With the outbreak of hostilities in the Caucasus as part of World war I, Azerbaijan was also involved in the war, being part of the Russian Empire. Baku oil was of particular importance.
By the beginning of the war, the population of Baku was over 215 thousand people, of which 36% were Russians, 34% were Azerbaijanis, 19% were Armenians, and 4.5% were Jews. [1]
In August 1914, the provincial Committee for assistance to war victims was established in Baku. The Baku city Council provided material assistance to the families of the soldiers. In December of the same year, the Caucasus Committee was established to provide assistance to refugees. [2]
From February 14 to 18, 1916, women protested in the city against the increase in food prices. [2]
In 1917, oil production in Baku was 382 thousand tons, [3] [4] that is, more than 15% of world production [1] [5] In the spring of 1918, approximately 1,280,000 tons of oil were shipped from Baku to Russia. [6]
Stages of work | 1914 | 1915 | 1916 |
Drilled wells | 563 | 482 | 433 |
Spudded wells | 218 | 176 | 149 |
Newly drilled wells | 235 | 179 | 166 [7] |
There were a lot of various committees functioning in Baku during the WWI: Oil Committee, Tank Distribution Committee, Kerosene Committee, etc. [7] The number of large machine-building plants reached. [6] [8]
On September 10, 1918, the currency named "Baku bona" appeared. [9]
In 1915, military units were stationed on the territory of Baku [5]
On November 2, 1917, at the conference of the Baku Soviet, it was decided to establish Soviet power in Baku. Earlier, the headquarters of the Military Revolutionary Committee headed by Korganov was moved to the city. [10]
In February 1918, the Transcaucasian Sejm was established [11]
As a result of the March 1918 genocide committed by the Armenian-Bolshevik armed groups, more than 12 thousand Azerbaijanis were killed in Baku. The Muslim quarters "Mammadli" and "Kirpichhana", public buildings, mosques, etc. were destroyed. [12] [13]
On April 20, 1918, the Baku City Duma, headed by Fatali Khan Khoysky, was dissolved. The activities of national councils and the press were banned. [14]
In the same year, on April 25, the Baku Council of People's Commissars was established, which included only three Azerbaijanis. The former authorities were replaced by new ones: the workers'-and-peasants' militia, the Military Tribunal, the extraordinary Committee for combating counter-revolution, the city, circuit, and district people's courts, and so on. The oil industry and the Caspian Merchant Fleet were nationalized. [14]
On July 31, 1918, the Baku Council of People's Commissars ceased to exist. From August 1 to September 1 of the same year, an English corps headed by General Dunsterville remained in Baku. [15] A coalition government called “Dictatorship of the Central Caspian” was established. [16] [17]
The battles for Baku that began in August ended with the liberation of the city by the Caucasian Islamic army on September 15, 1918. [18]
On September 17, 1918, the national government of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic with its center in Ganja was transferred to Baku. [9] [19]
In the spring of 1916, at the initiative of the bolsheviks, “Adalat” (“Justice”) organization was established in Baku to assist workers from southern Azerbaijan. [20]
On March 17, 1917, the Executive Committee of public organizations was established in the city, which was the local authority of the Provisional government. [14]
In addition to political parties, there were Muslim national councils in Azerbaijan, the most popular of which was the Baku Muslim National Council. [21]
On April 15–20, 1917, a Congress of Muslims of the Caucasus was held in Baku. The main slogan of the Congress was the desire to unite all Muslims in Russia. As a result of the merger of two political parties: "Musavat" and "Turkic Federalist Party", a single "Turkic Federalist Party Musavat" was created. [22]
The national liberation movement in Northern Azerbaijan, centered in Baku, ended with the restoration of national statehood represented by Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR) in 1918. [23]
In 1914–1915, a weekly satirical magazine "Mezeli" ("Funny") was published in Baku in the Azerbaijani language. For all time, 42 issues were published. [24]
In 1915, the leader of the Musavat party, M. E. Rasulzade, launched the publication of the daily Turkic newspaper “Achig soz". [9] [14]
In 1916, teachers' seminaries were opened in Baku. [25]
In August 1918, special pedagogical courses were opened to train qualified personnel. [25]
The Azerbaijani State Theater under the direction of Huseyn Arablinsky was functioning in that period. [26]
The Müsavat Party is the oldest existing political party in Azerbaijan. Its history can be divided into three periods: Early Musavat, Musavat-in-exile and New Musavat.
The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, also known as the Azerbaijan People's Republic, was the first secular democratic republic in the Turkic and Muslim worlds. The ADR was founded by the Azerbaijani National Council in Tiflis on 28 May 1918 after the collapse of the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic, and ceased to exist on April 28, 1920. Its established borders were with Russia to the north, the Democratic Republic of Georgia to the north-west, the Republic of Armenia to the west, and Iran to the south. It had a population of around 3 million. Ganja was the temporary capital of the Republic as Baku was under Bolshevik control. The name of "Azerbaijan" which the leading Musavat party adopted, for political reasons, was, prior to the establishment of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic in 1918, exclusively used to identify the adjacent region of contemporary northwestern Iran.
