Constituent republic of the Soviet Union between 1922 and 1991
Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic[a] (1920-1922) (1936–1991) Азәрбајҹан Совет Сосиалист Республикасы(Azerbaijani) Азербайджанская Советская Социалистическая Республика(Russian)Republic of Azerbaijan[b] (1991) Azərbaycan Respublikası(Azerbaijani) Азербайджанская Республика(Russian)
TheAzerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic[g], also referred to as theAzerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic,Azerbaijan SSR,Azerbaijani SSR,AzSSR,Soviet Azerbaijan or simplyAzerbaijan, was one of theconstituent republics of theSoviet Union between 1922 and 1991. Azerbaijan SSR was created on 28 April 1920 following theRed Army invasion of Azerbaijan. When theRussian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic brought pro-Soviet figures to power in the region, the first two years of the Azerbaijani SSR were as an independent country until incorporation into theTranscaucasian SFSR, along with theArmenian SSR and theGeorgian SSR.
In December 1922, the Transcaucasian SFSR became part of the newly established Soviet Union. The Constitution of Azerbaijan SSR was approved by the 9th Extraordinary All-Azerbaijani Congress of Soviets on 14 March 1937. On 5 February 1991, Azerbaijan SSR was renamed theRepublic of Azerbaijan according to the Decision No.16-XII ofSupreme Soviet of Azerbaijan approving the Decree of the President of Azerbaijan SSR dated 29 November 1990,[2] remained in the USSR for the period before the declaration of independence in October 1991. The Constitution of the Azerbaijan SSR ceased to exist in 1995, upon the adoption of the newConstitution of Azerbaijan.
From its founding it was officially known as theAzerbaijan Socialist Soviet Republic. When theTranscaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic was abolished, the name was changed to theAzerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic according to the 1937 and 1978 Azerbaijan SSR constitutions. Upon independence, it was renamed to theRepublic of Azerbaijan (orAzerbaijani Republic) in 1991. The current official name was retained after the newConstitution of Azerbaijan was adopted in 1995.
On 13 October 1921, the Soviet republics of Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia signed an agreement with Turkey known as theTreaty of Kars. The previously independent Nakhcivan SSR would also become anautonomous ASSR within Azerbaijan by theTreaty of Kars.[6][7]
Borders of Azerbaijan andArmenia, like elsewhere in the USSR, were redrawn several times, yet neither side was completely satisfied with the results.
On 12 March 1922 the leaders of Azerbaijan, Armenian, and Georgian Soviet Socialist Republics established a union known as theTranscaucasian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic (TSFSR). This was the first attempt at a union of Soviet republics, preceding the USSR. The Union Council of TSFSR consisted of the representatives of the three republics –Nariman Narimanov (Azerbaijan),Polikarp Mdivani (Georgia), andAleksandr Fyodorovich Miasnikyan (Armenia). The First Secretary of the Transcaucasian Communist Party wasSergo Ordzhonikidze.
In December 1922 TSFSRagreed to join the union withRussia,Ukraine, andBelarus, thus creating theUnion of Soviet Socialist Republics which would last until 1991. The TSFSR, however, did not last long. In December 1936, the Transcaucasian Union was dismantled when the leaders in the Union Council found themselves unable to come to agreement over several issues. Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia then each became arepublic of the Soviet Union directly.
In the spring of 1921, a general change-over fromrevkoms andkombeds to Soviets took place. In order to help the Azerbaijanioil industry theSupreme Council of the National Economy decided in the same year to provide it with everything necessary out of turn. The new oilfields, likeIlyich bay,Qaraçuxur,Lökbatan andQala have been discovered. By 1929, a significantkolkhoz movement had developed and Azerbaijan became the second Soviet tea producer after theGeorgian SSR for the first time. On 31 March 1931, the oil industry of the Azerbaijan SSR, which supplied over 60% of the total Soviet oil production at the time, was awarded theOrder of Lenin. The republic gained the second Order on 15 March 1935 during the observation of its 15th anniversary.[8] By the end of thesecond five-year plan (1933–1937) Azerbaijan had become the 3rd republic in the Soviet Union by itscapital investment size.[citation needed]
From 17 September 1939 to 21 June 1941,Nazi Germany, due to itsnon-aggression pact and relatively normalized trade relations with the USSR, was a major importer of oil produced in the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic.
