March Days
Encyclopedia
The March Days, or March Events, refer to an inter-ethnic strife and massacres of up to 12,000 Azerbaijani
s and other Muslims that took place between March 30 and April 2, 1918 in the city of Baku
and adjacent areas of the Baku Governorate
of Russian Empire
.
Facilitated by a political power struggle between Bolshevik
s with support of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutiun)
on one side and Azerbaijani Musavat Party on another, the events led to a suppression of Muslim revolt by Bolshevik and Dashnak forces and establishment of a short-lived Baku Commune in April 1918.
Azerbaijan
officially refers to March Days as soyqırım ('genocide'). Few other sources interpret the March events in the context of civil war
unrest.
, a Special Transcaucasian Committee
, including Armenian, Azerbaijani and Georgian representatives, was established to administer parts of the South Caucasus
under the control of the Russian Provisional Government
. After the October Revolution
, on November 11, 1917, this committee was replaced by the Transcaucasian Commissariat
, also known as the Sejm, with headquarters in Tiflis. The Sejm opposed Bolsheviks and sought separation of the South Caucasus from Bolshevik Russia. To prevent that, on November 13, 1917, a group of Bolsheviks and Left Socialist-Revolutionaries
(SR) proclaimed the Baku Soviet, a governing body which assumed power over the territory of Baku Governorate
under the leadership of Bolshevik Stepan Shahumyan
. Although the Baku Soviet included Azerbaijanis and Armenians who were neither Bolsheviks nor necessarily sympathetic towards the Bolshevik ideas, the two nationalist parties and members of the Sejm ― the Musavat and Armenian Revolutionary Federation
― refused to recognize its authority. The Baku-based Musavat dominated Muslim National Councils
(MNCs), a representative body which eventually formed the first Parliament of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic
(ADR). Mammad Hasan Hajinski
chaired the Temporary Executive Committee for the MNCs, while Mammed Amin Rasulzade
, Alimardan Topchubashev
, Fatali Khan Khoyski
and other prominent political figures were among the 44 Azerbaijani delegates to the Sejm. Meanwhile, the ARF, which was established in Tiflis, formed a 27-member Armenian delegation to the Sejm. The leader of the Baku Soviet, Shahumyan, kept contacts with ARF and viewed it as a source of support for eliminating Musavat influence in Baku. It is noteworthy that during the March Days of 1918, one of the ARF founders, Stepan Zorian
, was present in Baku.
After the October Revolution
, Russian army fell apart and its units fled the front lines en masse, often harassing local residents. Concerned with the situation, the Sejm established a Military Council of Nationalities, with Armenian, Azerbaijani and Georgian representatives, which had troops at its disposal. When a large group of Russian soldiers withdrew from the Ottoman front line in January 1918, the head of the council, Georgian Menshevik Noe Ramishvili
, ordered to disarm them. The Russian soldiers were stopped near Shamkhor station and, upon a refusal to surrender, were attacked by Azerbaijani bands in what became known as the Shamkhor massacre. The Baku Soviet played out this incident into its favor against the Sejm
On February 10–24, 1918, the Sejm
adopted a declaration of independence, proclaiming the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic
. In the mean time, to support Armenian resistance against the Ottoman Empire, the British government attempted to re-organize and train a group of Armenians from the Caucasus under the leadership of General Lionel Dunsterville
in Baghdad. The Allies had also provided Armenians with 6,500,000 rubles ($3,250,000 of 1918 value) in financial assistance. In addition, the Armenian National Organization of the Caucasus formed an Armenian Military Committee in Petrograd under General Bagradouni and called upon all Armenian military personnel scattered throughout Russia to mobilize on the Caucasus front. In response to this call, by early March 1918, a large number of Armenians gathered in Baku, joining a group of 200 trained officers accompanied by General Bagradouni and the ARF co-founder Stepan Zorian
(Mr. Rostom).
The Azerbaijanis grew increasingly suspicious that Shahumyan, who was an ethnic Armenian, conspired with the Dashnaks against them. The units of Savage Division
, composed of Caucasian Muslims who served in the Imperial Russian Army
, disarmed a pro-Bolshevik garrison in Lankaran
, and Dagestani insurgents under Imam Najm ul-din Gotsinski drove the Bolsheviks out of Petrovsk
, severing Baku's land communications with the Bolshevik Russia. The Armistice of Erzincan
, followed by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
signed on March 3, 1918, formalized Russia's exit from World War I
. According to Richard G. Hovannisian
, a secret annex to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk obligated the Bolsheviks to demobilize and dissolve ethnic Armenian bands on territories previously under Russian control. At the subsequent Trabzon Peace Conference
, the Ottoman delegation called for a unified position of the Sejm before the negotiations could be completed. The Bolsheviks grew increasingly concerned about the emerging Transcaucasian Federation, and in a given situation, had to choose between Musavat and ARF in the struggle to dominate Transcaucasia's largest city. Thus the Baku Soviet was drawn into the nationalistic struggle between the Azerbaijanis and the Armenians, trying to utilize one people against the other.
As Baku produced 7 million tons of oil per year (about 15% of the global oil production), during WW I the city remained in sight of the major warring powers. Even though most of the oil fields were owned by Azerbaijanis and less than 5 per cent by Armenians, most of the production/distribution rights in Baku were owned by foreign investors, primarily the British. At the beginning of 1918, Germans transferred General Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein from the Sinai and Palestine Campaign
to establish the German Caucasus Expedition
with the aim of capturing Baku. In response, in February 1918, the British dispatched General Lionel Dunsterville
with troops to Baku through Enzeli, in order to block the German move and to protect the British investments. Meanwhile, the Bolsheviks lost control of Grozny
oilfields at the end of 1917, and Baku became the single source of oil. Lenin even asserted in one of his speeches that "Soviet Russia can't survive without Baku oil."
, including the Bailoff promontory, the White Town, the oil fields and the neighboring villages, amounted to over 200,000 and distributed as follows: 74,000 temporary migrants from various parts of Russia
, 56,000 Azerbaijani
natives of the town and district, 25,000 Armenians, 18,000 Persian
s, 6,000 Jews, 4,000 Volga Tatars
, 3,800 Lezgins
, 2,600 Georgians
, 5,000 Germans
, 1,500 Poles
and many other nationalities numbering less than 1,000 each. Azerbaijanis
formed the majority among natives and owned the greater part of land including the oil fields. They also constituted most of the labor force and small trading class as well as some commercial and financial posts. The petroleum industry was largely owned by a small number of foreign capitalists.
Prior to 1918 March events, the major armed groups in Baku consisted of 6,000 men from the remnants of Russian Caucasus Army that withdrew from the Ottoman front line, about 4,000 men of the Armenian militia organized under the ARF Dashnaktsutiun, and an undefined number of soldiers of the Savage Division
disbanded in January 1918.
When the staff of the disbanded Savage Division
arrived in Baku on March 9, 1918, the Soviet immediately arrested its commander, General Talyshinski. The move sparked protests from Azerbaijani population, with occasional calls to offer armed resistance to the Soviet. According to Firuz Kazemzadeh
, Shahumyan could have prevented bloodshed, had he been less impulsive and stubborn. Only a few days earlier, Shahumyan received a telegram from Lenin, in which he was advised "to learn diplomacy", but this advise was ignored.
