Crafting the Modern Woman in Azerbaijan: Muslim Women, the State, and Modernity, 1900–1939 by Yelena Abdullayeva A thesis presented to the University of Waterloo in fulfillment of the thesis requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, 2020 © Yelena Abdullayeva 2020 Examining Committee Membership The following served on the Examining Committee for this thesis. The decision of the Examining Committee is by majority vote. External Examiner Marianne Kamp Associate Professor, Indiana University, Bloomington Supervisor(s) Renée Worringer Associate Professor Susan Roy Associate Professor Internal Member Eva Plach Associate Professor Internal Member Gary Bruce Professor Internal-External Jasmin Habib Associate Professor ii Author’s Declaration I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis. This is a true copy of the thesis, including any required final revisions, as accepted by my examiners. I understand that my thesis may be made electronically available to the public. iii Abstract This study examines the little-known history of cultural transformation initiated by Azerbaijani reformers between the 1850s and 1930s. Relying on a unique body of sources, which include handwritten manuscripts, literary works, unpublished memoirs, periodicals, correspondence, and political parties’ records, the research explores the new cultural settings that emerged after the incorporation of Azerbaijan into the Russian empire. New means of communication and new types of sociability, in a global context of urbanization and cosmopolitanization, gave rise to secular modernist reformers and empowered both European- educated Azeri male and female elites to express modern ideas on public education and gender roles. The introduction of secular education for Muslim young women, initiated by modern- educated male intellectuals and industrialists, advanced a cohort of independent and publicly active Azeri women who struggled for equal rights with men. Azeri Muslim women articulated their vision of modernity in native print media and public associations established by Muslim women and for Muslim women. After the Sovietization of Azerbaijan in 1920, the native reformers continued to promote their agenda to eradicate the power of Islamic and patriarchal traditions. By participating in the new system and installing themselves as the new political and cultural elite, the Azeri reformers obtained the right to speak for the name of their community. Soviet Azeri political leaders developed their own synthesis between the Communist goals and modernizing aspirations of pre-revolution reformers, introducing their own program to create a new nation, millat, and a New Woman. However, between 1929–1939, the Stalinist regime, with its new iv norms of socialization, education, and indoctrination, replaced all alternative cultural and political discourses. v Acknowledgements I owe much gratitude to many people and organizations that supported me in the realization of this project. The Tri-University Graduate Program in History has provided exceptional teaching and guidance throughout my doctoral studies. I thank my advisor Renée Worringer for her encouragement of this project and mentorship as I developed as a scholar. Her kind assistance, combined with her enthusiasm, inspired me to be more ambitious in my own academic endeavors and helped me to recognize the history of Azerbaijan as part of the Middle Eastern milieu. Eva Plach has been invaluable as a friend and as a mentor in incisive comments on this work. She drove me to place this project in a broader Russian and European context. She also has been a limitless source of suggestions of secondary literature that I have incorporated into this study. I acknowledge both Eva Plach and Renée Worringer for shaping me as a historian, encouraging me to think creatively about sources and to express my voice. I also thank them for the compassion and empathy with which they treat me as a student and as a friend. I want to express gratitude to Susan Roy, who joined this project at an advanced stage. Susan Roy provided sound advice and kindly shepherded this thesis to its final stage, while being a limitless source of encouragement. I am grateful to Gary Bruce for his valued advice over my years of study. I benefited from his expertise in the history and philosophy of interwar Europe, in particular on state welfare, health policy and bioethics in West European societies. I credit Gary Bruce for generously providing academic and moral support. Lynne Taylor and Adam Crerar helped me through some unique and challenging times and I very much thank vi them both for that. I appreciate Donna Hayes, Anne Leask, and Susan King for their hard work and kind assistance. I also benefited from an exceptional group of people who encouraged me to explore this little-known period of Azerbaijani history. I received significant help and valuable comments, which became a source of inspiration, from Marianna Kamp, Jeff Sahadeo, and Ali Igmen. I appreciate their questions, which have challenged me, and the time and attention they have given to my project. I credit Sarah Van Vugt for improving the quality of this work by careful copyediting. In Azerbaijan, Emin Sardarov, Sima Babaeva, Yegana Dzhabarova, and Kamala Abasova helped me to access the documents at the Azerbaijan Republic State Archive, ARDA. I am grateful to Seiiara Gadjieva, then a chair of the reading room at ARDA, for her friendliness and company while I, the only researcher in the room, worked there for many weeks. Our lunch and tea breaks, accompanied by hearty conversations, made us good friends. I will always remember Gyzylgul Babaeva, the chair of the reading room at the Azerbaijan Republic State History Archive, ARDTA, for her willingness to help me with documents, along with endless offers of delicious traditional snacks and tea. I also encountered outstanding support from Ol’ga Gasanova and Turan Babazade in obtaining photo documents from the Azerbaijan Kino-Photo Documentary Archive, AAKFD. Almas Alieva, Mehriban Dzhafarova, and Malak Gadzhieva helped me to navigate various periodicals at the Azerbaijan Republic State Library named after M. F. Akhundov. Aibeniz Alieva and Naila Samedova were particularly helpful in locating the personal records of the vii late-Imperial Azeri reformers at the Azerbaijan Republic Institute of Manuscripts, ARIM. In Moscow, the staff of the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History, RGASPI; the State Archive of the Russian Federation, GARF; the Russian State Library; and the Russian State History Library helped me to access countless sources which made this project possible. A grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, SSHRC, was a main source of funding for this project. Financial support from the Ontario government in the form of an Ontario Graduate Scholarship, OGS, was important during the first year of my study. I express my gratitude to my alma mater, the University of Waterloo, for granting me the University of Waterloo President’s Graduate Scholarship, to support me during all years of work on this project. I am grateful to the American Research Institute of the South Caucasus (ARISC) and the Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center (REEEC), at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, for the fellowships that allowed me to discuss this research with colleagues and to receive valuable feedback. Finally, I want to express my love and gratitude to my family. My late father Jahangir Abbasov, a passionate bibliophile and a teacher, nurtured my academic curiosity and devotion to education. My cousins Almaz Abbasova, Mutallib Abbasov, Sanuber Abbasova, and Vagif Abbasov always set an example as true academics who contribute to scholarship and pedagogy regardless of political and social cataclysms. They encouraged me to study abroad. My uncle, Leonid Likhodeevskii, is a source of immense support, teaching me to expect the utmost of myself. My parents-in-law, Liudmila and Vidadi Abdullayev, took care of my family by coming to Canada for several months while I worked on this project. My biggest regrets are viii that my mother, Lilia, and my younger brother, Rafael, passed away while I worked on the last chapters of this study. The formative part and a defense of the thesis came during the turbulent time of the COVID-19 pandemic which turned the world upside down. In this, as in other difficult periods of life, the love and support of my husband Kamran has been the most important. He always provided an environment that allowed me to concentrate on my study, to go independently on research trips to Baku and Moscow, and to focus on writing. Most importantly, Kamran helped me to keep my balance between academic and personal life. I am grateful to my husband for his love, which allowed me and our children, Toghrul, Jahangir, and Mira, to flourish in a wonderful and joyful family. ix Dedication To my family with love and gratitude x Table of Contents Examining Committee Membership…………………………………………………………ii Author’s Declaration…………………………………………………………………………iii Abstract .................................................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. vi Dedication ...............................................................................................................................