This changed when Germany invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941. In the first year of theSoviet-German War, Azerbaijan produced 23.5 million tons of oil—a record for the entire history of its oil industry.[9] By the end of 1941, thousands of Azerbaijanis had joined the People's Volunteer Corps. Mobilization affected all spheres of life, particularly the oil industries. A week after fighting began, the oil workers themselves took the initiative to extend their work to 12-hour shifts, with no days off, including holidays and vacations, until the end of the war.
In September 1942,Hitler's generals presented him with a large decorated cake depicting theCaspian Sea and Baku. Baku then became the primary strategic goal of Hitler's 1942Fall Blau offensive. This offensive was unsuccessful, however. The German army reached the mountains of theCaucasus, but was at the same time decisively defeated at theBattle of Stalingrad and thus forced to retreat from the area, abandoning all hopes for aReichskommissariat Kaukasien. In 1942, Azerbaijan also became the second-largest tea producer of theSoviet Army. By the decree of theSupreme Soviet of the USSR in February 1942, the commitment of more than 500 workers and employees of the oil industry of Azerbaijan was awarded orders and medals. Of the estimated 600,000 Azerbaijanis who were recruited into the Soviet Army during the war, 290,000 died.
An event that greatly impacted Azerbaijanis on both sides of the border was the Soviet occupation ofIranian Azerbaijan in the summer of 1941. The Soviet military presence south of theAras River led to a revival of Pan-Azerbaijani nationalism. During the Soviet occupation, a revival of the Azerbaijani literary language, which had largely been supplanted by Persian, was promoted with the help of writers, journalists, and teachers from Soviet Azerbaijan. In November 1945, with Soviet backing, an autonomous "Azerbaijan People's Government" was set up atTabriz underJafar Pishevari, the leader of theAzerbaijani Democratic Party. Secular cultural institutions and education in Azerbaijani blossomed throughout Iranian Azerbaijan, and speculation grew rife about a possible unification of the two Azerbaijani republics, under Soviet control. As it turned out, the issue ofIranian Azerbaijan became one of the first conflicts of the Cold War, and under the pressure from the Western powers, the Soviet army was withdrawn. The Iranian government regained control over Iranian Azerbaijan by the end of 1946 and the Democratic Party leaders took refuge in Soviet Azerbaijan.Jafar Pishevari, who was never fully trusted by Stalin, soon died under mysterious circumstances.
Baku in the early 1950s
Apart from theOil Rocks, Azerbaijan's first offshore oil field was opened in the early 1950s. Policies ofde-Stalinization and improvement after the 1950s led to better education and welfare conditions for most of Azerbaijan. This also coincided with the period of rapid urbanization and industrialization. During this period of change, a new anti-Islamic drive and return to a policy ofRussification, under the policy ofsblizheniye (rapprochement), was instituted in order to merge all the peoples of the USSR into a new monolithic Soviet nation.
In the 1960s, signs of astructural crisis in the Soviet system began to emerge. Azerbaijan's crucial oil industry lost its relative importance in theSoviet economy, partly because of a shift of oil production to other regions of the Soviet Union and partly because of the depletion of known oil resources accessible from land, while offshore production was not deemed cost-effective. As a result, Azerbaijan had the lowest rate of growth in productivity and economic output among the Soviet republics, with the exception ofTajikistan. Ethnic tensions, particularly betweenArmenians andAzerbaijanis began to grow, but the violence was suppressed. In an attempt to end the growing structural crisis, the government inMoscow appointedHeydar Aliyev as the first secretary of theCommunist Party of Azerbaijan in 1969. Aliyev temporarily improved the economic conditions and promoted alternative industries to the declining oil industry, such as cotton. He also consolidated the republic's ruling elite, which now consisted almost entirely of ethnic Azerbaijanis, thus reverting the previous trends ofsblizheniye. In 1982 Aliyev was made a member of the Communist Party'sPolitburo in Moscow. In 1987, whenperestroika was implemented, he was forced to retire by Soviet leaderMikhail Gorbachev, whose reform policies he opposed.[citation needed]
