The operation of the Red Army’s Caucasian Front (commander Mikhail Tukhachevsky) in cooperation with the Volga-Caspian military flotilla and the Azerbaijani Bolsheviks aimed at establishing secular power in Azerbaijan and overthrowing the government of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic.

April 27, 1920, saw an armed uprising begin in Baku. The uprising was headed by the Provisional Azerbaijan Revolutionary Committee (Azrevkom), formed on April 26, 1920, at an emergency meeting of the Central Committee of the Azerbaijan Communist Party. The uprising was conducted against the Musavat government of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. The revolutionary groups occupied government buildings and the city’s most important facilities without firing a single shot, the parliament surrendered power to Azrevkom. The success of the uprising was facilitated by the fact that on the night of April 28, a group of 4 armored trains headed by Mikhail Efremov moved from Petrovsk, by the morning with minor battles reached Baku, delivering there the leaders of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks), RСP(b), Anastas Mikoyan, Gazanfar Musabekov, etc. On the same day, with their participation, Azrevkom proclaimed Azerbaijan a Soviet socialist republic and officially requested the Russian SFSR to provide military assistance.

At the same time, the main forces of the Red Army’s 11th Army were sent to Baku (which they entered the city on April 29–30), while the 2nd Cavalry Corps advanced to Kuba, Shemakha, Akhsu, Kurdamir, cutting off the Musavatists’ main forces from Baku. By mid-May, the troops of the 11th Army had established control over most of Azerbaijan's territory. The Baku operation marked the beginning of the spread of Soviet power in the Transcaucasus, led to the establishment of control of the Russian SFSR over Baku oil, which solved for the country the issue of fuel supply.