Гражданство: взгляд из центра на окраины: права и обязанности армян в Российской империи в общественном мнении Санкт-Петербурга и Москвы в 1880-е гг.

Журнал региональной истории. 2025. Т. 9. № 4. С. 1224–1270.

Nedopekina A.

The article focuses on the role and specificity of the Armenian Question in the Russian public sphere of St Petersburg and Moscow in the early 1880s, a period of the first tension between the government and the Armenian subjects of the empire. The study of the four major newspapers reveals the relationship between the state policy and the public discourse about the Caucasus and Armenians under the early reign of Alexander III. According to the public opinion, the legal particularism together with the abolishment of Caucasus Viceroyalty caused problems for the government and the local population. The article shows that conservative and liberal correspondents had different opinions about the causes and ways to resolve that situation. The analysis of public discussions resulted in the conclusion that the essence of “citizenship” (the group identity of Armenians) depended on the collective imagination of participants in the public sphere rather than fixed legal norms.

Keywords: Кавказ, публичная сфера, гражданство, Russian Empire, Российская империя, public sphere, Caucasus, citizenship, press, пресса, армяне, Armenian Apostolic Church, Армянская Апостольская Церковь, Armenian