The March 1918 confrontation was triggered by an incident with steamship "Evelina". On March 27, 1918, fifty former Savage Division
servicemen arrived in Baku on board of this steamship, to attend the funeral of their colleague Mamed Tagiyev, son of a famous Azerbaijani oil magnate and philanthropist Haji Zeynalabdin Taghiyev
. M. Tagiyev was killed in a skirmish with the Russian-Armenian forces in Lenkoran. Some sources state that when soldiers got back on the "Evelina" to sail out of Baku on March 30, 1918, the Soviet received information that the Muslim crew of the ship was armed and waiting for a signal to revolt against the Soviet. While the report lacked foundation, the Soviet acted on it, disarming the crew which tried to resist. Other sources claim that Azerbaijanis were alarmed by the growing military strength of the Armenians in Baku, and called for help of the Savage division units in Lenkoran. Their arrival caused great concerns among both Bolsheviks and Armenians, and when officials were sent down to the dockside to try to discover what their intentions were, they were driven back by gunfire, a number of them being killed. Eventually, however, these Savage Division soldiers were disarmed by a stronger Bolshevik force.
By 6 p.m. on March 30, 1918, Baku was filled with fighting. Trenches were being dug, barricades erected, and preparations made for warfare. The Soviet side, led by Shahumyan, realized that full civil war was starting and its own forces were insufficient against Azerbaijani masses led by Musavat. Allies were found among the Mensheviks, SRs
, and the Kadets (right-wing liberals), which promised support the Bolsheviks as the champions of the "Russian Cause." In response to these, Musavat's Achiq Söz newspaper noted that while Bolsheviks and Mensheviks were fighting all year, both were uniting against Musavat even with the Kadets and the Dashnaks. The paper attributed such alliance to national factors, and concluded that the Soviet's attempt to provoke "one nationality against another, instead of fighting a class war, was a tragic capitulation of democracy".
In the morning of March 31, Azerbaijanis opposed to the Bolshevik disarming of Savage Division held protests in Baku, demanding to arm the Muslims. The Azerbaijani Bolshevik organization Hümmet attempted to mediate the dispute by proposing that the arms taken from the Savage Division are transferred to the custody of the Hümmet. Shahumyan agreed to this proposal. But on the afternoon of March 31, when Muslim representatives appeared before the Baku Soviet leadership to take the arms, shots were already heard in the city and the Soviet commissar Prokofy Dzhaparidze refused to provide arms and informed the Hümmet leadership that "Musavat had launched a political war".
Armenians initially remained neutral as the Muslim rebellion against the Soviet began. The Musavat Party proposed an alliance with the Dashnaks, but was given a rebuff. The Armenian leadership withdraw its forces to the Armenian areas of Baku and limited its action to self-defense. On the evening of March 31, machine-gun and rifle fire in Baku intensified into a full-fledged battle. On the morning of April 1, 1918, the Committee of Revolutionary Defense of Baku's Soviet issued a leaflet which said:
No quarter was given by either side: neither age nor sex was respected. Enormous crowds roamed the streets, burning houses, killing every passer-by who was identified as an enemy, many innocent persons suffering death at the hands of both the Armenians and Azerbaijanis. The struggle which had begun as a political contest between the Musavat and the Soviet turned into a gigantic race riot. There were descriptions of Dashnak forces taking to looting, burning and killing in the Muslim sections of the city. According to Peter Hopkirk
, "Armenians, seeing that at last they had their ancient foes on the run, were now out for vengeance". In Balakhany and Ramany districts of Baku, the majority of Muslim workers stayed at their places and avoided the battles, while the peasants were not moved to join the anti-Soviet rebels. The Persian workers remained passive during all of the fighting, refusing to take sides. Left-wing Muslim leaders, including those of SRs and Hümmet Party, such as Narimanov, Azizbekov, Bunyat Sardarov and Kazi-Magomed Aghasiyev, supported the Soviet forces During the battles, Bolsheviks decided to use artillery against the Azerbaijani residential quarters in the city.
On the afternoon on April 1, a Muslim delegation arrived at the Hotel Astoria. The Committee of Revolutionary Defense presented them with an ultimatum and demanded that representatives of all Muslim parties sign the document before the shelling stopped. Early in the evening, the agreements were signed and the bombardment stopped. The fighting did not subside, however, till the night of April 2, 1918, when thousands of Muslims started leaving the city in a mass exodus. By the fifth day, although much of the city was still ablaze, all resistance had ceased, leaving the streets strewn with dead and wounded, nearly all of them Muslims. So the armed conflict between the Musavat and the joint Soviet-ARF forces ended on March 3, 1918 with the victory of the latter.
The May 1918 dispatch of the New York Times stated that "2000 were killed and 3000 were wounded in struggle between Russians and Mussulmans". Later 1919 publication by the New York Times concluded that 12,000 people were killed during the March Days of 1918. The same publication wrote that according to Azerbaijani representatives, Bolsheviks crushed Muslims with assistance from Armenians who wanted to "wipe out old enemies and seize their lands". The post-1920 New York Times editions used the same figure of 12,000 victims, as did several historians.
Azerbaijani delegation to the 1919 Paris Peace Conference
provided the following interpretation of the March Days:
The leader of Baku Soviet, Stepan Shahumyan, claimed that more than 3,000 killed in two days. However, in his October 1918 article for the Armenian Herald, publication of the Boston-based Armenian National Union of America, one of the prominent ARF leaders, Karekin Pastermadjian
, asserted that over 10,000 Azerbaijanis and nearly 2,500 Armenians were killed during the March Days of 1918.
In the immediate aftermath of the March Days, many of the Muslim survivors fled to Elisabethpol (Ganja)
in central Azerbaijan. While the Temporary Executive Committee of the Muslim National Councils
and the Musavat ceased their activities on the territory of the Baku Governorate
, the left-wing Azerbaijani political groups, such as the SRs and the Hümmet, benefited from the developments and became effective leaders of the Azerbaijani community in Baku. The Muslim Socialist Bureau appealed to the Committee of Revolutionary Defense to redress some of the grievances of some of the Muslims.
On April 13, 1918, within few days of the massacres, the Bolsheviks under the leadership of Stepan Shahumyan
proclaimed the Baku Commune. This new body endeavored to nationalize Baku's oil fields, drawing ire from the British, and to form the "Red Army of Baku", an undisciplined and poorly managed force composed largely of ethnic Armenian recruits. Although the majority of the Commissars (leaders of Baku Commune) were ethnic Armenians, two of them were ethnic Azeri revolutionaries, Meshadi Azizbekov
and Mir Hasan Vazirov
. Nevertheless, in Azeri psyche, the Baku Commune symbolized the Bolshevik - Armenian collusion born out of the March Days bloodbath.
March Days of 1918 had a profound effect on the formulation of Azerbaijani political objectives as well. While before Azerbaijani leaders only sought an autonomy within the Russian domain, after the Bolshevik-perpetrated massacres in Baku, they no longer believed in Russian Revolution and turned to the Ottomans for support in achieving total independence. Therefore when Azerbaijan Democratic Republic
was proclaimed on May 28, 1918, its government immediately dispatched a delegation to Istanbul for discussing a possibility of the Ottoman military support for the young republic. The Ottoman triumvir, Enver Pasha, agreed to Azerbaijani requests and charged his brother, Nuru Pasha, with forming an Ottoman military unit, known as the Caucasus Army of Islam, to retake Baku. When in July 1918, the Ottoman-Azerbaijani force defeated the "Red Army of Baku" in several key battles in Central Azerbaijan, Bolshevik power in Baku started crumbling under pressure from the Russian Socialist Revolutionaries
, Dashnaks and British agents in the city. On August 1, 1918, the Baku Commune was replaced by the Centrocaspian Dictatorship
, which desperately invited a 1000-strong British expeditionary force
led by General Lionel Dunsterville
to the city. But this was a futile effort and, in face of an overwhelming Ottoman-Azerbaijani offensive, the Dunsterforce
fled and the Caucasus Army of Islam entered the Azerbaijani capital on September 15, 1918.
