Movses Silikyan Մովսես Սիլիկյան |
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Movses Silikyan portrait
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Born | 1862 Nukhinsky Uyezd, Elisabethpol Governorate, Russian Empire |
Died | 10 December 1937 Nork Gorge, Yerevan, Soviet Union |
(aged 74–75)
Allegiance |
Russian Empire (1884–1917) First Republic of Armenia (1918–1920) |
Service/branch | Army |
Years of service | 1884—1920 |
Rank | Major General |
Commands held | 1st Armenian rifle division Army Corps Yerevan detachment |
Battles/wars | |
Awards | see below |
Armenian National Liberation Movement
First World War
Movses Silikyan (Armenian: Մովսես Սիլիկյան, Russian: Мовсес Силиков, Movses Silikov) (1862 – 10 December 1937) was an Armenian general and national hero of World War I. He served as a Major General in the Russian Imperial Army before the Bolshevik Revolution.
After the Bolsheviks concluded a peace treaty with the Ottomans under the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918, they left the war. They had ceded territory of Armenia. Georgia and Azerbaijan also struggled with the Ottomans in the aftermath of this treaty. In May 1918, the First Republic of Armenia declared independence. Silikyan led forces in the Armenian army.
Following the Sovietization of Armenia from 1920 to 1922, the Bolsheviks invaded Armenia and established a puppet government in the Transcaucasian SFSR. Silikyan held some positions. During Joseph Stalin's Great Purge of 1937, Silikyan was arrested, charged, convicted and executed for "nationalism", together with other high-ranking military officers of Armenia. Countless other victims were murdered and hundreds of thousands suffered under Stalin's political repression.
Following Stalin's death, since the late 1950s, Silikyan and hundreds of thousands of other victims of Soviet repression have been "rehabilitated" politically and socially. The Soviet Union acknowledged that many people had been falsely charged and convicted during the excesses of Stalin's regime.