May Uprising

The May Uprising (Armenian: Մայիսյան ապստամբություն, romanized: Mayisyan apstambutyun) was a failed Armenian Bolshevik rebellion against the government of the First Republic of Armenia. It started in Alexandopol (today Gyumri) on May 10, 1920 and was eventually suppressed by the Armenian government on May 14, with its leaders executed or exiled. Although the revolt failed, Armenia was eventually Sovietized after the 11th Army of Soviet Russia invaded the country in November 1920 and the Turkish Nationalists occupied the western half of the country. The revolt and its executed leaders were praised in Soviet Armenia until the late 1980s, when the Karabakh movement began and anti-Soviet sentiment rose in the Armenian republic. The revolt remains a controversial topic in post-Soviet Armenia.