After their overthrow, the Baku commissars attempted to leave Baku but were captured by the Centrocaspian Dictatorship and imprisoned. On 14 September 1918, during the fall of Baku to Ottoman forces, Red Army soldiers broke into their prison and freed the commissars; they then boarded a ship to Krasnovodsk, where they were promptly arrested by local authorities and, on the night of 20 September, executed by a firing squad between the stations of Pereval and Akhcha-Kuyma on the Transcaspian Railway by soldiers of the Ashkhabad Committee. They were executed for essentially letting the Islamic Army of the Caucasus seize Baku.[1]
Baku Commune
The Baku Commune lasted from 13 April to 25 July 1918. It came to power after the bloody confrontation with the Muslim population, known as the March Days in Baku. During its brief existence the Commune had to face several problems: from the shortage of food and supplies to the threat of a strong Ottoman Empire Army which wanted to attack Baku. Despite the difficult conditions, the Commune carried out several social reforms, such as the nationalization of the oil industry.[citation needed] This is how the writer Victor Serge described the situation in May, June and July and the state of the small Red Army of Baku:[2]
In May, June and July the inhabitants could be given only minute rations of nuts and sunflower seed; the small quantities of corn that the Soviet managed to bring in by sea were reserved for the troops. Attempts at requisitioning were made by the small Red Army of Baku, a poorly disciplined, poorly managed body composed largely of Armenians who were alien to the revolutionary spirit of the proletariat. These drank in excess and plundered the Moslem peasants, causing disaffection among them.
On April 25, 1918, at a meeting of the Baku Council, the Baku Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom) was formed, consisting of Bolsheviks and Left Social Revolutionaries. The Bolsheviks entered the Baku Council of People's Commissars: Stepan Shaumyan (Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars and People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs), Prokopius Dzhaparidze (People's Commissar for Internal Affairs), Yakov Zevin (People's Commissar of Labor), Meshadi Azizbekov (provincial Commissar), Grigory Korganov (People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs), Nariman Narimanov (People's Commissar of Municipal Economy), Ivan Fioletov (People's Commissar of the National Economy), A.B. Karinyan (People's Commissar of Justice), N N. Kolesnikova (People's Commissar of Education); and the left SRs: Mir Hasan Vezirov (People's Commissar of Agriculture), I. Sukhartsev (People's Commissar of Railways, Sea Transport, Posts and Telegraphs). And the Chairman of the Cheka for Combating Counterrevolution under the Baksovnarkom became the Bolshevik Sahak Ter-Gabrielyan.[3]
On 5 June 1918 the Baku Red Army repulsed an assault by overwhelming Ottoman troops, but later it launched an unsuccessful assault on Ganja, the headquarters of the Ottoman Army of Islam, and was obliged to retreat to Baku.[4] At this point, Dashnaks, Right SRs and Mensheviks started to negotiate with General Dunsterville, the commander of the British troops in Persia, inviting his troops to Baku in order to defend the city from an imminent Ottoman attack. The Bolsheviks and their leftist allies opposed this scheme, but on 25 July the majority of the Soviet voted to call in the British, and the Bolsheviks resigned. The Baku Commune was imprisoned for participation in unlawful military formations and militarized robbery, particularly for the March Days atrocities and was replaced by the Central-Caspian Dictatorship.
In contrast to what happened in many parts of Russia, where the Bolsheviks earned a reputation for ruthlessness executing those who did not support them, the Bolsheviks of Baku were not so strict. The Cheka in Baku executed only two persons, both members of the Soviet caught in embezzling public funds: the Commissar for Finance, Aleksandr Kireev, and the commissar of the steamship Meve, Sergei Pokrovskii.[2][4]
The executions
Stepan Shahumyan, the leader of the 26 commissars
After the fall of the Baku Soviet in July 1918, the Bolshevik leaders and some loyal troops tried to reach Astrakhan, the only Caspian port still in Bolshevik hands. However, their ship was intercepted by the military vessels of the Caspian fleet and after undergoing an hour's bombardment in mid-sea they surrendered and returned to Baku. Most of the Bolshevik militants were arrested and remained in prison until, after the fall of Baku to the Turks, a commando unit led by Anastas Mikoyan freed them from their prison.