The March Days brought the underlying tension between the Armenians and Azerbaijanis to the fore. Less than six months after the March massacres, when the Ottoman-Azerbaijani force entered Baku, the city fell into chaos and nearly 10,000 Armenians were massacred
. A special commission formed by the Armenian National Council
(ANC) reported a total of 8,988 ethnic Armenians massacred, among which were 5,248 Armenian inhabitants of Baku, 1,500 Armenian refugees from other parts of the Caucasus who were in Baku, and 2,240 Armenians whose corpses were found in the streets but whose identities were never established. Although these figures were gathered by the Armenian National Council, and have been questioned by some, given the general run of events, they were unlikely to be too exaggerated.
While trying to escape Baku amidst the Ottoman-Azerbaijani offensive, the Bolshevik Baku Commissars were taken by a ship across the Caspian to Krasnovodsk, where they were imprisoned by the Social Revolutionary Transcaspian Government
with alleged support of the British. Few days later, on September 20, 1918, between the stations of Pereval and Akhcha-Kuyma on the Trans-Caspian railway
, 26 of the Commissars were executed by a firing squad.
stated with regard to the March Days:
In Soviet Azerbaijan, historical accounts of March Days were made to support the actions of Baku Soviet and to condemn Musavat as the culprit of the tragedy. Soviet historiography also tried to suppress the memory of 1918 massacres and omitted the fact that Bolsheviks used the Armenian-Azerbaijani ethnic confrontation to gain power. However, in 1978, then-leader of Soviet Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev
recalled the forgotten March Days in his speech dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Stepan Shahumyan
as follows:
Exactly twenty years later, as the President of independent Azerbaijan
, Heydar Aliyev issued a decree condemning March Days as the beginning of Azerbaijani genocide. Text of the 1998 Presidential decree describes the March events as follows:
Shahumian considered the March events to be a triumph of the Soviet power in the Caucasus:
In the opinion of the American historian Tadeusz Swietochowski, "in his enthusiasm, Shahumyan might not have remembered that in 1905 he himself had accused the tsardom of reaping in benefits of the Muslim-Armenian massacres. It is doubtful that to him, as opposed to the Azerbaijanis, any similarity suggested itself."
Joseph Stalin
, who was Bolshevik People's Commissar at the time, tried to justify the provoking of the March Days by the Baku Soviet in "Pravda" newspaper: "While the center of Muslims, Baku, the citadel of Soviet power in Transcaucasus, unified around itself the entire Eastern Transcaucasus, from Lenkoran and Kuba till Elizavetpol, with arms in hands is asserting the rights of people of Transcaucasus, who try by all forces to maintain a link with Soviet Russia".
. The letter began with the accusation that the Azerbaijanis, being the disciples of the Turks and the Germans
, could not be trusted. Having thus disposed of the Azerbaijani version of the events, Bagrat stated that the battle was waged by the Musavat and the Soviet, while the Armenians remained neutral. Archbishop claimed that some Armenian soldiers took part in the fighting, but that those were only isolated individuals for whom the Armenian National Council could not be held responsible. He also claimed that the Armenians gave shelter to some 20,000 Muslims during the struggle. Persian Armenians in Baku indeed saved many lives of their fellow citizens, which may have been the basis for Bagrat's exaggerated assertion.
Armenians had been inflamed by the sight and pitiful stories of several hundred thousand refugees who had succeeded in reaching Transcaucasia, fleeing before the Ottoman Army. Consequently, when the Russian Army broke up, the Armenians preserved their discipline against all attempts of the Bolsheviks, and were the only force upon which the Allies could count in southwestern Asia during the last year of the war. The two million Armenians of Transcaucasia, increased by several hundred thousand refugees from the Ottoman Empire, persisted in their loyalty to Russia until the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk delivered them to the Ottoman Empire. Then they moved to form their own state, which succeeded in maintaining itself during the period of anarchy and famine that Bolshevism brought upon the Russian Empire. At the Peace Conference
, speaking before the Council of Ten, M. Aharonian, delegate of the Armenian Republic of the Caucasus
, stated that the two and a half million Armenians in Transcaucasia wanted to cast in their fortunes with the Armenians of Ottoman Empire
to form a Greater Armenia. According to Michael P. Croissant, the ARF set out to take revenge for the persecution and genocide suffered by Armenians
at the hands of the Ottomans
, while Tadeusz Swietochowski states that "Armenian historians do not offer an explanation for the political calculations behind this move, which was bound to entail terrible retribution, and they hint rather at an uncontrollable emotional outburst".
, the Soviet provoked March events to eliminate its most formidable rival - the Musavat. However, when Soviet leaders reached out to ARF for assistance against the Azerbaijani nationalists, the conflict degenerated into a massacre with the Armenians killing the Muslims irrespective of their political affiliations or social and economic position.
Victor Serge
in Year One (First Year) Of the Russian Revolution: "The Soviet at Baku, led by Shahumyan, was meanwhile making itself the ruler of the area, discreetly but unmistakably. Following the Moslem rising of 18 (30) March, it had to introduce a dictatorship. This rising, instigated by the Musavat, set the Tartar and Turkic population, led by their reactionary bourgeoisie, against the Soviet, which consisted of Russians with support from the Armenians. The races began to slaughter each other in the street. Most of the Turkic port-workers (the ambal) either remained neutral or supported the Reds. The contest was won by the Soviets."
A Memorial dedicated to all victims of March Days and Black January
.
s of Azerbaijani civilians in what became the first such recognition by the U.S. government institution.
Azerbaijani people
The Azerbaijanis are a Turkic-speaking people living mainly in northwestern Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan, as well as in the neighbourhood states, Georgia, Russia and formerly Armenia. Commonly referred to as Azeris or Azerbaijani Turks , they also live in a wider area from the Caucasus to...
s and other Muslims that took place between March 30 and April 2, 1918 in the city of Baku
Baku
Baku , sometimes spelled as Baki or Bakou, is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. It is located on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, which projects into the Caspian Sea. The city consists of two principal...
and adjacent areas of the Baku Governorate
Baku Governorate
Baku Governorate was one of the guberniyas of the Russian Empire, with its centre in Baku. Area : 34,4000 sq. verstas, population : 789,659. The only foreign border of the governorate was Persia, in the south...
of Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
.
Facilitated by a political power struggle between Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
s with support of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutiun)
Armenian Revolutionary Federation
The Armenian Revolutionary Federation is an Armenian political party founded in Tiflis in 1890 by Christapor Mikaelian, Stepan Zorian, and Simon Zavarian...
on one side and Azerbaijani Musavat Party on another, the events led to a suppression of Muslim revolt by Bolshevik and Dashnak forces and establishment of a short-lived Baku Commune in April 1918.
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...
officially refers to March Days as soyqırım ('genocide'). Few other sources interpret the March events in the context of civil war
Civil war
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....
unrest.
Political situation
Following the February RevolutionFebruary Revolution
The February Revolution of 1917 was the first of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. Centered around the then capital Petrograd in March . Its immediate result was the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the end of the Romanov dynasty, and the end of the Russian Empire...
, a Special Transcaucasian Committee
Special Transcaucasian Committee
Special Transcaucasian Committee was established on March 9, 1917, with Member of the State Duma V. A...
