Stepan Shahumyan
Encyclopedia
Stepan Gevorgi Shahumyan was a Bolshevist Russia
n 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 of the Russian Revolution, Vladimir Lenin
.
Although the founder and editor of several newspapers and journals, Shahumyan is best known as the head of the Baku Commune, a short lived committee appointed by Lenin in March 1918 with the enormous task of leading the revolution in the Caucasus and West Asia. His tenure as leader of the Baku Commune was marred with numerous problems including ethnic violence between Baku’s Armenian and Azerbaijani
populations, attempting to defend the city against an advancing Turkish army, all the while attempting to spread the cause of the revolution throughout the region. Unlike many of the other Bolsheviks at the time however, he preferred to resolve many of the conflicts he faced peacefully, rather than with force and terror
.
Throughout his revolutionary life, he went by several aliases including "Suren", "Surenin" and “Ayaks." As the Baku Commune was voted out of power in July 1918, Shahumyan and his followers, known as the twenty six Baku Commissars
abandoned Baku and fled across the Caspian Sea
. However, he, along with the rest of the Commissars, was captured and executed by British-allied anti-Bolshevik forces on September 20, 1918.
, Georgia
which at the time was part of Russian Empire
, to a family of a cloth merchant. He studied at the Saint Petersburg Polytechnical University
and the Riga Technical University
, where he joined the Russian Social Democratic Party in the 1900. In 1905 he graduated from the philosophy department of Humboldt University of Berlin
.
. After escaping from his exile, Shahumyan went to Germany
, where he met with other exiles from the Russian Empire, notably Julius Martov
, Vladimir Lenin
and Georgi Plekhanov
.
Upon returning to Transcaucasia, Shahumyan became a teacher, and the leader of local Social Democrats in Tiflis, as well as a prolific writer of Marxist
literature. At the 1903 Congress, he sided with the Bolshevik
s. By 1907 he had moved to Baku
to head up the significant Bolshevik movement in the city.
In 1914, he led the general strike
in the city. The strike was crushed by Imperial Army
and Shahumyan was arrested and sent to prison. He escaped just as the February Revolution
of 1917 began. Though he had limited participation in the revolution itself, Shahumyan was elected President of the Baku Soviet (council)
, due to his prior experience with the worker's movement in Baku. He also edited the newspaper Bakinsky Rabochy, which was under pressure from the Provisional Government
due to its provocative content.
(which was centered in Saint Petersburg/Petrograd and Moscow
, and thus had little effect on Baku), Shaumyan was made Commissar
Extraordinary for the Caucasus
and Chairman of the Baku Council of People's Commissars. The government of the Baku Commune consisted of an alliance of Bolsheviks, Left Socialist-Revolutionaries
, Menshevik
s and Dashnaks
.
In March 1918
the leaders of Baku Commune disarmed a group of Azerbaijani soldiers, who came to Baku from Lenkoran on the ship called Evelina to attend the funeral of Mamed Taghiyev, son of the millionaire Zeynalabdin Taghiyev. In response, a huge crowd gathered in the yard of one of the Baku mosques and adopted a resolution demanding the release of the rifles confiscated by the Soviet from the crew of the Evelina. One of the Bolshevik leaders, Japaridze, promised to satisfy this demand, but in the meantime shooting started in the streets. While it was not established who fired the first shot, the Baku commune leaders accused the Muslims of starting the hostilities, and with the support of Dashnak forces attacked the Muslim quarters. Later Shahumyan admitted that the Bolsheviks deliberately used a pretext to attack their political opponents:
After the defeat of Muslim forces, the Dashnaks massacred as many as 3,000 to 12,000 Muslims in Baku in revenge for the Armenian Genocide
. According to historian Firuz Kazemzadeh
, "the Soviet provoked the "civil war" in the hope of breaking the power of its most formidable rival - the Musavat. However, once the Soviet had called upon the Dashnaktsutiun to lend its assistance in the struggle against the Azerbaijani nationalists, the "civil war" degenerated into a massacre, the Armenians killing the Muslims irrespective of their political affiliations or social and economic position".
Less than six months later, in September 1918 Enver Pasha
's Ottoman
-led Army of Islam, supported by local Azeri forces, recaptured Baku and subsequently killed an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 ethnic Armenians in retaliation.
