Soviet republic, established in the spring of 1920 in the Transcaucasia after the elimination of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic.

 

On April 26, 1920, the Provisional Azerbaijan Revolutionary Committee (Azrevkom) was formed at an emergency meeting of the Central Committee of the Azerbaijan Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and the Caucasian Bureau of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) – RСP(b) to prepare and conduct an armed uprising against the government of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR). Units of the 11th Army of the Red Army headed for Baku. On April 27, the ADR Parliament accepted the ultimatum terms and handed over power to Azrevkom. On April 28, 1920, Azrevkom proclaimed the establishment of the Azerbaijan SSR and formed the Council of People’s Commissars of the new republic headed by Nariman Narimanov. Notably, Azrevkom acted as the supreme body of state power until May 1921, when the 1st All-Azerbaijani Congress of Soviets held in Baku adopted the Constitution of the republic and elected the Azerbaijan Central Executive Committee.

 

By the end of 1920, the authorities of Soviet Azerbaijan suppressed all attempts of local resistance (the uprising of the military in Ganja, the uprising in Karabakh with the involvement of Musavatists and Dashnaks, etc.). At the same time, Azrevkom assisted the Armenian Bolsheviks in overthrowing the Dashnak government and the Georgian Bolsheviks in the struggle against the Georgian Democratic Republic. The domestic and foreign policy of the Azerbaijan SSR was carried out in a Bolshevik spirit and in touch with the leadership of the Russian SFSR. On May 5, 1920, the Azrevkom published a decree on the nationalization of land, confiscation of all Beck-khan [titles] lands, and their transfer to the use of the peasants. On May 24, a decree on the nationalization of the oil and large-scale industry was issued. The government abolished class and religious privileges, restrictions on rights based on nationality and gender. On September 30, 1920, an agreement on a military, financial and economic alliance with the Russian SFSR was signed in Moscow, which consolidated the already existing relations.

 

Under the treaty concluded in Moscow between Turkey and the Russian SFSR on March 16, 1921, Turkish troops were withdrawn from Nakhichevan. The protectorate of Azerbaijan over the territory of the Nakhichevan Socialist Soviet Republic (it was proclaimed in July 1920 and became a part of the Azerbaijan SSR in 1923) was discussed. On July 5, 1921, the territories of Nagorno-Karabakh remained part of the Azerbaijan SSR with the granting of wide regional autonomy by the decision of the Central Committee of the RСP(b) (earlier, these territories were supposed to be transferred to the Armenian SSR by the decision of the Caucasian Bureau of the Central Committee of the RСP(b)).

 

On March 12, 1922, the Azerbaijan SSR entered into an agreement with the Armenian SSR and the Georgian SSR on the establishment of the Federative Union of Socialist Soviet Republics of Transcaucasia (Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic starting from December 1922). The Azerbaijan SSR became part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) on December 30, 1922, within the Transcaucasian SFSR.