“Who controls the past controls the future” is a quote from “Nineteen Eighty-Four” by English novelist, essayist, and critic George Orwell, famous for this novel (1949) and “Animal Farm” (1945), a satirical allegorical novella, in the form of a beast fable, which describe a dystopian future where all citizens are manipulated by a single political party. The quote implies that the portrayal of history has a political subtext: whoever rules history, formulates the legitimacy of its government. Due to the circumstances, unfortunately for Armenia, the main occupation of the incumbent club that came to power after 2018 is the editing and proofreading of the old, new and recent history. This aligns with Orwell’s concept of Newspeak – rewriting historical records to conform to the state’s ever-changing version of history. This activity serves two main purposes:
- Shifting blame: The incumbent government seeks to hold various parties responsible for its creeping capitulation, defeats and territorial losses since 2020, including a) the Church, since the time of King Pap of Armenia (c. 353 – 374/375), b) the Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaktsutyun, which claims the Armenian cause, c) the Soviet Union, which instilled enmity towards neighbors, d) Russia, which took Artsakh from Armenia and gave it to Azerbaijan, e) former authorities, which pursued a wrong policy by not handing over Artsakh in time. In short, the list of culprits is extensive, but it notably excludes the incumbent government, under whose leadership the defeats and losses began.
- Maintaining power: By portraying almost everyone else as guilty, the government seeks to position itself as the sole innocent party. Thus, setting history in a way that supports this narrative allows the current political force to justify its continued hold on power.
Rewriting history is of paramount importance in politics. In ideological countries, every line of history textbooks is significant. During the Soviet Union, Spartacus, the leader of the slave revolt in ancient Rome, was presented as a Marxist-socialist. The Paulicians, “the followers of Paul,” a medieval Christian sect originating in Armenia in the 7th century, were similarly reinterpreted as heroes of the ideological movement against the exploiting class. In ideological countries this can be understood, but for a government that denies “-isms,” like the Civil Contract, such an interest in history is incomprehensible at first glance.
The activity of Orwell’s ideological followers is also felt in Armenia. In particular, the minister of education “and a number of other things” announced that children attending school would not have new history textbooks because of problematic issues, including the inclusion of a description of the “March 1, 2008 Armenian presidential election protests” in the new textbook.
Let’s leave the textbooks aside. The events of March 1 in question are so important to the current government that they are willing to sacrifice an entire educational process for their sake. Rewriting history serves not only ideological purposes but also non-ideological ones. When the political elite has cracked, discrediting rivals to justify its right to rule becomes essential. The focus is not on seeking the truth but on affirming one’s right to govern. In fact, the current government’s rule is not based on new values for the “New Armenia” but, for example, on the events of 2008.
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ACNIS (The Armenian Center for National and International Studies)