The Bolsheviks clashed with Dashnaks and Mensheviks over the involvement of British
forces, which the latter two welcomed. In either case, Shahumyan was under direct orders from Moscow to refuse aid offered by the British. However, he understood the consequences of not accepting British aid, including a further massacre of Armenians by the Turks. Major Ranald MacDonell, a seasoned diplomat and the British vice-consul
of Baku, was tasked by his superiors in attempting to persuade Shahumyan to revise his position.
In mid-summer, MacDonell personally visited Shahumyan's home in Baku and the two discussed the issue of British military involvement in a generally amiable conversation. It was Shahumyan who first raised the specter of what British involvement would entail: "Is your General Dunsterville [the head of the military force awaiting orders to enter Baku] coming to Baku to turn us out?" MacDonell reassured him that Dunsterville, being a member of the military, was not claiming any political stake in the conflict but was merely interested in helping him defend the city. Unconvinced, Shahumyan replied "And you really believe that a British general and a Bolshevik commissar would make good partners....No! We will organise our own force to fight the Turk."
Shahumyan was under the impression that the Bolsheviks would soon be sending reinforcements from the Caspian Sea to assist him although the prospects of receiving such relief remained unlikely. He had sent numerous telegrams to Moscow extolling the fighting abilities of his Armenian units but warned that they too, would soon be unable to halt the advance of Enver's army. With this, MacDonell's and Shahumyan's conversation ended with the possibility of accepting British aid in exchange for complete Bolshevik control over the military force, terms the British could not immediately accept.
Relations between the Baku Commune and the British soon reached a turning point when Britain decided to reverse its support for Bolsheviks. Shahumyan's intransigence had cost him their support, as MacDonell was informed by a British officer on July 10: "the new policy of the British and French governments was to support the anti-Bolshevik forces....It mattered little whether they were Tsarist or Social Revolutionary." Over the past few days, numerous people had visited MacDonell, beseeching him with pleas of withdrawing British support for Shahumyan. Many of them claimed to be former Tsarist officers offering their service to rise against the Bolsheviks although MacDonell suspected most of them to be agents working on behalf of the Bolsheviks.
On July 31, the twenty six Baku Commissars
attempted the evacuation of Bolshevik armed troops by sailing over the Caspian Sea to Astrakhan
, but the ships were captured on August 16 by the military vessels of the Central Caspian Dictatorship. The Commissars were arrested and placed in Baku prison. On August 28, Shahumyan and his comrades were elected in absentia
to the Baku Soviet. A group of Bolsheviks headed by Anastas Mikoyan
broke into the prison and freed Shahumyan on September 14. He and the other commissars boarded a ship to Krasnovodsk, where upon arrival he was promptly arrested by British-allied anti-Bolshevik elements led by their commandant, Kuhn.
Kuhn deferred the fates of the commissars to General Wilfrid Malleson
, the head of second British military mission in the region. The commonly accepted version of events is that Malleson instructed Kuhn, by way of telegram, to send them to Meshed, where they could then be bartered for the release of two British officers. The telegram arrived too late as on the night of September 20, Shahumyan and the others were executed by a firing squad in a remote location along the Transcaspian Railway.
In 1956, the Observer
published a letter written by a British staff officer who recounted a conversation he had had with Malleson, stricken with malaria
at the time, on what was to be done to the commissars. Malleson replied that since the matter did not involve the British, then they should not concern themselves with the issue. The telegram that was sent told the authorities holding the commissars to dispose of them "as they sought fit." Nevertheless, Malleson expressed his horror when he learned upon the ultimate fate that had befallen the commissars.