, including Armenian, Azerbaijani and Georgian representatives, was established to administer parts of the South Caucasus
South Caucasus
The South Caucasus is a geopolitical region located on the border of Eastern Europe and Southwest Asia also referred to as Transcaucasia, or The Trans-Caucasus...
under the control of the Russian Provisional Government
Russian Provisional Government
The Russian Provisional Government was the short-lived administrative body which sought to govern Russia immediately following the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II . On September 14, the State Duma of the Russian Empire was officially dissolved by the newly created Directorate, and the country was...
. After the October Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
, on November 11, 1917, this committee was replaced by the Transcaucasian Commissariat
Transcaucasian Commissariat
The Transcaucasian Commissariat was established at Tbilisi on November 11, 1917, as the first government of the independent Transcaucasia and following the Bolshevik seizure of power in St...
, also known as the Sejm, with headquarters in Tiflis. The Sejm opposed Bolsheviks and sought separation of the South Caucasus from Bolshevik Russia. To prevent that, on November 13, 1917, a group of Bolsheviks and Left Socialist-Revolutionaries
Left Socialist-Revolutionaries
In 1917, Russia the Socialist-Revolutionary Party split between those who supported the Provisional Government, established after the February Revolution, and those who supported the Bolsheviks who favoured a communist insurrection....
(SR) proclaimed the Baku Soviet, a governing body which assumed power over the territory of Baku Governorate
Baku Governorate
Baku Governorate was one of the guberniyas of the Russian Empire, with its centre in Baku. Area : 34,4000 sq. verstas, population : 789,659. The only foreign border of the governorate was Persia, in the south...
under the leadership of Bolshevik Stepan Shahumyan
Stepan Shahumyan
Stepan Gevorgi Shahumyan was a Bolshevist Russian communist politician and revolutionary active throughout the Caucasus. Shahumyan was an ethnic Armenian and his role as a leader of the Russian revolution in the Caucasus earned him the nickname of the "Caucasian Lenin", a reference to the leader...
. Although the Baku Soviet included Azerbaijanis and Armenians who were neither Bolsheviks nor necessarily sympathetic towards the Bolshevik ideas, the two nationalist parties and members of the Sejm ― the Musavat and Armenian Revolutionary Federation
Armenian Revolutionary Federation
The Armenian Revolutionary Federation is an Armenian political party founded in Tiflis in 1890 by Christapor Mikaelian, Stepan Zorian, and Simon Zavarian...
― refused to recognize its authority. The Baku-based Musavat dominated Muslim National Councils
Azerbaijani National Council
Azerbaijani National Council was the first delegated legislative body of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic from 27 May 1918 to 17 June 1918 and again from 16 November 1918 to 3 December 1918...
(MNCs), a representative body which eventually formed the first Parliament of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic
Azerbaijan Democratic Republic
The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was the first successful attempt to establish a democratic and secular republic in the Muslim world . The ADR was founded on May 28, 1918 after the collapse of the Russian Empire that began with the Russian Revolution of 1917 by Azerbaijani National Council in...
(ADR). Mammad Hasan Hajinski
Mammad Hasan Hajinski
Mammad Hasan Jafargulu oglu Hajinski was an Azerbaijani architect and statesman. He also served as a Minister for Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic and the last Prime Minister of ADR.-Early life:...
chaired the Temporary Executive Committee for the MNCs, while Mammed Amin Rasulzade
Mammed Amin Rasulzade
Mammad Amin Rasulzade was an Azerbaijani statesman, scholar, public figure and one of the founding political leaders of Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan...
, Alimardan Topchubashev
Alimardan Topchubashev
Alimardan Alakbar oglu Topchubashov was a prominent Azerbaijani politician, foreign minister and speaker of the Parliament of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic....
, Fatali Khan Khoyski
Fatali Khan Khoyski
Fatali Khan Khoyski Isgender oglu was an attorney, a member of the Second State Duma of the Russian Empire, Minister of Internal Affairs, Minister of Defense and, later the first Prime Minister of the independent Azerbaijan Democratic Republic.-Early life:Khoyski was born on December 7, 1875 in...
and other prominent political figures were among the 44 Azerbaijani delegates to the Sejm. Meanwhile, the ARF, which was established in Tiflis, formed a 27-member Armenian delegation to the Sejm. The leader of the Baku Soviet, Shahumyan, kept contacts with ARF and viewed it as a source of support for eliminating Musavat influence in Baku. It is noteworthy that during the March Days of 1918, one of the ARF founders, Stepan Zorian
Stepan Zorian
300px|thumb|RosdomStepan Zorian better known by his nom de guerre Rosdom , was one of the three founders of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation along Christapor Mikaelian and Simon Zavarian, also part of Armenian national liberation movement.- Founding of the ARF :Rosdom was born in the village...
, was present in Baku.
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
, Russian army fell apart and its units fled the front lines en masse, often harassing local residents. Concerned with the situation, the Sejm established a Military Council of Nationalities, with Armenian, Azerbaijani and Georgian representatives, which had troops at its disposal. When a large group of Russian soldiers withdrew from the Ottoman front line in January 1918, the head of the council, Georgian Menshevik Noe Ramishvili
Noe Ramishvili
Noe Besarionis dze Ramishvili was a Georgian politician and the first Prime Minister of Georgia. He was one of the leaders of the Menshevik wing of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. He was also known by his party noms de guerre: Pyotr, and Semyonov N...
, ordered to disarm them. The Russian soldiers were stopped near Shamkhor station and, upon a refusal to surrender, were attacked by Azerbaijani bands in what became known as the Shamkhor massacre. The Baku Soviet played out this incident into its favor against the Sejm
On February 10–24, 1918, the Sejm
Transcaucasian Commissariat
The Transcaucasian Commissariat was established at Tbilisi on November 11, 1917, as the first government of the independent Transcaucasia and following the Bolshevik seizure of power in St...
adopted a declaration of independence, proclaiming the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic
Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic
The Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic , was a short-lived state composed of the modern-day countries of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia in the South Caucasus.-...
. In the mean time, to support Armenian resistance against the Ottoman Empire, the British government attempted to re-organize and train a group of Armenians from the Caucasus under the leadership of General Lionel Dunsterville
Lionel Dunsterville
General Lionel Charles Dunsterville CB, CSI was a British general, who led the so-called Dunsterforce across present-day Iraq and Iran towards Caucasus and oil-rich Baku.-Biography:...
in Baghdad. The Allies had also provided Armenians with 6,500,000 rubles ($3,250,000 of 1918 value) in financial assistance. In addition, the Armenian National Organization of the Caucasus formed an Armenian Military Committee in Petrograd under General Bagradouni and called upon all Armenian military personnel scattered throughout Russia to mobilize on the Caucasus front. In response to this call, by early March 1918, a large number of Armenians gathered in Baku, joining a group of 200 trained officers accompanied by General Bagradouni and the ARF co-founder Stepan Zorian
Stepan Zorian
300px|thumb|RosdomStepan Zorian better known by his nom de guerre Rosdom , was one of the three founders of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation along Christapor Mikaelian and Simon Zavarian, also part of Armenian national liberation movement.- Founding of the ARF :Rosdom was born in the village...
(Mr. Rostom).
The Azerbaijanis grew increasingly suspicious that Shahumyan, who was an ethnic Armenian, conspired with the Dashnaks against them. The units of Savage Division
Savage Division
The Caucasian Native Mounted Division , or Savage Division was a cavalry division of the Imperial Russian Army, formed in 1914. It was composed of volunteers from Chechnia, Ingushetia, Daghestan, Karachay, Circassia, Kabarda and Azerbaijan...
, composed of Caucasian Muslims who served in the Imperial Russian Army
Imperial Russian Army
The Imperial Russian Army was the land armed force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the early 1850s, the Russian army consisted of around 938,731 regular soldiers and 245,850 irregulars . Until the time of military reform of Dmitry Milyutin in...
