ABSTRACT
This chapter identifies who were the political leaders of post-Soviet Armenia and how they came to power. Understanding the underlying pedigree of the post-Soviet Armenian political leadership provides the basis for further analysis of how this system constructed and employed a nationally relevant political narrative. The chapter focuses on the Armenian noble houses and clergy, political leadership of the First Republic and the Soviet political elite. The analysis of Armenia's Soviet leadership is particularly detailed as it provides the basis for understanding how the transition from controlled political elite of a satellite republic to an evidently independent political leadership of a sovereign state occurred. The chapter offers relevant various elite theories in order to conceptualize the emergence and profile of Armenia's post-Soviet political leadership. It analyses Armenia's post-Soviet political leadership by grouping them in their respective periods of power sharing, tracing common trends in their social and cultural backgrounds to understand their power dynamics.