authorities’ demolition of the 26 Commissars Memorial
commemorating the 26 Baku Commissars
began and was soon completed. It upset Armenia as the Armenian public believed that reburial is motivated by the reluctance of the Azerbaijanis (because of the Nagorno-Karabakh War) to have ethnic Armenians buried in the center of their capital. Another scandal happened, when Azerbaijani press reported that only 21 bodies were found buried in the park, as "Shahumian and four other Armenian commissars managed to escape their murderers". It was quashed by Shahumian’s granddaughter Tatyana, now living in Moscow
, who told the Russia
n daily Kommersant
it was nonsense:
Throughout the Soviet Union
's existence, the town of Vararakn Khankendi
in the Nagorno-Karabakh
region of the Azerbaijan SSR
was renamed Stepanakert, after Shahumyan. In 1992, Azerbaijan
restored the pre-Soviet name of the town, Khankendi, while Nagorno-Karabakh authorities still refers to it as Stepanakert. The city of Dzhalal-Ogly
in the Armenian SSR
was also renamed, in Shahumyan's honor, Stepanavan
, a name it has retained in post-Soviet
Armenia
. Streets in Lipetsk
, Yekaterinburg
, Stavropol
and Rostov-on-Don
(Russia
), an avenue in Saint-Petersburg are named in Shahumian's honour. A statue of him erected in 1931 also exists in Yerevan
, the capital of Armenia.
Azerbaijan
Russia
Nagorno-Karabakh
Georgia
Ukraine
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic , commonly referred to as Soviet Russia, Bolshevik Russia, or simply Russia, was the largest, most populous and economically developed republic in the former Soviet Union....
n communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
politician and revolutionary active throughout the Caucasus
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
. Shahumyan was an ethnic Armenian
Armenians
Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being 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 of the Russian Revolution, Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
.
Although the founder and editor of several newspapers and journals, Shahumyan is best known as the head of the Baku Commune, a short lived committee appointed by Lenin in March 1918 with the enormous task of leading the revolution in the Caucasus and West Asia. His tenure as leader of the Baku Commune was marred with numerous problems including ethnic violence between Baku’s Armenian and 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...
populations, attempting to defend the city against an advancing Turkish army, all the while attempting to spread the cause of the revolution throughout the region. Unlike many of the other Bolsheviks at the time however, he preferred to resolve many of the conflicts he faced peacefully, rather than with force and terror
State terrorism
State terrorism may refer to acts of terrorism conducted by a state against a foreign state or people. It can also refer to acts of violence by a state against its own people.-Definition:...
.
Throughout his revolutionary life, he went by several aliases including "Suren", "Surenin" and “Ayaks." As the Baku Commune was voted out of power in July 1918, Shahumyan and his followers, known as the twenty six Baku Commissars
26 Baku Commissars
The 26 Baku Commissars were Bolshevik and Left Socialist Revolutionary members of the Baku Soviet Commune. The commune was established in the city of Baku...
abandoned Baku and fled across the Caspian Sea
Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. The sea has a surface area of and a volume of...
. However, he, along with the rest of the Commissars, was captured and executed by British-allied anti-Bolshevik forces on September 20, 1918.
Early life
Shahumyan was born in TiflisTbilisi
Tbilisi is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Mt'k'vari River. The name is derived from an early Georgian form T'pilisi and it was officially known as Tiflis until 1936...
, Georgia
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
which at the time was part 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...
, to a family of a cloth merchant. He studied at the Saint Petersburg Polytechnical University
Saint Petersburg Polytechnical University
Saint Petersburg State Polytechnical University is a major Russian technical university situated in Saint Petersburg. Previously it was known as the Peter the Great Polytechnical Institute and Kalinin Polytechnical Institute .-Imperial Russia:...
and the Riga Technical University
Riga Technical University
Riga Technical University is located in Riga, Latvia.- Riga Polytechnical Institute, 1862-1918 :...
, where he joined the Russian Social Democratic Party in the 1900. In 1905 he graduated from the philosophy department of Humboldt University of Berlin
Humboldt University of Berlin
The Humboldt University of Berlin is Berlin's oldest university, founded in 1810 as the University of Berlin by the liberal Prussian educational reformer and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt, whose university model has strongly influenced other European and Western universities...
.
Revolutionary beginnings
He was arrested by the Tsarist government for taking part in student political activities on campus, and exiled back to TranscaucasiaSouth 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...
. After escaping from his exile, Shahumyan went to Germany
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
, where he met with other exiles from the Russian Empire, notably Julius Martov
Julius Martov
Julius Martov or L. Martov was born in Constantinople in 1873...
, Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
and Georgi Plekhanov
Georgi Plekhanov
Georgi Valentinovich Plekhanov was a Russian revolutionary and a Marxist theoretician. He was a founder of the Social-Democratic movement in Russia and was one of the first Russians to identify himself as "Marxist." Facing political persecution, Plekhanov emigrated to Switzerland in 1880, where...