, disarmed a pro-Bolshevik garrison in Lankaran
Lankaran
-History:The city was built on a swamp along the northern bank of the river bearing the city's name. There are remains of human settlements in the area dating back to the Neolithic period as well as ruins of fortified villages from the Bronze and Iron Ages. Lankaran's history is rather recent,...
, and Dagestani insurgents under Imam Najm ul-din Gotsinski drove the Bolsheviks out of Petrovsk
Makhachkala
-Twin towns/sister cities:Makhachkala is twinned with: Sfax, Tunisia Siping, China Spokane, United States Vladikavkaz, Russia Yalova, Turkey Ndola, Zambia-See also:*...
, severing Baku's land communications with the Bolshevik Russia. The Armistice of Erzincan
Armistice of Erzincan
The Armistice of Erzincan or Erzincan Armistice ended the armed conflicts between Russia and Ottoman Empire in the Persian Campaign and Caucasus Campaign of the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I. It was signed by the Russians and Ottoman Third Army in Erzincan on December 5, 1917...
, followed by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was a peace treaty signed on March 3, 1918, mediated by South African Andrik Fuller, at Brest-Litovsk between Russia and the Central Powers, headed by Germany, marking Russia's exit from World War I.While the treaty was practically obsolete before the end of the year,...
signed on March 3, 1918, formalized Russia's exit from World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. According to Richard G. Hovannisian
Richard G. Hovannisian
Richard G. Hovannisian is an American historian and scholar. He was born and raised in Tulare, California. He received his B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, and his Ph.D. from University of California, Los Angeles. He was also Associate Professor of History at...
, a secret annex to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk obligated the Bolsheviks to demobilize and dissolve ethnic Armenian bands on territories previously under Russian control. At the subsequent Trabzon Peace Conference
Trabzon Peace Conference
The Trabzon peace conference was a conference held between March and April of 1918 in Trabzon between the Ottoman Empire and a delegation of the Transcaucasian Diet and government. The opening session was on 14 March 1918. The representatives were Rear-Admiral Rauf Bey for the Ottoman Empire, and...
, the Ottoman delegation called for a unified position of the Sejm before the negotiations could be completed. The Bolsheviks grew increasingly concerned about the emerging Transcaucasian Federation, and in a given situation, had to choose between Musavat and ARF in the struggle to dominate Transcaucasia's largest city. Thus the Baku Soviet was drawn into the nationalistic struggle between the Azerbaijanis and the Armenians, trying to utilize one people against the other.
As Baku produced 7 million tons of oil per year (about 15% of the global oil production), during WW I the city remained in sight of the major warring powers. Even though most of the oil fields were owned by Azerbaijanis and less than 5 per cent by Armenians, most of the production/distribution rights in Baku were owned by foreign investors, primarily the British. At the beginning of 1918, Germans transferred General Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein from the Sinai and Palestine Campaign
Sinai and Palestine Campaign
The Sinai and Palestine Campaigns took place in the Middle Eastern Theatre of World War I. A series of battles were fought between British Empire, German Empire and Ottoman Empire forces from 26 January 1915 to 31 October 1918, when the Armistice of Mudros was signed between the Ottoman Empire and...
to establish the German Caucasus Expedition
German Caucasus Expedition
The German Caucasus Expedition was a military expedition sent by the German Empire to the formerly Russian Transcaucasia during the Caucasus Campaign of the World War I...
with the aim of capturing Baku. In response, in February 1918, the British dispatched General Lionel Dunsterville
Lionel Dunsterville
General Lionel Charles Dunsterville CB, CSI was a British general, who led the so-called Dunsterforce across present-day Iraq and Iran towards Caucasus and oil-rich Baku.-Biography:...
with troops to Baku through Enzeli, in order to block the German move and to protect the British investments. Meanwhile, the Bolsheviks lost control of Grozny
Grozny
Grozny is the capital city of the Chechen Republic, Russia. The city lies on the Sunzha River. According to the preliminary results of the 2010 Census, the city had a population of 271,596; up from 210,720 recorded in the 2002 Census. but still only about two-thirds of 399,688 recorded in the 1989...
oilfields at the end of 1917, and Baku became the single source of oil. Lenin even asserted in one of his speeches that "Soviet Russia can't survive without Baku oil."
Demographics and armed groups
Before World War I, the population of BakuBaku
Baku , sometimes spelled as Baki or Bakou, is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. It is located on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, which projects into the Caspian Sea. The city consists of two principal...
, including the Bailoff promontory, the White Town, the oil fields and the neighboring villages, amounted to over 200,000 and distributed as follows: 74,000 temporary migrants from various parts of Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, 56,000 Azerbaijani
Azerbaijani people
The Azerbaijanis are a Turkic-speaking people living mainly in northwestern Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan, as well as in the neighbourhood states, Georgia, Russia and formerly Armenia. Commonly referred to as Azeris or Azerbaijani Turks , they also live in a wider area from the Caucasus to...
natives of the town and district, 25,000 Armenians, 18,000 Persian
Persian people
The Persian people are part of the Iranian peoples who speak the modern Persian language and closely akin Iranian dialects and languages. The origin of the ethnic Iranian/Persian peoples are traced to the Ancient Iranian peoples, who were part of the ancient Indo-Iranians and themselves part of...
s, 6,000 Jews, 4,000 Volga Tatars
Volga Tatars
The Volga Tatars are the largest subgroup of the Tatars, native to the Volga region.They account for roughly six out of seven million Tatars worldwide....
, 3,800 Lezgins
Lezgins
The Lezgians are an ethnic group living predominantly in southern Dagestan and northeastern Azerbaijan and who speak the Lezgian language.- Historical concept :While ancient Greek historians, including Herodotus, Strabo, and Pliny the Elder, referred...
, 2,600 Georgians
Georgians
The Georgians are an ethnic group that have originated in Georgia, where they constitute a majority of the population. Large Georgian communities are also present throughout Russia, European Union, United States, and South America....
, 5,000 Germans
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
, 1,500 Poles
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
and many other nationalities numbering less than 1,000 each. Azerbaijanis
Azerbaijani people
The Azerbaijanis are a Turkic-speaking people living mainly in northwestern Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan, as well as in the neighbourhood states, Georgia, Russia and formerly Armenia. Commonly referred to as Azeris or Azerbaijani Turks , they also live in a wider area from the Caucasus to...
formed the majority among natives and owned the greater part of land including the oil fields. They also constituted most of the labor force and small trading class as well as some commercial and financial posts. The petroleum industry was largely owned by a small number of foreign capitalists.
Prior to 1918 March events, the major armed groups in Baku consisted of 6,000 men from the remnants of Russian Caucasus Army that withdrew from the Ottoman front line, about 4,000 men of the Armenian militia organized under the ARF Dashnaktsutiun, and an undefined number of soldiers of the Savage Division
Savage Division
The Caucasian Native Mounted Division , or Savage Division was a cavalry division of the Imperial Russian Army, formed in 1914. It was composed of volunteers from Chechnia, Ingushetia, Daghestan, Karachay, Circassia, Kabarda and Azerbaijan...
disbanded in January 1918.
