Iranian revolution in 1906, even though when a modern audience thinks of revolutions in those countries, a much larger and more impactful revolution comes to mind first. Berberian engages with these other revolutions very sparingly, focussing less on how these revolutions influenced later history and more on how they influenced each other, and Armenians.
Berberian acknowledges that historiography in her field is not particularly in favour of taking such a comparative approach, as she does. She relies and advocates for the term “historie croisée” (connected histories). She discussed other scholar’s criticisms of comparative history, while also maintaining historie croisée is something unique. The revolutions discussed in this book were contemporary to each other and occurred in decently close proximity, especially in the case of the Iranian and Ottoman revolutions. With that in mind, Berberian seeks to present them not in a vacuum, not as independent as each other, but being bred from similar stock during a revolutionary period in history. A shared factor of these revolutions, as well as advocacy by Armenians, is socialism. Chapters one and four delve into what socialist looked like in the first decade of the 1900s and the role it played in these revolutions. In chapter four, she states that by the time these revolutions took place, “socialism had become a powerful revolutionary ideology.” Another thread all these revolutions share, according to Berberian, is constitutionalism. The third chapter focuses on what constitutionalism looked like globally, and specifically in the focus countries during this time period. When discussing the prospect of Iran constitution, Berberain writes, “The promise of Iran’s movement for a constitution transcended the country and the region”. Berberian uses connections between multiple countries to explain how they developed together.
Berberian concludes with some discussion of the monumental after effects of this period, the Armenian genocide. She asks the question why the educated, connected, politically active Armenian revolutionaries, “did not see the genocide around the corner.” But as previously discussed, this book is not anachronistic, and the focus and analysis is decidedly centred on the first decade of the 1900s. Berberian, as a scholar of modern Armenian history, is surely aware of all the scholarship on the genocide, and this is not her focus. In fact, Berberian cautions against making hindsight conclusions from a “post-genocidal perspective”. The actors participating in these revolutions could never know what would follow, and so focusing on this period, Berberian attempts to use the same blinders in this book.

[Dimitrii Ivanov · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting material and potentially productive theoretical framework. Yet on the whole, whilst new facts emerge, the picture isn't complete. There's plenty of discussion of how "our revolutionaries" (sic) were smuggling arms and fighters across borders but somehow what was done with these weapons by these fighters is not very clear in most cases. Did the ARF (whose archives are the primary source) have any role in e.g. communal bloodletting known as the Armeno-Tatar War? There is plenty of discussion of intellectual influences that Armenian revolutionaries received from Europe and Russia, but their own intellectual impact on the Russian, Ottoman and Iranian revolutionary processes isn't very salient in the text. Very minor point, but on two occasions Russian patronymics are confused with names.