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VIII
THROUGH NORTH ARMENIA TO ERIVAN
Early next morning (Wednesday, June 24th) we had first to
collect the various persons who were going on this expedition
from different places in and outside the town. In addition
to the five members of our commission there was Miss MacCay,
who was going to spend her holiday at the agricultural station ;
Mr. Fathergill, who was to act as our guide ; the representa
tive of the Government, our friend Narriman Ter Kasarian,
alias Napoleon ; and the inevitable official newspaper corre
spondent. At last all were duly collected and safely aboard,
and we set off in the two cars, leaving Leninakan behind us.
We had not seen much of the town itself, but so far as I
could understand there was nothing of very special interest to
see there. It is a comparatively new Russian provincial
town with an Armenian population. Originally it was a small
Armenian hamlet called Gumri, being then in a district which
belonged to the kingdom of Georgia. When this area came
under Russia in 1801, Gumri became an important Russian
outpost and military station on the frontier facing Turkey.
Gradually the fortifications of this outpost were strengthened
until it eventually became a strong fortress ; and more
particularly after the visit of the Tsar Nicholas I in 1836 it
developed from a hamlet into the considerable town of Alexan
dropol, which the Bolsheviks afterwards re-christened
Leninakan. The fortress, encircled by earthworks and stone
and brick walls, occupies a height west of the town, on the
side towards the valley of the Arpa-chai. The town used to
be a good deal larger than Erivan, and its population may be
estimated at something like 40,00c. 1
1 After the above was written, Leninakan and the country around were
devastated by a terrible earthquake in the autumn of 1926. Four-fifths of the
houses in the town were destroyed, besides thirty villages ; about 80,000
people were rendered homeless. About 350 are reported to have been killed,
and 400 seriously wounded, in this district. A larger number would doubtless
have perished had not a small shock induced the population to leave their houses
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