Tadeusz Swietochowski. Russian Azerbaijan, 1905-1920 (2004)

Tadeusz Swietochowski. Russian Azerbaijan, 1905-1920: the shaping of national identity in a Muslim community. Cambridge, London, New York, New Rochelle, Melbourne, Sydney: Cambridge University Press, 2004, XIII+256 p. ISBN 0521522455

Russian Azerbaijan, 1905-1920 describes the rise of national identity among the Azerbaijanis – the Turkic-speaking Muslims of Russia’s borderland with Iran – at the opening of the twentieth century. The principal focus is on the period from the Russian Revolution of 1905, when the Azerbaijanis began to articulate their national aspirations, until the establishment of the Soviet Azerbaijani Republic in 1920. The central theme of the book is the emergence of ideas, and then actions, that would create a new collective identity among the Muslims – a sense of nationality.

Azerbaijan was conquered by Russia in the early nineteenth century, and the book analyzes the impact of the conquest on Azerbaijani society, economy, and culture. Russian rule prepared the. Azerbaijani community in many ways for the rise of a national movement. Then, from 1905 onward, Azerbaijan was subject to a succession of upheavals and crises that accelerated its political development: three revolutions in Russia; one each in neighboring Persia and Turkey; World War I; and two foreign occupations, Ottoman and British. As Azerbaijani aspirations grew, they found expression in political programs, each reflecting the fluid circumstances of the moment. The high watermark of the national movement came in 1918, with the proclamation of the Azerbaijani Republic.

The period of independence of this small country with its huge wealth of oil, without allies but with unfriendly neighbors, was beset by insecurity and internal dissension. The overthrow of the nationalist government and its replacement by the Soviet regime proved to be amazingly easy. But the native Communists to a degree continued the traditions of the national movement.