.
Upon returning to Transcaucasia, Shahumyan became a teacher, and the leader of local Social Democrats in Tiflis, as well as a prolific writer of Marxist
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
literature. At the 1903 Congress, he sided with the 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. By 1907 he had moved to 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...
to head up the significant Bolshevik movement in the city.
In 1914, he led the general strike
General strike
A general strike is a strike action by a critical mass of the labour force in a city, region, or country. While a general strike can be for political goals, economic goals, or both, it tends to gain its momentum from the ideological or class sympathies of the participants...
in the city. The strike was crushed by Imperial Army
Military history of Imperial Russia
The Military history of the Russian Empire encompasses the history of armed conflict in which the Empire participated. This history stretches from its creation in 1721 by Peter the Great, until the Russian Revolution , which led to the establishment of the Soviet Union...
and Shahumyan was arrested and sent to prison. He escaped just as the February Revolution
February 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...
of 1917 began. Though he had limited participation in the revolution itself, Shahumyan was elected President of the Baku Soviet (council)
Soviet (council)
Soviet was a name used for several Russian political organizations. Examples include the Czar's Council of Ministers, which was called the “Soviet of Ministers”; a workers' local council in late Imperial Russia; and the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union....
, due to his prior experience with the worker's movement in Baku. He also edited the newspaper Bakinsky Rabochy, which was under pressure from the 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...
due to its provocative content.
Early problems
Following the October RevolutionOctober 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...
(which was centered in Saint Petersburg/Petrograd and Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, and thus had little effect on Baku), Shaumyan was made Commissar
Commissar
Commissar is the English transliteration of an official title used in Russia from the time of Peter the Great.The title was used during the Provisional Government for regional heads of administration, but it is mostly associated with a number of Cheka and military functions in Bolshevik and Soviet...
Extraordinary for the Caucasus
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
and Chairman of the Baku Council of People's Commissars. The government of the Baku Commune consisted of an alliance of Bolsheviks, 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....
, Menshevik
Menshevik
The Mensheviks were a faction of the Russian revolutionary movement that emerged in 1904 after a dispute between Vladimir Lenin and Julius Martov, both members of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party. The dispute originated at the Second Congress of that party, ostensibly over minor issues...
s and Dashnaks
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...
.
In March 1918
March Days
The March Days, or March Events, refer to an inter-ethnic strife and massacres of up to 12,000 Azerbaijanis 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...
the leaders of Baku Commune disarmed a group of Azerbaijani soldiers, who came to Baku from Lenkoran on the ship called Evelina to attend the funeral of Mamed Taghiyev, son of the millionaire Zeynalabdin Taghiyev. In response, a huge crowd gathered in the yard of one of the Baku mosques and adopted a resolution demanding the release of the rifles confiscated by the Soviet from the crew of the Evelina. One of the Bolshevik leaders, Japaridze, promised to satisfy this demand, but in the meantime shooting started in the streets. While it was not established who fired the first shot, the Baku commune leaders accused the Muslims of starting the hostilities, and with the support of Dashnak forces attacked the Muslim quarters. Later Shahumyan admitted that the Bolsheviks deliberately used a pretext to attack their political opponents:
After the defeat of Muslim forces, the Dashnaks massacred as many as 3,000 to 12,000 Muslims in Baku in revenge for the Armenian Genocide
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...
. According to historian 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...
, "the Soviet provoked the "civil war" in the hope of breaking the power of its most formidable rival - the Musavat. However, once the Soviet had called upon the Dashnaktsutiun to lend its assistance in the struggle against the Azerbaijani nationalists, the "civil war" degenerated into a massacre, the Armenians killing the Muslims irrespective of their political affiliations or social and economic position".
Less than six months later, in September 1918 Enver Pasha
Ismail Enver
Enver Pasha or Ismail Enver Pasha , title was changed with his military ranks such as Enver Efendi , Enver Bey , Enver Pasha, higher than Mirliva) was an Ottoman military officer and a leader of the Young Turk revolution...
's Ottoman
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...
-led Army of Islam, supported by local Azeri forces, recaptured Baku and subsequently killed an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 ethnic Armenians in retaliation.