The late 1980s, during theGorbachev era, were characterized by increasing unrest in theCaucasus, initially over theNagorno-Karabakh issue. The ethnic strife revealed the shortcomings of the Communist Party as a champion of national interests and, in the spirit ofglasnost, independent publications and political organizations began to emerge. Of these organizations, by far the most prominent was thePopular Front of Azerbaijan (PFA), which by the fall of 1989 had a lot of popular support. The movement supported independence from the USSR.[citation needed]
Flag of Azerbaijan in 1991 before the collapse of the Soviet Union
The unrest culminated in acrackdown by the Red army which aimed at silencing the demands for independence. At least 132 demonstrators were killed and other civilians inBaku injured on 20 January 1990.[citation needed]
Azerbaijan participated in theunion-wide referendum to preserve the union as theUnion of Soviet Sovereign Republics but with different constitutional arrangements. The referendum was passed by 93.3% of valid polls. The Armenian SSR did not participate in the referendum. The Supreme Soviet of theexclave of theNakhichevan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic also decided not to participate in the referendum.[10] The Azerbaijani Popular Front Party argued that only 15% of the electorate had participated in the referendum.[11]
The "Treaty of the Union of Sovereign States" failed to be ratified because the1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt accelerated declarations of independence by Soviet Socialist Republics between August and December.[12] Azerbaijan adopted its declaration of independence on 18 October 1991.[13][14] The final dissolution of the Soviet Union took place on 26 December 1991. Shortly before that date, the Azerbaijan SSR joined theCommonwealth of Independent States.
By the end of 1991 fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh had escalated into a full-scale war, which culminated into a tense 1994 cease-fire that persisted into the 21st century. Azerbaijani success in thewar of 2020 and a further successful offensivein 2023 resulted in the restoration of Azerbaijan's territorial extent to that which it had held as a Soviet Republic.
After the approval of the Constitution of Azerbaijan SSR by the All-Azerbaijan Congress of Soviets in 1921, Azerbaijan Revolutionary Committee was revoked and Central Executive Committee was selected as a supreme legislative body.[8]
According to the Constitution Azerbaijan SSR in 1937, the legislative body switched to a new phase. Central Executive Committee was replaced with Supreme Soviet.[15]
A parade onLenin Square in Baku in honor of the 50th anniversary of the founding of Soviet Azerbaijan, October 1970
Under the military structure of the former Soviet Union, Azerbaijan shortly before gaining independence, was host to over 60,000 Soviet military personnel deployed throughout the country in units of the Ground Forces, Air Forces, Air Defense Forces, and Navy. The primary combat formation of Ground Forces in Azerbaijan was the4th Army, which housed its headquarters and various support units inBaku. In addition to the independentsurface-to-air missile (SAM), artillery, andSCUD brigades, the principal combat elements of the Fourth Army were the 23rd (Ganja), 295th (Lenkaran), 60th (Baku) and 75th (Nakhchivan)motorized rifle divisions (MRD), and the Ganja Helicopter Assault Regiment (Mi-24 Hinds andMi-8 Hips). The only ground forces training establishment in Azerbaijan was theBaku Higher Combined Arms Command School. Military conscription in the Azerbaijan SSR was introduced only after the establishment of Soviet control, with the number of people being called up for service being minimal at first.[16]
^"Originally, Media Atropatene was the northern part of greater Media. To the north, it was separated fromArmenia by theR. Araxes. To the east, it extended as far as the mountains along theCaspian Sea, and to the west as far asLake Urmia (ancientMatiane Limne) and the mountains of present-day Kurdistan. TheR. Amardos may have been the southern border." from Kroll, S.E. "Media Atropatene". 1994. in Talbert, J.A.Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World: Map-by-map Directory. Princeton University Press, 2000.
^Institute of History of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (1998).Azerbaijan Republic (1918-1920)(PDF) (in Azerbaijani). Baku: Elm Publishing House. pp. 295–300.ISBN5-8066-0925-1.Archived(PDF) from the original on 7 November 2017. Retrieved13 June 2017.
^Suha Bolukbasi (2011).Azerbaijan: A Political History. I.B.Tauris & Co LTD. p. 164.ISBN978-1-84885-620-2.
^Zbigniew Brzezinski, Paige Sullivan (1997).Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States: Documents, Data, and Analysis. M.E.Sharpe. p. 13.ISBN1-56324-637-6.
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