THE DISCUSSION ON THE ADMINISTRATIVE CENTER OF MYASNIKOVSKY DISTRICT (1920s)

Abstract

The article discusses the status of the city of Nakh-ichevan-on-Don. The city was founded by the Crimean Armenians in 1779, and in 1926-1928 it was the administrative center of the Armenian Myasnikovsky district. No single national district in the South of Russia had an administrative center in the city. Proclamation of Nakhichevan as the administrative center of the district enjoyed support among not only local officials and members of their families but the public at large, as they believed it conveyed deep national meaning. The leaders of the region and the district pursued a different goal. Having proclaimed Nakhichevan the center of the district, they tried to prevent the supporters of the Gadzievs clan that used to hold leading official positions in the district from regaining them. It was planned to relocate the center to Chaltyr or the Crimea as soon as Gadzievs's influence was eliminated. The author shows that in the year following the creation of Myasnikovsky district the higher management began to exert pressure on the Armenian authorities with the aim of making their own decisions about the transfer of the center of New Na-khchivan in one of large villages. In the discussion on the status of Nakhichevan as a district centre the fate of the city was under question. Without the consent of indigenous Armenian population of the Don, in 1928 the Central district of Nakhichevan was moved to the village of Crimea, and then to Chaltyr. In the same year, Nakhichevan was annexed to the city of Rostov-on-Don.