The Continuing Academic War Over Karabagh: Documentation from the 1823 Russian Survey of the Karabagh Province

A Lecture by
Prof. George Bournoutian
Professor of East European and Middle Eastern Studies Iona College, New York In 1823, in order to enumerate the population of Karabagh and ascertain
revenues to be collected, Russian General Alexei Ermolov ordered a detailed survey of the Karabagh Province, which had been incorporated into the Russian
Empire in 1822. The results of the survey, titled The Description of the Karabagh Province, were presented in April-May 1823 and eventually published in
1866. The number of copies printed must have been very small. To our knowledge,with the exception of I. P. Petrushevskii, no serious scholar of 19th-century
Transcaucasia or Iran has mined the valuable information contained in these surveys.

In 2003, a new limited edition appeared in Baku. However, instead of printing a facsimile of the original, the production team reformatted the entire text. In doing so, they not only made numerous spelling and typographic errors but also omitted important data, including information about the Armenian presence in
the region.

Bournoutian's new work The 1823 Russian Survey of the Karabagh Province: A Primary Source on the Demography and Economy of Karabagh in the First Half of
the 19th Century (Mazda) is a full and accurate translation of the original survey. The publication was supported in part by a grant from NAASR.

Bournoutian analyzes the data and provides an accurate picture of the demography and economic conditions of Karabagh prior to its incorporation into the Russian Empire. The study will finally put to rest the claims that Armenians arrived in Karabagh only after 1828.

Prof. George Bournoutian is the author or translator of numerous other books, including The Khanate of Erevan Under Qajar Rule, A Concise History of the
Armenian People, Two Chronicles on the History of Karabagh, The Travel Accounts of Simeon of Poland, Tigran II and Rome, Jambr, and A Brief History of the
Aghuank Region.

The 1823 Russian Survey of the Karabagh Province will be available for purchase
and signing by Prof. Bournoutian.

NAASR