Urmia Orthodokseta ("Orthodox Urmia"; ) was a magazine published every month (with one interruption) from 1904 to 1914 in

Urmia Urmia (; ) is the largest city in West Azerbaijan Province of Iran. In the Central District of Urmia County, it is capital of the province, the county, and the district. The city is situated near the borders of Iran with Turkey and Iraq. ...

Qajar Iran The Guarded Domains of Iran, alternatively the Sublime State of Iran and commonly called Qajar Iran, Qajar Persia or the Qajar Empire, was the Iranian state under the rule of the Qajar dynasty, which was of Turkic peoples, Turkic origin,Cyrus G ...

by the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission. It was published in both

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

and

Assyrian Neo-Aramaic Suret ( Help:IPA for Aramaic, �suːrɪtʰor Help:IPA for Aramaic, �suːrɪθ, also known as Assyrian, refers to the varieties of Northeastern Neo-Aramaic (NENA) spoken by Christians, namely Assyrian people, Assyrians.Nordhoff, Sebast ...

. Publication permanently came to an end in 1914 due to the outbreak of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. In the early years of publication, the Russian and Neo-Aramaic versions contained the same articles, which, in the words of Lina Yakubova, were about topics of "general interest". However, this changed later. The Russian version focused primarily on the "geography and

ethnography Ethnography is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. It explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study. Ethnography is also a type of social research that involves examining ...

of the Assyrians". On the other thand, the Neo-Aramaic version changed into being "primarily religious in character", and specifically aimed at the "expansion of Russian Orthodoxy". Yakubova notes that some issues of the magazine stood out in terms of content as they promoted then incumbent Tsar

Nicholas II Nicholas II (Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov; 186817 July 1918) or Nikolai II was the last reigning Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland from 1 November 1894 until his abdication on 15 March 1917. He married ...

(1894-1917) as a "benevolent ruler".

Circulation and format

Yakubova notes that separate versions of ''Urmia Orthodokseta'', one in Russian and one in Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, were printed was due to fact that an ever increasing number of

Assyrians Assyrians (, ) are an ethnic group indigenous to Mesopotamia, a geographical region in West Asia. Modern Assyrians share descent directly from the ancient Assyrians, one of the key civilizations of Mesopotamia. While they are distinct from ot ...

in the area were converting to the

Russian Orthodox The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...

rite and were attending the schools in the area founded and sponsored by the Russians. Furthermore, an increasing number of Russians were active in commerce and diplomacy in the area, as well as Russian military personnel. The magazine was thus primarily meant for Iran's Assyrian citizens and the Russian nationals inside the country. The magazine published some eight bilingual issues starting from 1905-1906. Publication of ''Urmia Orthodokseta'' was paused during the

Iranian Constitutional Revolution The Persian Constitutional Revolution (, or ''Enghelāb-e Mashrūteh''), also known as the Constitutional Revolution of Iran, took place between 1905 and 1911 during the Qajar era. The revolution led to the establishment of a parliament in I ...

(1905-1911), "when the Russian presence became more suspect", but continued in 1911 with the arrival of the

Russian military The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, commonly referred to as the Russian Armed Forces, are the military of Russia. They are organized into three service branches—the Ground Forces, Navy, and Aerospace Forces—two independent comba ...

. The versions in Russian appeared in about 300 to 500 copies per circulation, while the Neo-Aramaic ones numbered 600 copies. The printing press used by the Mission to print the magazine was given to Iran by the new

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

government.

Subscription

Yakubova notes that people subscribed to ''Urmia Orthodokseta'' were mainly found in Urmia itself and in its confines. However, there were also people in Tiflis (

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი, ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), ( ka, ტფილისი, tr ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia ( ...

) and Erivan (

Yerevan Yerevan ( , , ; ; sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia, as well as one of the world's List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerev ...

) who were subscribed to ''Urmia Orthodokseta'', as well as in other parts of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

where Assyrians from Urmia had settled. The subscription costs were one toman per year in Iran, and two

ruble The ruble or rouble (; rus, рубль, p=rublʲ) is a currency unit. Currently, currencies named ''ruble'' in circulation include the Russian ruble (RUB, ₽) in Russia and the Belarusian ruble (BYN, Rbl) in Belarus. These currencies are s ...

s per year in the Russian Empire.

Circulation and format

Subscription

See also

References

Sources

Further reading