ABSTRACT
Soviet oligarchic rule effaced alternative political elites. Only the academic and literary intelligentsia remained somewhat autonomous in some republics. Once the Communist elite lost its ideological conviction, once its political will was weakened during the Gorbachev revolution, the alternative elites that emerged proved to be extraordinarily weak and in most republics without broad social bases. When perestroika provided an opening for pent-up political frustrations, the Armenian intelligentsia mobilized around three major issues: environmental pollution and the danger posed by the nuclear plant at Metsamor, near Erevan; the perennial issue of Karabakh; and the corruption and stagnation connected with the long reign of party chief Karen Demirchian. The story of the emergence of the Azerbaijani nationalist elite differs from the Armenian experience, not least because the two nations were formed before and during the Soviet period in significantly different ways.