The Bolsheviks clashed with Dashnaks and Mensheviks over the involvement of British
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
forces, which the latter two welcomed. In either case, Shahumyan was under direct orders from Moscow to refuse aid offered by the British. However, he understood the consequences of not accepting British aid, including a further massacre of Armenians by the Turks. Major Ranald MacDonell, a seasoned diplomat and the British vice-consul
Vice Consul
A vice consul is a subordinate officer, authorized to exercise consular functions in some particular part of a district controlled by a consulate....
of Baku, was tasked by his superiors in attempting to persuade Shahumyan to revise his position.
Coup plots
Shahumyan was under the impression that the Bolsheviks would soon be sending reinforcements from the Caspian Sea to assist him although the prospects of receiving such relief remained unlikely. He had sent numerous telegrams to Moscow extolling the fighting abilities of his Armenian units but warned that they too, would soon be unable to halt the advance of Enver's army. With this, MacDonell's and Shahumyan's conversation ended with the possibility of accepting British aid in exchange for complete Bolshevik control over the military force, terms the British could not immediately accept.
Relations between the Baku Commune and the British soon reached a turning point when Britain decided to reverse its support for Bolsheviks. Shahumyan's intransigence had cost him their support, as MacDonell was informed by a British officer on July 10: "the new policy of the British and French governments was to support the anti-Bolshevik forces....It mattered little whether they were Tsarist or Social Revolutionary." Over the past few days, numerous people had visited MacDonell, beseeching him with pleas of withdrawing British support for Shahumyan. Many of them claimed to be former Tsarist officers offering their service to rise against the Bolsheviks although MacDonell suspected most of them to be agents working on behalf of the Bolsheviks.
Expulsion
Finally, on July 26, 1918, the Bolsheviks were outvoted 259-236 in the Baku Soviet. Shahumyan's support had eroded and many of his key supporters abandoned him. Angered with the outcome of the vote, he announced that his party would withdraw from the Soviet and Baku itself: "With pain in our hearts and curses on our lips, we who had come here to die for the Soviet regime are forced to leave." A new government headed primarily by Russians, known as Central Caspian Dictatorship (Diktatura Tsentrokaspiya) was formed, as British forces under General Thompson occupied Baku the same day.Arrest and death
26 Baku Commissars
The 26 Baku Commissars were Bolshevik and Left Socialist Revolutionary members of the Baku Soviet Commune. The commune was established in the city of Baku...
attempted the evacuation of Bolshevik armed troops by sailing over the Caspian Sea to Astrakhan
Astrakhan
Astrakhan is a major city in southern European Russia and the administrative center of Astrakhan Oblast. The city lies on the left bank of the Volga River, close to where it discharges into the Caspian Sea at an altitude of below the sea level. Population:...
, but the ships were captured on August 16 by the military vessels of the Central Caspian Dictatorship. The Commissars were arrested and placed in Baku prison. On August 28, Shahumyan and his comrades were elected in absentia
In absentia
In absentia is Latin for "in the absence". In legal use, it usually means a trial at which the defendant is not physically present. The phrase is not ordinarily a mere observation, but suggests recognition of violation to a defendant's right to be present in court proceedings in a criminal trial.In...
to the Baku Soviet. A group of Bolsheviks headed by Anastas Mikoyan
Anastas Mikoyan
Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan was an Armenian Old Bolshevik and Soviet statesman during the rules of Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev, and Leonid Brezhnev....
broke into the prison and freed Shahumyan on September 14. He and the other commissars boarded a ship to Krasnovodsk, where upon arrival he was promptly arrested by British-allied anti-Bolshevik elements led by their commandant, Kuhn.
Kuhn deferred the fates of the commissars to General Wilfrid Malleson
Wilfrid Malleson
Sir Wilfrid Malleson was a Major-General in the British Army who led a mission to Turkestan during the Russian Civil War. Malleson joined the Royal Artillery in 1886. In 1904 he transferred to the Indian Army and accompanied Sir Louis William Daneon on his mission to Kabul, Afghanistan, 1904–1905...
, the head of second British military mission in the region. The commonly accepted version of events is that Malleson instructed Kuhn, by way of telegram, to send them to Meshed, where they could then be bartered for the release of two British officers. The telegram arrived too late as on the night of September 20, Shahumyan and the others were executed by a firing squad in a remote location along the Transcaspian Railway.
