Baku: Violence, Identity, and Oil, 1905-1927
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BAKU: VIOLENCE, IDENTITY, AND OIL, 1905-1927 A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Georgetown University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History By Jonathan H Sicotte, A.M. Washington, DC November 14, 2017 Copyright 2017 by Jonathan H Sicotte All Rights Reserved ii BAKU: VIOLENCE, IDENTITY, AND OIL, 1905-1927 Jonathan H Sicotte, A.M. Thesis Advisor: Michael David-Fox, Ph.D. ABSTRACT Baku: Violence, Identity, and Oil, 1905-1927 is an exploration of the economic, social, and political metamorphosis of Baku, Azerbaijan, from 1905 to 1927, from a growing boomtown to a city divided by ethnic and political violence to a reconfigured existence as a critical oil production center of the Soviet Union. It will address how Baku’s industry, crude oil drilling, and petrochemical refinement had profound social, political, and economic effects on the city— not only on the urban physical environment of the city itself but also on the demographics and livelihood of its population. The core purpose of this work is to connect outbreaks of violence and other events affecting Baku across this period, especially during the Russian Civil War, to the splintering of political identity and the contemporaneous shift in material circumstance that occurred in the city across the first two decades of the twentieth century. Furthermore, the thesis will address how this outcome was additionally complicated by geopolitical tensions caused by the First World War and its aftermath. iii Table of Contents Introduction: Baku at a Turning Point ............................................................................................ 1 Chapter One: Origins of a City: Oil and the Creation of Modern Baku – 1870-1905 .................. 37 Chapter Two: Descent and Recovery: Baku’s Oil Industry – 1906-1927 .................................... 88 Chapter Three: The Geopolitical Cauldron: Baku in an International Context – 1914-1923..... 146 Chapter Four: Identity and Industry: Identity Formation in Late Tsarist to Soviet Baku – 1905-1922 ................................................................................................................................... 204 Chapter Five: The Pacification and Sovietization of Baku – 1920-1938 ................................... 256 Conclusion: Outcomes and Consequences ................................................................................. 302 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 319 iv List of Tables Table 1.1: Russian Oil Production, 1863-1872…………………………………...….......…....... 45 Table 1.2: Russian Oil Production, 1878-1888………………………….………..….…............. 48 Table 1.3: Russian and US Production, 1898-1904 (in Millions of Metric Tons)………............ 57 Table 1.4: Baku Census, 1886-1913 ............................................................................................. 69 Table 2.1: Russian Oil Production, 1901-1932 (in Thousands of Metric Tons)........................... 97 Table 2.2: Russian Oil Exports, 1901-1932 (in Thousands of Metric Tons)……..……..…........ 98 Table 2.3: “Budgeted” Oil Workers from Alexandr Stopani’s 1909 .......................................... 101 Table 2.4: Output of Major Producers, 1918-1927 (in Thousands of Barrels)........................... 140 Table 4.1: Nobel Association, Baku: Muslim Workers, 1878-1921........................................... 218 Table 4.2: Nobel Association, Baku: Christian Workers, 1878-1921 ........................................ 219 Table 4.3: Nobel Association, Baku: Sample of Average Worker Mobility, 1878-1921……... 222 Table 4.4: Delegates of the Azerbaijan SSR to the 1922 Transcaucasian Communist Party Congress...................................................................................................................................... 242 Table 4.5: 1926 Soviet Census – Azerbaijan SSSR………………………………………….... 243 v Introduction: Baku at a Turning Point Baku: Violence, Identity, and Oil, 1905-1927 is an exploration of the economic, social, and political metamorphosis of Baku, Azerbaijan, from 1905 to 1927, from a growing boomtown to a city divided by ethnic and political violence to a reconfigured existence as a critical oil production center of the Soviet Union.1 It will address how Baku’s industry, crude oil drilling, and petrochemical refinement had profound social, political, and economic effects on the city— not only on the urban physical environment of the city itself but also on the demographics and livelihood of its population. The core purpose of this work is to connect outbreaks of violence and other events affecting Baku across this period, especially during the Russian Civil War, to the splintering of political identity and the contemporaneous shift in material circumstance that occurred in the city across the first two decades of the twentieth century. Furthermore, the thesis will address how this outcome was additionally complicated by geopolitical interference caused by the First World War and its aftermath. Initially, this analysis will focus on the origins of the industry, the makeup of its workforce, and how the industrialization of oil secured Baku as a place of immense importance in the global economic order of the period. The purpose of this investigation is to explore a causative effect between the industrial and geopolitical dynamics surrounding the city and the political and ethnic violence that ravaged it. Moreover, this work will analyze the ramifications of this economic process on the formation of ethnic and political identity in the city and its 1 The preferred terminology in this work, especially during the Tsarist period, is ethnicity rather than nationality. It is the belief of the author that the terminology surrounding national identity is not as useful for exploring how identity functioned independently from the concept of the nation-state, especially before the foundation of the Azerbaijani Democratic Republic and the Azerbaijani SSR. Likewise, the functional use of religious identity is complicated by the growth of ethnically-inspired politics in Baku, especially after 1900. 1 surrounding regions and correlate these issues with the rise of violence that increased across the first two decades of the twentieth century until the cataclysm of the Russian Civil War. Finally, this dissertation will focus on the impact of Sovietization and pacification and their legacy on the already traumatized social landscape of both Baku and Azerbaijan as a whole. In order to accomplish this task, this study will examine elements of social, economic, and political history across the late nineteenth and early twentieth century in its analysis of the factors influencing change in Baku. These elements continually interacted with the process of industrial production and political economy that defined the place and period. In addition, a goal of this work is to weave a sense of humanity into a history that could easily get bogged down as an abstract survey of its industry or an abstract analysis of the strategic geopolitical position of the city. Chapter One, “Origins of a City: Oil and the Creation of Modern Baku – 1870-1905,” primarily centers on the origins of Baku as a modern urban environment, with an emphasis on the industrialization and labor relations of the city from 1870 onward. This chapter’s purpose is to provide an overview of the impact that industrial development had on forming the physical and social structures of the city, in particular the make-up of the workforce and the working conditions it endured. It addresses how this development further complicated relations between communities and led to an increasing amount of ethnic and political tension in the city. Chapter Two, “Descent and Recovery: Baku’s Oil Industry – 1906-1927,” centers on the political dynamics surrounding government intervention in the industry, particularly after 1914, and the impact Baku’s industry had on the underlying forces of petroleum production as well as international trade during this period. The focus of this chapter is to place into context not only 2 how critical oil was to the creation of Baku as an industrial environment, but also how Baku itself became a lynchpin for domestic industrial development for the Russian Empire and its successor governments as well as an important supply source for an emerging international energy market. The third chapter, “The Geopolitical Cauldron: Baku in an International Context – 1914- 1923,” will focus on how the aforementioned events of Baku from 1914 to 1923 influenced the geopolitical rivalry of the period. This chapter will examine the petrochemical industry’s rise and fall, and how the crises that grew around it were inseparable from broader diplomacy and military adventurism by multiple foreign powers around the Caucasus and the Middle East during this period. In particular, it will address the impact the Ottoman Empire, the Turkish national movement, the British Empire, and nascent Soviet Russia had on the city during their struggles for dominance of it. Chapter Four, “Identity and Industry: Identity Formation in Late Tsarist to Soviet Baku – 1905-1922,” investigates the connection between ethnic and political identity in Baku. It will explore how the social environment of the city was irrevocably shattered by the February and October revolutions and the ultimate effect that growing