Azerbaijan in the Beginning of XX Century: Roads Leading to Independence

Dilara Seyid-zade Azerbaijan in the Beginning of XX Century: Roads Leading to Independence Second edition, renewed and with additions Baku 2011 Dedicated to the bright memory of the national leader of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev who led the country to independence 2 Editor Asaf Hasanov Translated from Azerbaijani by G.Bayramov Dilara Seyid-zade. Azerbaijan in the Beginning of XX century: Roads Leading to Independence. Baku 2010 OKA offset 344 pp. 500 copies The period which covers the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries is one of the important moments of the struggle of the Azerbaijani people for independence. The outstanding representatives of the Azerbaijani entrepreneurs, their ideologists and intelligentsia, who emerged on the background of radical socio-political and economic changes taken place in the Czarist Russia after the reforms, headed the struggle for awakening the national self- consciousness of the people, for its enlightenment, for raising its political culture, for enabling it to enjoy all its civil rights by making use of all the opportunities. The Azerbaijani representatives elected in conditions of great difficulties and restrictions to the State Duma, the supreme legislative organ of Russia, were conveying to the whole Empire the voice of the Azerbaijani people for justice from the rostrum of this body. This Book studies the period leading to the establishment of the People‟s Republic of Azerbaijan, the first democratic republic in the orient. The full panorama of the events and of the socio-political processes currenting in the beginning of the 20th century in Azerbaijan has found its reflection in the Book, and it has been analyzed in detail. The Book is intended for the historians, researchers, students and broad masses of readers. 3 Foreword As a logical conclusion of its struggle for many centuries the Azerbaijani people achieved its sovereignty as a state only in the end of the 20th century. At present when the Azerbaijani people is marching steadily and resolutely along the road of independence, the study of the national experience and the road leading to independence, the study of the national liberation movement which began to revive in the beginning of the last century, acquire great importance. The social collisions, which took place in Russia in the beginning of the 20th century, speeded the process of deepening the gap among the political forces in the society, activated all the political forces. The defeat of the czarism in the Russian-Japan war, large-scale strikes of broad masses in 1905, birth of the spirit of opposition in the higher social layers of the society proved that the regime of the absolute monarchy cannot live in its previous “pure” form. Liberation movement was growing in the national outskirts of the Empire, including Azerbaijan. There has grown a situation of lawlessness, czarism implemented into life ruthless persecution for all kinds of free-mindedness and manifestations of national revival. Such a policy of colonialism of the czarism deepened the crisis in Azerbaijan. The leaders of the national-liberation movement of Azerbaijan opposed the bandage of colonialism, called for the abolishment of national inequality, for the establishment of a federative system in the Caucasus, and also defended the idea of granting self-administration right to each region. They demanded independence in the sphere of culture and enlightenment, struggled for the independent development of the mother tongue and for the right to have education in each one‟s native language. The colonial policy of czarism, the economic and political restrictions applied to the Azerbaijani intelligentsia created conditions for the birth and growth of the spirit and mood of opposition, for their merge with the laborers of their own nation. The Azerbaijani entrepreneur and their ideologists were hoping to achieve the fulfillment of their demands through the reforms promised by the czarist monarchy. The Azerbaijani entrepreneurs, not yet mature from the political point of view and unable to defend their own interests, were compiling appeals and petitions in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and trying to get equal rights with the Russian entrepreneurs and landlords of Russia, to get their caste rights. Just in the early years of the 20th century, very live, full of excitement and agitation, the Azerbaijani entrepreneurs became active from ideological point of view, stepped into the political arena, began to express their interests and advance demands in the person of their leaders and ideologists. The political line of the national entrepreneur has its own sufficiently idiosyncratic and significant distinguishing features, nevertheless, it shared the inclinations inherent to the Russian entrepreneurs as a whole. The analysis of the road traversed by the Azerbaijani entrepreneurs at beginning of the 20th century allows characterize the social and political image of this layer, determine their attitude