In 1956, the Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
published a letter written by a British staff officer who recounted a conversation he had had with Malleson, stricken with malaria
Malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
at the time, on what was to be done to the commissars. Malleson replied that since the matter did not involve the British, then they should not concern themselves with the issue. The telegram that was sent told the authorities holding the commissars to dispose of them "as they sought fit." Nevertheless, Malleson expressed his horror when he learned upon the ultimate fate that had befallen the commissars.
Reburial
On January 2009, the 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...
authorities’ demolition of the 26 Commissars Memorial
26 Commissars Memorial
The 26 Commissars Memorial, which was located in Baku, Azerbaijan, paid tribute to the 26 Baku Commissars from the Baku commune. The commune was overthrown in 1918 and the commissars later slain near Krasnovodsk...
commemorating the 26 Baku Commissars
26 Baku Commissars
The 26 Baku Commissars were Bolshevik and Left Socialist Revolutionary members of the Baku Soviet Commune. The commune was established in the city of Baku...
began and was soon completed. It upset Armenia as the Armenian public believed that reburial is motivated by the reluctance of the Azerbaijanis (because of the Nagorno-Karabakh War) to have ethnic Armenians buried in the center of their capital. Another scandal happened, when Azerbaijani press reported that only 21 bodies were found buried in the park, as "Shahumian and four other Armenian commissars managed to escape their murderers". It was quashed by Shahumian’s granddaughter Tatyana, now living in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, who told the 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...
n daily Kommersant
Kommersant
Kommersant is a commerce-oriented newspaper published in Russia. , the circulation was 131,000.- History :The newspaper was initially published in 1909, and it was closed down following the Bolshevik seizure of power and the introduction of censorship in 1917.In 1989, with the onset of press...
it was nonsense:
“It is impossible to believe that they weren’t all buried. There is a film in the archives of 26 bodies being buried. Apart from this, my grandmother was present at the reburial.”
Legacy
Following Shahumyan's death, the Soviet government depicted him as a fallen hero of the Russian revolution. Shahumyan's close relationship with Lenin also increased the already heightened tensions between the British and the Soviets, who laid much of the blame on British complicity in the massacre."And today we say with pride and love, that the great son of Armenian people Stepan is also the son of Azerbaijani people, all people of Transcaucasia, all multinational and united Soviet people". Heydar Aliev, the leader of Soviet Azerbaijan
Throughout the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
's existence, the town of Vararakn Khankendi
Stepanakert
Stepanakert is the largest city and capital of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, a de facto independent republic, though is internationally recognized as a part of Azerbaijan...
in the Nagorno-Karabakh
Nagorno-Karabakh
Nagorno-Karabakh is a landlocked region in the South Caucasus, lying between Lower Karabakh and Zangezur and covering the southeastern range of the Lesser Caucasus mountains...
region of the Azerbaijan SSR
Azerbaijan SSR
The Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Azerbaijan SSR for short, was one of the republics that made up the former Soviet Union....
was renamed Stepanakert, after Shahumyan. In 1992, 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...
restored the pre-Soviet name of the town, Khankendi, while Nagorno-Karabakh authorities still refers to it as Stepanakert. The city of Dzhalal-Ogly
Stepanavan
Stepanavan is the second largest city in Lori Province of Armenia. The town is located 139 km north of the capital Yerevan and 24 km north of the provincial centre Vanadzor, in the centre of Yerevan-Tbilisi highway....
in the Armenian SSR
Armenian SSR
The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet...
was also renamed, in Shahumyan's honor, Stepanavan
Stepanavan
Stepanavan is the second largest city in Lori Province of Armenia. The town is located 139 km north of the capital Yerevan and 24 km north of the provincial centre Vanadzor, in the centre of Yerevan-Tbilisi highway....
, a name it has retained in post-Soviet
History of the Soviet Union (1985-1991)
The history of the Soviet Union from 1982 through 1991, spans the period from Leonid Brezhnev's death and funeral until the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Due to the years of Soviet military buildup at the expense of domestic development, economic growth stagnated...
Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
. Streets in Lipetsk
Lipetsk
Lipetsk is a city and the administrative center of Lipetsk Oblast, Russia, located on the banks of the Voronezh River in the Don basin, southeast of Moscow.-History:...
