Role of culture in preservation of ethnic identity of Armenians in the V century

The subject of this article is the cultural activity of Armenians in the V century aimed at preservation of national unity in the conditions of loss of statehood and exacerbated situation of population of the Eastern and Western Armenia. The object of this article is the Armenian leaders of the V century who impacted cultural development of the region of that time. Detailed analysis is conducted on such aspects of topic, as creation of national witting system, proliferation of education and emergence of national literature, development of architectural thought. Special attention is paid to the role of the Church in cultural development, as well as the appeared momocanons, which became the legal framework for the secular and ecclesiastical life. The scientific novelty of this research is defined by a new trend in historical science related to the study of ethnic identity. In medieval studies, this topic is of special importance, since peoples and states of that time often experienced the loss of sovereignty and statehood, which complicates the processes of ethnic self-identification of population. The work analyses the sources that describe cultural development of Eastern and Western Armenia, which allows speaking of the degree of preservation of national identity of the people, their unity against the threat of assimilation and loss of uniqueness. The made conclusions underline the significance of cultural development for the formation, preservation and development of ethnic identity of the people under a threat of assimilation or mandatory integration.