Shahumyan, Dzhaparidze, Azizbekov, and their comrades, along with Mikoyan, then boarded the ship Turkmen, intending to reach Astrakhan by sea. According to recent historians, the sailors chose instead to sail to Krasnovodsk for fear of being arrested in Astrakhan. At Krasnovodsk the commissars were arrested by the town's commandant who requested further orders from the "Ashkhabad Committee", led by the Socialist Revolutionary Fyodor Funtikov, about what should be done with them. Three days later, British Major-General Wilfrid Malleson, on hearing of their arrest, contacted Britain's liaison-officer in Ashkhabad, Captain Reginald Teague-Jones, to suggest that the commissars be handed over to British forces to be used as hostages in exchange for British citizens held by the Soviets. That same day, Teague-Jones attended the committee's meeting in Ashkabad which had the task of deciding the fate of the Commissars. For some reason Teague-Jones did not communicate Malleson's request to the committee, and claimed he left before a decision was made.[5] He further claimed that next day he discovered the committee had eventually decided to issue orders that the commissars should be executed. According to historian Richard H. Ullman, Teague-Jones could have stopped the executions if he wanted since the Ashkabad Committee was dependent on British support and could not refuse a request from its powerful ally, but he decided not to do so.[6]
On the night of 20 September, three days after being arrested, twenty-six of the commissars were executed by a firing squad between the stations of Pereval and Akhcha-Kuyma on the Trans-Caspian railway. How Anastas Mikoyan, who was part of the group, managed to survive is still uncertain, as is the reason why his life was spared. In 1922, V. Chaikin, a Socialist Revolutionary journalist, published a description of the moments before the execution.[7]
At around 6 A.M. [relates a witness], the twenty-six commissars were told of the fate awaiting them while they were in the train. They were taken out in groups of eight or nine men. They were obviously shocked, and kept a tense silence. One sailor shouted: "I'm not afraid, I'm dying for liberty." One of the executioners replied that "We too will die for liberty sooner or later, but we mean it in a different way from you." The first group of commissars, led from the train in the semi-darkness, was dispatched with a single salvo. The second batch tried to run away but was mown down after several volleys. The third resigned itself to its fate ...
Impact
Isaak Brodsky's The Execution of the Twenty Six Baku Commissars (1925) depicting the Soviet view of the execution.
Soviet officials later blamed the executions on British agents acting in the Baku area at the time.[8][9][10] When Soviet rule was established in the whole Caspian area, Funtikov, the head of the Ashkhabad 'Directorate' responsible for the executions, was imprisoned. Funtikov put all blame for the executions onto Britain, and in particular Teague-Jones who, he claimed, had ordered him to have the commissars shot. Funtikov was tried and shot in Baku in 1926. Britain denied involvement in the incident, saying it was done by local officials without any knowledge of the British.
This accusation caused a further souring of relations between Britain and the fledgling Soviet government and helped lead to the confrontational attitude of both sides in the coming years.
According to Soviet historiography, two British officers on board the commissars' ship ordered it to sail to Krasnovodsk instead of Astrakhan, where they found a government led by SRs and British officers who immediately ordered the arrest of the commissars. The Soviets would later immortalize the death of the 26 commissars through, among other things, movies,[11] artwork,[12] stamps,[13] and public works including the 26 Commissars Memorial in Baku. In Isaak Brodsky's famous painting, British officers are depicted as being present at the executions.[14]
Soviet investigations
Boris Vladimirovich Sennikov published a book in 2004 about his findings on the Tambov Rebellion where he mentioned several facts about the event.[15]
Sennikov claims that the famous Brodsky's painting is an invention of the Soviet historiography. The truth was established by the special commission of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK) that arrived from Moscow. The commission was headed by Vadim Chaikin (PSR). The commission also consisted of a big group of a high-ranking Moscow's Cheka officers headed by Yakov Peters, an international criminal associated with the Siege of Sidney Street. Sennikov also brings up a quote of Chaikin in the article of Suren Gazaryan "That should not be repeated" in the Leningrad magazine "Zvezda": "The painting of Brodsky Execution of the 26 Baku Commissars is historically false. They were not shot, but rather decapitated. And the executioner of the penalty was a single man - a Turkmen, a gigantic strength bogatyr. That Turkmen by himself with his own hands using a shashka beheaded all of them."[16] The pit with remains of the commissars and their heads was uncovered under the surveillance of the VTsIK special commission and representatives of Cheka. The report on the death of Baku commissars was sent by the commission to VTsIK, Sovnarkom, and the Central Committee of RKP(b).