, Yekaterinburg
Yekaterinburg
Yekaterinburg is a major city in the central part of Russia, the administrative center of Sverdlovsk Oblast. Situated on the eastern side of the Ural mountain range, it is the main industrial and cultural center of the Urals Federal District with a population of 1,350,136 , making it Russia's...
, Stavropol
Stavropol
-International relations:-Twin towns/sister cities:Stavropol is twinned with: Des Moines, United States Béziers, France Pazardzhik, Bulgaria-External links:* **...
and Rostov-on-Don
Rostov-on-Don
-History:The mouth of the Don River has been of great commercial and cultural importance since the ancient times. It was the site of the Greek colony Tanais, of the Genoese fort Tana, and of the Turkish fortress Azak...
(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...
), an avenue in Saint-Petersburg are named in Shahumian's honour. A statue of him erected in 1931 also exists in Yerevan
Yerevan
Yerevan is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously-inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and industrial center of the country...
, the capital of Armenia.
Places named after Shahumyan
Armenia- Stepanavan, LoriStepanavanStepanavan is the second largest city in Lori Province of Armenia. The town is located 139 km north of the capital Yerevan and 24 km north of the provincial centre Vanadzor, in the centre of Yerevan-Tbilisi highway....
- Shahumyan, AraratShahumyan, AraratShahumyan is a town in the Ararat Province of Armenia. The town was named after Stepan Shahumyan, a Bolshevik commissar.- References :* – World-Gazetteer.com...
- Shahumyan, ArmavirShahumyan, ArmavirShahumyan is a town in the Armavir Province of Armenia. The town was named after Stepan Shahumyan, a Bolshevik commissar....
- Shahumyan, LoriShahumyan, LoriShahumyan is a town in the Lori Province of Armenia. The town was named after Stepan Shahumyan, a Bolshevik commissar.-References:* – World-Gazetteer.com...
- Shahumyan, YerevanShahumyan, YerevanShahumyan is a town in the Yerevan Province of Armenia. The town was named after Stepan Shahumyan, a Bolshevik commissar....
Azerbaijan
- Shaumyan, GoygolShaumyan, GoygolGoygol is a village in the Goygol Rayon of Azerbaijan.It is suspected that this village has undergone a name change or no longer exists, as no Azerbaijani website mentions it under this name....
(The name has almost certainly been changed) - Aşağı Ağcakənd, Goranboy (formerly Shaumyan, a disputed area claimed by the de-facto Nagorno-Karabakh Republic)
- ŞaumyanovkaSaumyanovkaŞaumyanovka is a village in the Sabirabad Rayon of Azerbaijan.It is suspected that this village has undergone a name change or no longer exists, as no Azerbaijani website mentions it under this name....
(The name has almost certainly been changed)
Russia
- Shaumyan, Krasnodar Krai
- Shaumyan, Stavropol Krai
- Shaumyan, Adygea
Nagorno-Karabakh
- StepanakertStepanakertStepanakert is the largest city and capital of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, a de facto independent republic, though is internationally recognized as a part of Azerbaijan...
, the capital of the de-facto Nagorno-Karabakh RepublicNagorno-Karabakh RepublicThe Nagorno-Karabakh Republic , or Artsakh Republic is a de facto independent republic located in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia... - ShahumianShahumianThe Shahumian Region is a disputed region, formerly a district of Azerbaijan SSR outside of Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast. Before the Nagorno-Karabakh War of the 1990s, the region had a substantial Armenian population...
, a disputed area including Aşağı Ağcakənd, partially outside the de-facto Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, in Azerbaijan
Georgia
- Shahumiani, Marneuli district, Kvemo Kartli
Ukraine
- Shaumyan, Saky Raion, Crimea
Further reading
- Suny, Ronald GrigorRonald Grigor SunyRonald Grigor Suny is currently director of the Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies and the Charles Tilly Collegiate Professor of Social and Political History at the University of Michigan, as well as Emeritus Professor of political science and history at the University of Chicago...
. The Baku Commune, 1917-18. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972 ISBN 0-6910-5193-3 - Hopkirk, PeterPeter HopkirkPeter 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....
. On Secret Service East of Constantinople: The Plot to Bring Down the British Empire. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001 ISBN 0-1928-0230-5