As Persia weakened in the 18th century, Armenians rebelled against the autocratic rule and religious oppression of the Persian Empire with a common demand for the reconstruction of the Armenian state. According to Stalin's exposition on the national question, a nation is a stable community formed on the basis of a common psychology expressed in a common language, territory, economic life and culture. Russia's immigration policy concentrated Armenians in the Russian province of Armenia, which increased communication between Armenians and strengthened emotional ties. Although Russia did not fulfil its promise of full autonomy, its immigration policy had an important impact on the formation of the Armenian national consciousness.
The Armenians of the Persian and Ottoman Empires, who gained the right to move and inhabit their homeland and received Russia's promises of security, tax reductions, commercial privileges, and cultural autonomy, became pioneers of Russian expansion into the South Caucasus under the protection of the Tsar. Russia's conquest of the South Caucasus provided the prerequisites for the restoration of the historical homeland of Armenians, and tens of thousands of Armenians abroad migrated to Russia's newly conquered territories. In particular, after the signing of the Treaty of Turkmenchai, as a result of the migration activities of the Russian Government, the number of Armenians in the Yerevan Khanate and the Nakhichevan Khanate and in the Orenburg Krai reached 81,610, more than the local Azerbaijanis, and the Armenians in Eastern Armenia gradually rose to 50 per cent of the regional population, which was the result of migration.
In order to attract Armenian immigrants, in 1829 Russia established the Armenian Province on the territory of the newly conquered Yerevan and Nakhichevan Khanates, an administrative division designation of great political significance for Armenians and reinforcing the Armenian desire for self-determination. The settlement of Armenians in the Armenian province was an important step in the future national awakening, which provided the territorial basis for the collective identity of the Armenian nation and the formation of the future Armenian state.
After the Armenians entered Russia, they were intertwined with the political, economic, military and other interests of the Russian government. The Russian-Turkish, Russian-Polish peace treaty at the end of the 20s of the 19th century opened a period of relative peace in the South Caucasus. Armenian merchants could accumulate wealth in stable international trade, creating conditions for the ascension of the Armenian bourgeoisie in Russian cities. For the Armenians, the Russian army was not only a line of defense against the invasion of the Persians and Caucasian mountain people, but also a defender of the new domestic social order, putting an end to the barbarism of the Georgian nobility against Armenian merchants and craftsmen.
Armenian businessmen, with the support of the Russian government, continued to accumulate political and economic capital. In 1836, Tsar Nicholas I issued a decree recognizing the autonomous status of ecclesiastical institutions, the right of the Armenian Church to manage and organize ecclesiastical schools, and the Armenians were completely granted freedom of belief. Russia granted Archbishop Achmiakin great powers to administer the Armenians under a unified religious authority. In the framework of ecclesiastical autonomy, a group of Armenian intellectuals emerged from the ecclesiastical schools.
By the 40s of the 19th century, the geographical and linguistic barriers were gradually broken down by the common religious authority and uniform legal norms of the Armenians throughout Russia. With the introduction of Western ideas, new currents of thought that challenged the traditional authority of the Church began to emerge, and new Armenian secular intellectuals were formed, and in the process the Armenian sense of independence became stronger.
The most important result of Russia's Armenian immigration policy was the formation of a solid Armenian community in their historical homeland by Armenians who had been in exile for centuries. Under Russian rule, the Armenian bourgeoisie continued to grow and develop, intellectuals began to awaken, and the Armenian national consciousness began to form.