Events of March 30 - April 2, 1918
Savage Division
The Caucasian Native Mounted Division , or Savage Division was a cavalry division of the Imperial Russian Army, formed in 1914. It was composed of volunteers from Chechnia, Ingushetia, Daghestan, Karachay, Circassia, Kabarda and Azerbaijan...
arrived in Baku on March 9, 1918, the Soviet immediately arrested its commander, General Talyshinski. The move sparked protests from Azerbaijani population, with occasional calls to offer armed resistance to the Soviet. According to Firuz Kazemzadeh
Firuz Kazemzadeh
Firuz Kazemzadeh is a professor emeritus of history at Yale University.Firuz Kazemzadeh was born in Moscow, where his father served in the embassy of Iran...
, Shahumyan could have prevented bloodshed, had he been less impulsive and stubborn. Only a few days earlier, Shahumyan received a telegram from Lenin, in which he was advised "to learn diplomacy", but this advise was ignored.
The March 1918 confrontation was triggered by an incident with steamship "Evelina". On March 27, 1918, fifty former Savage Division
Savage Division
The Caucasian Native Mounted Division , or Savage Division was a cavalry division of the Imperial Russian Army, formed in 1914. It was composed of volunteers from Chechnia, Ingushetia, Daghestan, Karachay, Circassia, Kabarda and Azerbaijan...
servicemen arrived in Baku on board of this steamship, to attend the funeral of their colleague Mamed Tagiyev, son of a famous Azerbaijani oil magnate and philanthropist Haji Zeynalabdin Taghiyev
Haji Zeynalabdin Taghiyev
Hajji Zeynalabdin Taghi oglu Taghiyev was an Azeri national industrial magnate and philanthropist.-Early life:...
. M. Tagiyev was killed in a skirmish with the Russian-Armenian forces in Lenkoran. Some sources state that when soldiers got back on the "Evelina" to sail out of Baku on March 30, 1918, the Soviet received information that the Muslim crew of the ship was armed and waiting for a signal to revolt against the Soviet. While the report lacked foundation, the Soviet acted on it, disarming the crew which tried to resist. Other sources claim that Azerbaijanis were alarmed by the growing military strength of the Armenians in Baku, and called for help of the Savage division units in Lenkoran. Their arrival caused great concerns among both Bolsheviks and Armenians, and when officials were sent down to the dockside to try to discover what their intentions were, they were driven back by gunfire, a number of them being killed. Eventually, however, these Savage Division soldiers were disarmed by a stronger Bolshevik force.
Socialist-Revolutionary Party
thumb|right|200px|Socialist-Revolutionary election poster, 1917. The caption in red reads "партия соц-рев" , short for Party of the Socialist Revolutionaries...
, and the Kadets (right-wing liberals), which promised support the Bolsheviks as the champions of the "Russian Cause." In response to these, Musavat's Achiq Söz newspaper noted that while Bolsheviks and Mensheviks were fighting all year, both were uniting against Musavat even with the Kadets and the Dashnaks. The paper attributed such alliance to national factors, and concluded that the Soviet's attempt to provoke "one nationality against another, instead of fighting a class war, was a tragic capitulation of democracy".
In the morning of March 31, Azerbaijanis opposed to the Bolshevik disarming of Savage Division held protests in Baku, demanding to arm the Muslims. The Azerbaijani Bolshevik organization Hümmet attempted to mediate the dispute by proposing that the arms taken from the Savage Division are transferred to the custody of the Hümmet. Shahumyan agreed to this proposal. But on the afternoon of March 31, when Muslim representatives appeared before the Baku Soviet leadership to take the arms, shots were already heard in the city and the Soviet commissar Prokofy Dzhaparidze refused to provide arms and informed the Hümmet leadership that "Musavat had launched a political war".
Armenians initially remained neutral as the Muslim rebellion against the Soviet began. The Musavat Party proposed an alliance with the Dashnaks, but was given a rebuff. The Armenian leadership withdraw its forces to the Armenian areas of Baku and limited its action to self-defense. On the evening of March 31, machine-gun and rifle fire in Baku intensified into a full-fledged battle. On the morning of April 1, 1918, the Committee of Revolutionary Defense of Baku's Soviet issued a leaflet which said:
No quarter was given by either side: neither age nor sex was respected. Enormous crowds roamed the streets, burning houses, killing every passer-by who was identified as an enemy, many innocent persons suffering death at the hands of both the Armenians and Azerbaijanis. The struggle which had begun as a political contest between the Musavat and the Soviet turned into a gigantic race riot. There were descriptions of Dashnak forces taking to looting, burning and killing in the Muslim sections of the city. According to Peter Hopkirk
Peter Hopkirk
Peter Hopkirk is a British journalist and author who has written six books about the British Empire, Russia and Central Asia.-Biography:Hopkirk attended the Dragon School in Oxford....
, "Armenians, seeing that at last they had their ancient foes on the run, were now out for vengeance". In Balakhany and Ramany districts of Baku, the majority of Muslim workers stayed at their places and avoided the battles, while the peasants were not moved to join the anti-Soviet rebels. The Persian workers remained passive during all of the fighting, refusing to take sides. Left-wing Muslim leaders, including those of SRs and Hümmet Party, such as Narimanov, Azizbekov, Bunyat Sardarov and Kazi-Magomed Aghasiyev, supported the Soviet forces During the battles, Bolsheviks decided to use artillery against the Azerbaijani residential quarters in the city.
On the afternoon on April 1, a Muslim delegation arrived at the Hotel Astoria. The Committee of Revolutionary Defense presented them with an ultimatum and demanded that representatives of all Muslim parties sign the document before the shelling stopped. Early in the evening, the agreements were signed and the bombardment stopped. The fighting did not subside, however, till the night of April 2, 1918, when thousands of Muslims started leaving the city in a mass exodus. By the fifth day, although much of the city was still ablaze, all resistance had ceased, leaving the streets strewn with dead and wounded, nearly all of them Muslims. So the armed conflict between the Musavat and the joint Soviet-ARF forces ended on March 3, 1918 with the victory of the latter.
Casualties
Azerbaijani delegation to the 1919 Paris Peace Conference
Paris Peace Conference, 1919
The Paris Peace Conference was the meeting of the Allied victors following the end of World War I to set the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers following the armistices of 1918. It took place in Paris in 1919 and involved diplomats from more than 32 countries and nationalities...
provided the following interpretation of the March Days:
The leader of Baku Soviet, Stepan Shahumyan, claimed that more than 3,000 killed in two days. However, in his October 1918 article for the Armenian Herald, publication of the Boston-based Armenian National Union of America, one of the prominent ARF leaders, Karekin Pastermadjian
Karekin Pastermadjian
Karekin Pastermadjian , more famously known by his nom de guerre Armen Garo / Armen Karo, was one of the distinguished leaders of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation and an ambassador. He was the son of famous Armenian Haroutiun Pasdermadjian and the grandson of Khatchatour Efendi...
, asserted that over 10,000 Azerbaijanis and nearly 2,500 Armenians were killed during the March Days of 1918.
Aftermath
Ganja
Ganja is Azerbaijan's second-largest city with a population of around 313,300. It was named Yelizavetpol in the Russian Empire period. The city regained its original name—Ganja—from 1920–1935 during the first part of its incorporation into the Soviet Union. However, its name was changed again and...
in central Azerbaijan. While the Temporary Executive Committee of the Muslim National Councils
Azerbaijani National Council
Azerbaijani National Council was the first delegated legislative body of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic from 27 May 1918 to 17 June 1918 and again from 16 November 1918 to 3 December 1918...
and the Musavat ceased their activities on the territory of the Baku Governorate
Baku Governorate
Baku Governorate was one of the guberniyas of the Russian Empire, with its centre in Baku. Area : 34,4000 sq. verstas, population : 789,659. The only foreign border of the governorate was Persia, in the south...