to the socio- political events currenting in the country and their participation in them, the role played by them in the liberation movement. The political conviction of the Azerbaijani entrepreneurs took shape in the period when the social processes aggravated and became strained. This political conviction found its reflection in the programmatic documents of political parties and organizations. It was conspicuous particularly in the speeches and activities of the Azerbaijani parliamentarians in the Russian State Duma. The Azerbaijani parliamentarians took part in the development of numerous bills and inquiries, in the discussion of issues raised in the State Duma and its commissions. They contributed to the birth and development of parliamentarianism in Russia. This Book for the first time in the historical science of Azerbaijan reviews the activities of the Azerbaijani parliamentarians in the Russian State Duma and analyses their speeches made from the rostrum of the State Duma, enlightens their attempts to unite the efforts of all the Muslim parliamentarians in the State Duma and their hopes connected with the Cadets. But all their efforts were in vain, czarism, the State Duma did not take any measures for fulfilling their demands, for granting equal rights and respective privileges to the Muslim population of the outskirts, for liquidating legal restrictions and others. Local czar authorities were already unable to rule the country with the old methods, and their “humble letters” to the czar could not exert any influence on him. He didn‟t change the line even for an inch chosen by him in connection with “the alien nations”, he was determined not to grant any right, any privilege to any of them. Thus, the representatives of the higher social layers of Azerbaijan were in conditions of political isolation and could not achieve their goal – liquidation of legal restrictions in the frames of the Russian Empire. They were fighting not only for their own privileges, but 5 also for the freedom of the national development. The main forms and methods of their struggle consisted of appeals and requests to the Czar and local czarist authorizes. The period of development of the movement of liberation in Azerbaijan endowed the people with a brilliant team of talented, highly professional socio-political figures. Their goal in life was to defend the interests, freedom and independence of the nation. In conditions of ruthless political and economic lawlessness the Azerbaijani ideologists won the opportunity to speak from the high rostrum of the Russian State Duma – highest legislative body, for the first time and were trying to convey to each resident of the Empire the needs and demands of the people consistently and purposefully. Not any obstacle, which sometimes acquired even the form of humiliation and outrage, could prevent them from the struggle, could divert them from the chosen road. The experience accumulated by the Azerbaijani parliamentarians in the process of the activities in the Russian State Duma allowed them join the efforts of all the progressive forces of the society, establish the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan, lead the highest bodies of the national government and build the national statehood. Highly appreciating the great services of Alimardan bey Topchubashov, Fatali khan Khoisky and their comrades-in-arms in the establishment of the first democratic republic in Azerbaijan, the national leader Heydar Aliyev said: “The work performed by them acquires great importance for the present day of the Azerbaijani people. Their activity will always be dear to us. Their memory will remain in our hearts forever”1. 6 Chapter I Azerbaijan on the crossroads of XIX – XX centuries 7 1.1. The policy of czarism and socio-economic and socio-political situation in Azerbaijan Being an occupied province of the Russian Empire, Azerbaijan was subjected to all the torments of political, religious and national oppression. As all the rest of the non-Russian population of the Empire the Azerbaijani people also bore the brand of “the alien nation”. For being Muslims, non-Christians, the Azerbaijanis were subjected to legal deprivations in all the spheres of life. Czarism committed obstacles against all the manifestations of independence in socio-political and economic spheres. The policy of Czarism in relation to the Azerbaijanis, the local population of the territory, did not take shape all at once. Russia desired long ago to occupy the region and annex it. It was connected not only with the geographical location of Russia, not with its national goals in the Middle and Near East, but also with its economic interests. By occupying the coasts of the Caspian Sea, Peter I wanted to put an end to the rule of Iran in the Transcaucasus and to prevent the Ottoman Empire capture the territory, with this purpose he began his famous Caspian march in the 20s of XVIII century. But in those years the war for the Caucasus was not advantageous for Russia and all its attempts did not produce any yield.

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