Tartar is a city in and the capital of the Tartar District of Azerbaijan.
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 Imperial Russian Air Service was an air force founded in 1912 for Imperial Russia. The Air Service operated for five years and only saw combat in World War I before being reorganized and renamed in 1917 following the Russian Revolution.
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.
The 26 Baku Commissars were Bolshevik and Left Socialist Revolutionary (SR) members of the Baku Commune. The commune was established in the city of Baku, which was then the capital of the briefly independent Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, and is now the capital of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The commune, led by Stepan Shahumyan, existed until 26 July 1918 when the Bolsheviks were forced out of power by a coalition of Dashnaks, Right SRs and Mensheviks.
The Battle of Baku took place in August and September 1918 between the Ottoman–Azerbaijani coalition forces led by Nuri Pasha and Bolshevik–ARF Baku Soviet forces, later succeeded by the British–Armenian–White Russian forces led by Lionel Dunsterville and saw Soviet Russia briefly re-enter the war. The battle took place during World War I, was a conclusive part of the Caucasus Campaign, but a beginning of the Armenian–Azerbaijani War.
Saint Gregory the Illuminator Church, commonly referred to as the Armenian Church of Baku, is a former Armenian Apostolic church near Fountains Square in central Baku, Azerbaijan. Completed in 1869, it was one of the two Armenian churches in Baku to survive the Soviet anti-religious campaign and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the 1990 pogrom and exodus of Baku Armenians when it was looted. It is now the only standing Armenian monument in Baku.
The Transcaucasus electoral district was a constituency created for the 1917 Russian Constituent Assembly election. The electoral district covered the Baku Governorate, the Elizavetpol Governorate, the Erivan Governorate, the Kutais Governorate, the Tiflis Governorate, the Batum Oblast, the Kars Oblast, the Sukhum Okrug and the Zakatal Okrug.
Baku occupied a special place in the plans of Nazi Germany. The head of the Foreign Policy Department of the NSDAP, Alfred Rosenberg, drew up a special "Plan for the management of the Caucasus", which assumed the inclusion of Baku in the sphere of influence of the Third Reich. According to the plan, it was necessary to occupy Baku by September 25, 1942.
The Nuydi treasure is a hoard of ancient silver coins discovered near the village of Nuydi in the Agsu district of Azerbaijan. The treasure, consisting of 36 coins dated to the 2nd or 1st century BC, was discovered in grave No. 11 of the female in the Nuydi monument.
The Battle of Binagadi took place between 26 and 31 August 1918 during World War I and saw Soviet Russia briefly re-enter the war. Ottoman–Azerbaijani coalition forces led by Nuri Pasha fought British–Armenian–White Russian forces led by Lionel Dunsterville. It was an important part of the Battle of Baku.
The German occupation of Byelorussia, now known as Belarus, started with Germany's invasion of the Russian Empire on August 1, 1914 and ended with the collapse of the German Empire on November 11, 1918. During the occupation, 130,000 Belarusians were killed.
Battle of Kurdamir took place between the coalition Turkish troops and Azerbaijani armed forces against the troops of the Baku Council of People's Commissars led by Stepan Shaumyan for the control over Kurdamir settlement from July 5 to 10, 1918.
Mammadrza agha Vakilov was a member of the Parliament of the Azerbaijani Democratic Republic, full member of the Transcaucasian Medical Society, and founder of the Baku Medical Society.
The Monument to Turkish Soldiers in Ajidere or the Monument to the Unknown Turkish Soldier is a memorial complex located in the Ajidere Valley on the territory of Gobustan district of Azerbaijan to commemorate the fallen soldiers of the Caucasian Islamic Army. At a distance of 250 meters from the monument is the grave of the unknown Turkish soldier of the Caucasian Islamic Army, presumably the officer Kadyr Efendi. The memorial complex was raised in 2000. The authors of the monument are Turkish specialists.
Terter operation - was a large-scale offensive by Armenian forces at the final stage of the First Karabakh war, accompanied by battles in the Terter, Agdam and Goranboy regions of Azerbaijan, as a result of which several villages in the Agdam and Terter regions came under the control of the NKR.
Sea Breeze Walk of Fame located in Baku, Azerbaijan, is a Walk of Fame that acknowledges the achievements and accomplishments of successful actos, singers and artists. The project is similar to the Hollywood Walk of Fame, in Los Angeles, United States. The Walk of Fame was inaugurated on July 21, 2023 by Azerbaijani-Russian singer and businessman Emin Agalarov.
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