, the left-wing Azerbaijani political groups, such as the SRs and the Hümmet, benefited from the developments and became effective leaders of the Azerbaijani community in Baku. The Muslim Socialist Bureau appealed to the Committee of Revolutionary Defense to redress some of the grievances of some of the Muslims.
On April 13, 1918, within few days of the massacres, the Bolsheviks under the leadership of Stepan Shahumyan
Stepan Shahumyan
Stepan Gevorgi Shahumyan was a Bolshevist Russian communist politician and revolutionary active throughout the Caucasus. Shahumyan was an ethnic Armenian and his role as a leader of the Russian revolution in the Caucasus earned him the nickname of the "Caucasian Lenin", a reference to the leader...
proclaimed the Baku Commune. This new body endeavored to nationalize Baku's oil fields, drawing ire from the British, and to form the "Red Army of Baku", an undisciplined and poorly managed force composed largely of ethnic Armenian recruits. Although the majority of the Commissars (leaders of Baku Commune) were ethnic Armenians, two of them were ethnic Azeri revolutionaries, Meshadi Azizbekov
Meshadi Azizbekov
Meshadi Azimbey oghlu Azizbekov, also spelled Azizbeyov , was a famous Azerbaijani revolutionary.- Early life :...
and Mir Hasan Vazirov
Mir Hasan Vazirov
Mir-Hasan Kazim oglu Vazirov, also spelled Vezirov was an Azerbaijani revolutionary. Son of a teacher, he was born in the city of Shusha . During the secondary school years, he joined the revolutionary movement and became a member of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party...
. Nevertheless, in Azeri psyche, the Baku Commune symbolized the Bolshevik - Armenian collusion born out of the March Days bloodbath.
March Days of 1918 had a profound effect on the formulation of Azerbaijani political objectives as well. While before Azerbaijani leaders only sought an autonomy within the Russian domain, after the Bolshevik-perpetrated massacres in Baku, they no longer believed in Russian Revolution and turned to the Ottomans for support in achieving total independence. Therefore when Azerbaijan Democratic Republic
Azerbaijan Democratic Republic
The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was the first successful attempt to establish a democratic and secular republic in the Muslim world . The ADR was founded on May 28, 1918 after the collapse of the Russian Empire that began with the Russian Revolution of 1917 by Azerbaijani National Council in...
was proclaimed on May 28, 1918, its government immediately dispatched a delegation to Istanbul for discussing a possibility of the Ottoman military support for the young republic. The Ottoman triumvir, Enver Pasha, agreed to Azerbaijani requests and charged his brother, Nuru Pasha, with forming an Ottoman military unit, known as the Caucasus Army of Islam, to retake Baku. When in July 1918, the Ottoman-Azerbaijani force defeated the "Red Army of Baku" in several key battles in Central Azerbaijan, Bolshevik power in Baku started crumbling under pressure from the Russian Socialist Revolutionaries
Socialist-Revolutionary Party
thumb|right|200px|Socialist-Revolutionary election poster, 1917. The caption in red reads "партия соц-рев" , short for Party of the Socialist Revolutionaries...
, Dashnaks and British agents in the city. On August 1, 1918, the Baku Commune was replaced by the Centrocaspian Dictatorship
Centrocaspian Dictatorship
The Central-Caspian Dictatorship , or the Centro-Caspian Dictatorship, was a short-lived anti-Soviet client state proclaimed in Baku, the capital of present-day Azerbaijan, during World War I...
, which desperately invited a 1000-strong British expeditionary force
Dunsterforce
Established in 1917, Dunsterforce was an Allied military mission of under 1,000 Australian, New Zealand, British, and Canadian troops , accompanied by armoured cars, deployed from Hamadan some 350 km across Qajar Persia. It was named after its commander General Lionel Dunsterville...
led by General Lionel Dunsterville
Lionel Dunsterville
General Lionel Charles Dunsterville CB, CSI was a British general, who led the so-called Dunsterforce across present-day Iraq and Iran towards Caucasus and oil-rich Baku.-Biography:...
to the city. But this was a futile effort and, in face of an overwhelming Ottoman-Azerbaijani offensive, the Dunsterforce
Dunsterforce
Established in 1917, Dunsterforce was an Allied military mission of under 1,000 Australian, New Zealand, British, and Canadian troops , accompanied by armoured cars, deployed from Hamadan some 350 km across Qajar Persia. It was named after its commander General Lionel Dunsterville...
fled and the Caucasus Army of Islam entered the Azerbaijani capital on September 15, 1918.
The March Days brought the underlying tension between the Armenians and Azerbaijanis to the fore. Less than six months after the March massacres, when the Ottoman-Azerbaijani force entered Baku, the city fell into chaos and nearly 10,000 Armenians were massacred
September Days
The September Days refers to a period during the Russian Civil War in September 1918 when ethnic Armenians were massacred by Enver Pasha's Army of Islam and their local Azeri allies when they captured Baku, the soon-to-be capital of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic...
. A special commission formed by the Armenian National Council
Armenian National Council
Armenian National Council is a term that refers to*Armenian National Council of Karabagh was also referred as People's Government of Karabagh before the rename in September 1918*Armenian National Council of Baku*Armenian National Council of Tiflis...
(ANC) reported a total of 8,988 ethnic Armenians massacred, among which were 5,248 Armenian inhabitants of Baku, 1,500 Armenian refugees from other parts of the Caucasus who were in Baku, and 2,240 Armenians whose corpses were found in the streets but whose identities were never established. Although these figures were gathered by the Armenian National Council, and have been questioned by some, given the general run of events, they were unlikely to be too exaggerated.
While trying to escape Baku amidst the Ottoman-Azerbaijani offensive, the Bolshevik Baku Commissars were taken by a ship across the Caspian to Krasnovodsk, where they were imprisoned by the Social Revolutionary Transcaspian Government
Transcaspian Government
The Transcaspian Government was set up by Railway workers of the Trans-Caspian Railway in 1918 and lasted until July 1919. It was based at Ashgabat.-Origin:...
with alleged support of the British. Few days later, on September 20, 1918, between the stations of Pereval and Akhcha-Kuyma on the Trans-Caspian railway
Trans-Caspian railway
The Trans-Caspian Railway is a railway that follows the path of the Silk Road through much of western Central Asia. It was built by the Russian Empire during its expansion into Central Asia in the 19th century. The railway was started in 1879, following the Russian defeat of Khokand...
, 26 of the Commissars were executed by a firing squad.
Analysis and interpretations
According to Michael Smith, Muslims faced a crushing defeat at the hands of Baku Soviet followed by an "unrestrained brutality of Dashnak forces". While in the aftermath of the tragic events, Musavat used them to foster a national memory of pain, its leader M. E. Rasulzade provided an analysis which seems to reflect the essence of witness accounts. In Rasulzade's view, Bolsheviks and their supporters sought to diminish Musavat's influence among Azerbaijani masses for a long time, and Muslim elites felt frustrated and powerless in face of this pressure. March Days were a violent culmination in this assault of Russian Bolshevism against the unprepared Azerbaijani people.Azerbaijani position
The leader of Musavat Mammed Amin RasulzadeMammed Amin Rasulzade
Mammad Amin Rasulzade was an Azerbaijani statesman, scholar, public figure and one of the founding political leaders of Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan...
stated with regard to the March Days:
In Soviet Azerbaijan, historical accounts of March Days were made to support the actions of Baku Soviet and to condemn Musavat as the culprit of the tragedy. Soviet historiography also tried to suppress the memory of 1918 massacres and omitted the fact that Bolsheviks used the Armenian-Azerbaijani ethnic confrontation to gain power. However, in 1978, then-leader of Soviet Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev
Heydar Aliyev
Heydar Alirza oglu Aliyev , also spelled as Heidar Aliev, Geidar Aliev, Haydar Aliyev, Geydar Aliyev was the third President of Azerbaijan for the New Azerbaijan Party from June 1993 to October 2003, when his son Ilham Aliyev succeeded him.From 1969 till 1982, Aliyev was also the leader of Soviet...
recalled the forgotten March Days in his speech dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Stepan Shahumyan
Stepan Shahumyan
Stepan Gevorgi Shahumyan was a Bolshevist Russian communist politician and revolutionary active throughout the Caucasus. Shahumyan was an ethnic Armenian and his role as a leader of the Russian revolution in the Caucasus earned him the nickname of the "Caucasian Lenin", a reference to the leader...
as follows:
Exactly twenty years later, as the President of independent Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...
