"True, the area of Russian Armenia is small, but it is larger than
the state of Massachusetts, and Massachusetts was at one stage the
cradle of the American government. True, the population is not great,
but it is somewhat more than 1,000,000, including a blend of 500,000
refugees from the border provinces of Turkey, with a third 500,000
already living in Russian regions not far away. True, the little
country is not independent; if it were it probably would be wiped
off the map. The Armenian people now have the nucleus of their own
national homeland. Volumes of statistics include Armenian as one
of the several languages officially recognized by the government
at Moscow. They have their own officials chosen for, by, and of
the people. Human welfare depends very much on the officials who
administer government as well as on the laws spread upon the
statute books. They also have their own schools and university;
their own historic culture and hopes of gradual solution of
differences and economic development; their family life and
ancestral churches, though the prevailing attitude of officials
in Moscow and among Russian citizens generally is anti-ecclesiastic,
if not definitely anti-religious. True, Russian authority encircles
and includes the little republic, and conformity is required in
all the essentials. True, collectivism from the angle of the Slav
is in control, but that means in this location work for every worker
and food for every eater without capitalism or capitalists.
The Promising Land, as Armenians now regard it, is about the size
of Holland or Belgium, but each of these countries furnishes a
home for several million inhabitants. The soil of the Leninakhan
Valleys is of famed fertility if given water, and as already
remarked, old irrigation projects are in process of renewal and
extension. Considerable electric power is already in use. Cereals
and other food, including fruits, are already fairly abundant.
The production of cotton has been increased, and with their
Armenian ability as industrialists, their mills are already
weaving to supply Russian needs beyond Armenian boundaries.
Not only locally, but in the city of Tiflis and the national
capital at Moscow, Armenians are found in government positions.
Small minorities of Turks and Kurds in the country we are
glimpsing, with their own schools and folk-ways, are said to be
quite satisfied among their old neighbors. Russian Armenia does
not reach the sea, and it has no separate port; but Batoum is
the open and adequate port for all trans-Caucasia, and under
the Russian system, there are no trade barriers between the
different provinces. Erivan is on almost the same latitude as
Philadelphia."
[From: George E. White's "Adventuring With Anatolia College", p. 178/9
(Herald-Register Publishing Company, Grinnell, Iowa, March 1940)]