In 1922 Vadim Chaikin published his book To the history of the Russian Revolution through the Grazhbin Publishing (Moscow) commemorating the first part "Execution of 26 Baku Commissars" to the event. After serving time in the Oryol Prison Chaikin on 11 September 1941 he was executed by a firing squad along with 156 other Oryol prison inmates during the Medvedev Forest massacre.
Baku, 2005. The wall of the house of the Baku Commissariat (1918)
The Commissars
Funeral of 26 Baku Commissars in 1920 (crying women are mother of the Mir Hasan Vezirov).Grave (burial place) of 23 Baku commissars. Hovsan Cemetery. 9 May 2017
In January 2009, the Baku authorities began the demolition of the city's 26 Commissars Memorial.[19] This was the latest monument of several that had been built to commemorate the Commissars erected in that park during the Soviet period. This last monument itself had been fenced-off since July 2008.[19] The remains of the commissars were reburied at Hovsan Cemetery on 26 January 2009, with participation of Muslim, Jewish and Christian clergy, who conducted religious ceremonies.[20]
The dismantling was opposed by some local left-wingers and by the Azerbaijan Communist Party in particular.[19] It also upset Armenia as the Armenian public believed that the demolition and reburial was motivated by the reluctance of the Azerbaijanis, after the Nagorno-Karabakh War to have ethnic Armenians buried in the center of their capital.[21] Another scandal happened when Azerbaijani press reports claimed that during the exhumation only 21 bodies were discovered and that "Shahumyan and four other Armenian commissars managed to escape their murderers".[21][22][23][24] This report was questioned by Shahumyan's granddaughter Tatyana, now living in Moscow, who told the Russian daily Kommersant that:
It is impossible to believe that they weren't all buried. There is a film in the archives of 26 bodies being buried. Apart from this, my grandmother was present at the reburial.[21]
Almost all monuments in Azerbaijan dedicated to the commissars including Shahumyan, Azizbekov, Dzhaparidze and Fioletov, have been demolished. Most streets named after the commissars have been renamed.
Trivia
Russian prominent poet Sergei Yesenin wrote "Ballad of the Twenty-six" to commemorate the Baku Commissars, poem first published in The Baku Worker, 22 September 1925.[25]
Russian band WOMBA named one of its albums The 27th Baku Commissar.[citation needed]
Italian prominent writer Tiziano Terzani wrote about the Baku Commissars in his book Buonanotte, signor Lenin (Goodnight, Mr Lenin: A Journey Through the End of the Soviet Empire, 1992).[citation needed]
The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission, abbreviated as VChK, and commonly known as Cheka, was the first of a succession of Soviet secret-police organizations known for conducting the Red Terror. Established on December 5 1917 by the Sovnarkom, it came under the leadership of Bolshevik revolutionary Felix Dzerzhinsky. By late 1918, hundreds of Cheka committees had sprung up in the Russian SFSR at all levels.
Stepan Georgevich Shaumian was an Armenian Bolshevik revolutionary and politician active throughout the Caucasus. His role as a leader of the Russian Revolution in the Caucasus earned him the nickname of the "Caucasian Lenin", a reference to Russian revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin.
Nariman Karbalayi Najaf oghlu Narimanov was an Azerbaijani Bolshevik revolutionary, writer, publicist, politician and statesman. For just over one year beginning in May 1920, Narimanov headed the government of Soviet Azerbaijan. He was subsequently elected chairman of the Union Council of the Transcaucasian SFSR. He was also Party Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union from 30 December 1922 until the day of his death.
Mashadi Azizbey oghlu Azizbeyov, also spelled Azizbekov was a Soviet revolutionary of Azerbaijani origin, leader of the revolutionary movement in Azerbaijan, one of the first Azeri Marxists, Provincial Commissioner and Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs, gubernial commissar for Baku. He was one of the 26 Baku Commissars.
The March Days or March Events was a period of inter-ethnic strife and clashes which took place between 30 March – 2 April 1918 in the city of Baku and adjacent areas of the Baku Governorate of the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic.
Mikhail Petrovich Frinovsky was a Soviet secret police official who served as a deputy head of the NKVD under Nikolai Yezhov during the Great Purge.
Prokofy "Alyosha" Aprasionovich Dzhaparidze or Japaridze,, was a Bolshevik revolutionary of Georgian origin. He was one of the leaders of the Red Army and the Bolshevik Party in Azerbaijan during the Russian Revolution.