, Heydar Aliyev issued a decree condemning March Days as the beginning of Azerbaijani genocide. Text of the 1998 Presidential decree describes the March events as follows:
Soviet position
The Baku Soviet's Committee of Revolutionary Defense issued a proclamation early in April explaining the events and their causes. The statement claimed an anti-Soviet character of the rebellion and blamed Musavat and its leadership for the events. Soviet's statement asserted that there was a carefully laid out conspiracy by Musavat to overthrow the Baku Soviet and to establish its own regime:Shahumian considered the March events to be a triumph of the Soviet power in the Caucasus:
In the opinion of the American historian Tadeusz Swietochowski, "in his enthusiasm, Shahumyan might not have remembered that in 1905 he himself had accused the tsardom of reaping in benefits of the Muslim-Armenian massacres. It is doubtful that to him, as opposed to the Azerbaijanis, any similarity suggested itself."
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
, who was Bolshevik People's Commissar at the time, tried to justify the provoking of the March Days by the Baku Soviet in "Pravda" newspaper: "While the center of Muslims, Baku, the citadel of Soviet power in Transcaucasus, unified around itself the entire Eastern Transcaucasus, from Lenkoran and Kuba till Elizavetpol, with arms in hands is asserting the rights of people of Transcaucasus, who try by all forces to maintain a link with Soviet Russia".
Armenian position
Armenian view of the March 1918 events was documented in a letter written by Archbishop Bagrat to the American mission in BakuBaku
Baku , sometimes spelled as Baki or Bakou, is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. It is located on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, which projects into the Caspian Sea. The city consists of two principal...
. The letter began with the accusation that the Azerbaijanis, being the disciples of the Turks and the Germans
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, could not be trusted. Having thus disposed of the Azerbaijani version of the events, Bagrat stated that the battle was waged by the Musavat and the Soviet, while the Armenians remained neutral. Archbishop claimed that some Armenian soldiers took part in the fighting, but that those were only isolated individuals for whom the Armenian National Council could not be held responsible. He also claimed that the Armenians gave shelter to some 20,000 Muslims during the struggle. Persian Armenians in Baku indeed saved many lives of their fellow citizens, which may have been the basis for Bagrat's exaggerated assertion.
Armenians had been inflamed by the sight and pitiful stories of several hundred thousand refugees who had succeeded in reaching Transcaucasia, fleeing before the Ottoman Army. Consequently, when the Russian Army broke up, the Armenians preserved their discipline against all attempts of the Bolsheviks, and were the only force upon which the Allies could count in southwestern Asia during the last year of the war. The two million Armenians of Transcaucasia, increased by several hundred thousand refugees from the Ottoman Empire, persisted in their loyalty to Russia until the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk delivered them to the Ottoman Empire. Then they moved to form their own state, which succeeded in maintaining itself during the period of anarchy and famine that Bolshevism brought upon the Russian Empire. At the Peace Conference
Paris Peace Conference, 1919
The Paris Peace Conference was the meeting of the Allied victors following the end of World War I to set the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers following the armistices of 1918. It took place in Paris in 1919 and involved diplomats from more than 32 countries and nationalities...
, speaking before the Council of Ten, M. Aharonian, delegate of the Armenian Republic of the Caucasus
Democratic Republic of Armenia
The Democratic Republic of Armenia was the first modern establishment of an Armenian state...
, stated that the two and a half million Armenians in Transcaucasia wanted to cast in their fortunes with the Armenians of Ottoman Empire
Armenians in the Ottoman Empire
Armenians in the Ottoman Empire or Ottoman Armenians were ethnic Armenian people of the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Armenian Catholic Church or the Armenian Protestant Church who lived in the Ottoman Empire...
to form a Greater Armenia. According to Michael P. Croissant, the ARF set out to take revenge for the persecution and genocide suffered by Armenians
Armenian Genocide
The Armenian Genocide—also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Crime—refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I...
at the hands of the Ottomans
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
, while Tadeusz Swietochowski states that "Armenian historians do not offer an explanation for the political calculations behind this move, which was bound to entail terrible retribution, and they hint rather at an uncontrollable emotional outburst".
Other positions
According to Firuz KazemzadehFiruz Kazemzadeh
Firuz Kazemzadeh is a professor emeritus of history at Yale University.Firuz Kazemzadeh was born in Moscow, where his father served in the embassy of Iran...
, the Soviet provoked March events to eliminate its most formidable rival - the Musavat. However, when Soviet leaders reached out to ARF for assistance against the Azerbaijani nationalists, the conflict degenerated into a massacre with the Armenians killing the Muslims irrespective of their political affiliations or social and economic position.
Victor Serge
Victor Serge
Victor Serge , born Victor Lvovich Kibalchich , was a Russian revolutionary and writer. Originally an anarchist, he joined the Bolsheviks five months after arriving in Petrograd in January 1919 and later worked for the Comintern as a journalist, editor and translator...
in Year One (First Year) Of the Russian Revolution: "The Soviet at Baku, led by Shahumyan, was meanwhile making itself the ruler of the area, discreetly but unmistakably. Following the Moslem rising of 18 (30) March, it had to introduce a dictatorship. This rising, instigated by the Musavat, set the Tartar and Turkic population, led by their reactionary bourgeoisie, against the Soviet, which consisted of Russians with support from the Armenians. The races began to slaughter each other in the street. Most of the Turkic port-workers (the ambal) either remained neutral or supported the Reds. The contest was won by the Soviets."
Culture & Art
Black January
Black January , also known as Black Saturday or the January Massacre, was a violent crackdown of the Azerbaijani independence movement in Baku on January 19–20, 1990, pursuant to a state of emergency during the dissolution of the Soviet Union....
.
International Recognition
On December 31, 2010, Governor Jim Gibbons of the U.S. State of Nevada proclaimed March 31st as the Remembrance Day of the 1918 massacreMassacre
A massacre is an event with a heavy death toll.Massacre may also refer to:-Entertainment:*Massacre , a DC Comics villain*Massacre , a 1932 drama film starring Richard Barthelmess*Massacre, a 1956 Western starring Dane Clark...
s of Azerbaijani civilians in what became the first such recognition by the U.S. government institution.
See also
- List of massacres in Azerbaijan
- Azerbaijan Democratic RepublicAzerbaijan Democratic RepublicThe Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was the first successful attempt to establish a democratic and secular republic in the Muslim world . The ADR was founded on May 28, 1918 after the collapse of the Russian Empire that began with the Russian Revolution of 1917 by Azerbaijani National Council in...
- Khojaly massacreKhojaly MassacreThe Khojaly Massacre was the killing of hundreds of ethnic Azerbaijani civilians from the town of Khojaly on 25–26 February 1992 by the Armenian and Russian armed forces during the Nagorno-Karabakh War...