The 26 Baku Commissars Memorial was a Soviet-era monument located in Baku, Azerbaijan, that paid tribute to the 26 Baku Commissars from the Baku commune. The commune was overthrown in 1918 and the commissars later executed near Krasnovodsk. The monument was constructed by sculptors I. Zeynalov and N. Mamedov, and architects G. Aleskerov and Alesker Huseynov, who eventually became a prominent politician in Azerbaijan. The remains of the Commissars were buried at the site of the memorial.
Mir-Hasan Kazim oglu Vazirov, also spelled Vezirov was an Azerbaijani socialist revolutionary. Vazirov participated in revolutionary movements in the Russian Empire from his youth, for which he was persecuted by the authorities. Later on, he joined the Socialist-Revolutionary Party and became one of the 26 Baku Commissars. He is the great-grandson of Mirza Ali Muhammad Aga, vizier of Ibrahim Khalil Khan of Karabakh Khanate.
Grigory Nikolayevich Korganov was a Georgian-Armenian Communist activist, one of the 26 Baku Commissars and Bolshevik Party leaders in Azerbaijan during the Russian Revolution.
Yakov Davidovich Zevin was a Russian revolutionary activist and one of the Bolshevik Party leaders in Azerbaijan during the Russian Revolution. Zevin was born in Krasnapolle, a town in nowadays Mahilyow Voblast, Belarus. He became a member of Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1904 and he was arrested several times for conducting revolutionary activities.
Reginald Teague-Jones MBE was a British political and intelligence officer. He was active in the Caucasus and Central Asia during the Russian Civil War. For the last 66 years of his life he was known as Ronald Sinclair. Under that assumed name, he authored two published accounts of his travels and adventures in Asia and the Middle East.
Meyer Velkovich Basin was a member of the Military Revolutionary Committee of the Caucasian Army.
The Transcaspian Government was a "Menshevik-Socialist Revolutionary" coalition set up by the railway workers of the Trans-Caspian Railway in 1918. It was based at Ashgabat, Transcaspian Oblast.
Fyodor Adrianovich Funtikov was Chairman of Provisional Executive Committee of the Transcaspian Region Soviet during the period July 1918 – Jan 1919. He was a Socialist Revolutionary railway worker, who in his role as head of the Transcaspian Government was held responsible for the execution of the 26 Baku Commissars.
Aliheydar Agakerim oglu Garayev also spelled as Ali Heydar Garayev, was an Azerbaijani Menshevik and later Bolshevik revolutionary, People's Commissar of Justice of Azerbaijan SSR, People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs of Azerbaijan during Soviet period.
Mir Bashir Gasimov was a Soviet and Azerbaijani revolutionary and statesman. One of the followers of Nariman Narimanov's national communism policy in the Azerbaijan SSR. Twice receiver of Order of Lenin and two more orders.
Hamid Hasan oglu Sultanov was a Soviet Azerbaijani politician, People's Commissar for Internal Affairs of the Azerbaijan SSR and later Chair of the Council of People's Commissars of the Nakhchivan ASSR.
Ruhulla Akhundov was an Azerbaijani Soviet politician, publisher and journalist who was the Second Secretary of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan from 1925 to 1926, under the Soviet leadership of Joseph Stalin.
Azerbaijani Red Army, also known as the Red Army of Azerbaijan, was a field army of the pro-Bolshevik Red Army in the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic during the Russian Civil War.
References
↑ Авторский коллектив. Гражданская война в России: энциклопедия катастрофы / Составитель и ответственный редактор: Д. М. Володихин, научный редактор С. В. Волков. — 1-е. — М.: Сибирский цирюльник, 2010. — 400 с. — ISBN 978-5-903888-14-6.
↑ C. Dobson & J. Miller The Day We Almost Bombed Moscow Hodder and Stoughton, 1986. p96
↑ Sennikov, B. Tambov rebellion of 1918-1921 and de-peasant-ation of Russia 1929-1933 (Tambovskoe vosstanie 1918-1921 gg. i raskrest'janivanie Rossii 1929-1933 gg.). "Posev". Moskva, 2004. (Library of Russian Studies. #9)
↑ Peter Hopkirk, On Secret Service East of Constantinople: The Plot to Bring Down the British Empire, Oxford University Press, 1994, ISBN9780192802309.
Further reading
Minassian, Taline Ter (2014). "Some fresh news about the 26 commissars: Reginald Teague-Jones and the Transcaspian episode". Asian Affairs. 45 (1): 65–78. doi:10.1080/03068374.2013.872360. S2CID159979990.
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