THE BEGINNING OF INDEPENDENCE

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has signed an instruction on the celebration at state level of the 130th anniversary of one of the founders of the Azerbaijani Democratic Republic (ADR), Mammad Amin Rasulzada. "Mammad Amin Rasulzada did great service in implementing the ideal of the independence of our people, the resurrection of the national-state structure on the basis of the historical traditions of Azerbaijani statehood and the spreading of the ideas of national independence and through his political writings made a worthy contribution to the history of our literary and social thinking," the instruction says.

The 130th anniversary of Rasulzada's birth falls in January next year. He was born on 31 January 1884 in the Baku suburb of Novxani into the family of a priest. Mammad Amin's father, Haci Alakparoglu, had the rank of Axund [Cleric], which, unfortunately, prevented him from sending his son to a secular school. He received his original education at the second Russian-Tatar school, the director of which was the gifted teacher and well-known public figure of the time Sultan Macid Qanizada. He then studied at the Baku Technical College (the Industrial Institute, later the Institute of Oil and Chemistry, was set up based on it in 1920 - author's note). However, for some strange reason Mammad Amin did not complete his studies. His nature was probably better suited to taking part in the political struggle than working as an oil engineer after graduating from college.

An opponent of Czarism 

In 1902, at the age of 18, Mammad Amin created the "Muslim Youth Organization". It should be noted that at the time Azerbaijanis not only did not have a political party or public organization in Baku, but had no charity societies, either. In this initiative of the young Mammad Amin one could already detect the outlines of his future struggle for the emancipation of his people.

In 1903 appeared his first article "Letter from Baku" in the Azerbaijani newspaper "Sarqi-Rus" ("Russian East"), which was published in Tiflis by Mammadtagi Saxtagtinski. The article called on his compatriots to send their children to secular schools so they would grow up educated and literate. And it was not surprising that Rasulzada, at the beginning of his political activities, sided with the social democrats who had set their aim to do away with Czarism, bring freedom to nations and establish the power of the people. In 1904 the backbone of the "Muslim Youth Organization", led by Rasulzada, formed the first Muslim political organization in Transcaucasia "Hummat" ("Energy"), which declared "joint and friendly" work with other parties "on the path of freedom". The organization considered itself independent but it stood firmly on Bolshevik positions and worked closely with the Baku branch of the Russian Social-Democrat Workers Party (RSDRP).

At the beginning of the 20th century Baku was one of the main centres of the Bolsheviks' revolutionary struggle. The movement's rapid upsurge came in 1905-1907. At that time Rasulzada got to know and worked alongside the future "leader of the peoples" of the USSR Iosif Stalin. Incidentally, in 1954, in Turkey, Rasulzada published his "Memories of Stalin", whom he described as the most absolute ruler in the history of mankind.

After the First Russian Revolution (1905-1907) a coup appeared in Rasulzada's mindset. As the historian A. Balayev points out, "a key role in the evolution of Rasulzada's political and ideological thinking was played by his acquaintance with the ideas of Turkism which became widespread in Azerbaijan under the influence of the revolutionary events of 1905-1907 and in the world trend of the strengthening of the positions of the ideology of nationalism". His increasingly active political and journalistic work could not escape the attention of the Czar's Guard which began to keep a close eye on him. To escape persecution, at the end of 1908 Rasulzada was forced to leave Baku and move to Iran.

Independent Azerbaijan 

There he continued to engage in political activity. Together with a group of Iranian intellectuals, who had been educated in Europe, in September 1910 Rasulzada set up the Iranian Democratic Party and began to publish the "Irane Nou" ("New Iran") newspaper. The Czarist authorities saw Rasulzada's work in Iran as a threat to their influence in that country and managed to get him deported. In May 1911 he was forced to leave Tehran and move to Istanbul. It was not until after the declaration of the amnesty in February 1913 to mark the 300th anniversary of the coronation of the Romanov dynasty that Rasulzada returned to Baku.

By that time the "Musavat" Party had been founded in Baku. The founders of the party were Rasulzada's brother-in-law Mammad Ali Rasulzada, a member of the Baku Duma [parliament] Taqi Nagiyev and the owner of a bookshop, Abbasqulu Kazimzada. After joining this party, Rasulzada quickly became its leader. Writing from time to time in the press, he called for the formation of national awareness, which was to serve as the basis for the creation of an ethnic state.  "History itself, through the example of Tamerlan, Chingiz Khan, Alexander of Macedonia and the Roman emperors, shows that no force other than a freely expressed desire to form a state alliance can create lasting unity between separate ethnic groups to form a state," he said.

His dream to see Azerbaijan an independent state came true on 28 May 1918. On that day the Azerbaijani faction of the Transcaucasian Sejm - 44 deputies elected to the Russian Constitutional Assembly but driven away by the Bolsheviks - declared the independence of the Azerbaijani Republic. The day before they proclaimed themselves the Provisional National Council of Azerbaijan. Following a secret ballot Rasulzada was elected its chairman.

So it happened that history gave Rasulzada and his associates very little time to carry out his cherished dream of seeing their country independent. The 23 months of the existence of the Azerbaijani Democratic Republic is but a moment, less than a millionth of the time needed to establish, strengthen and develop an independent state.

The еmigrе 

On 28 April 1920 a coup took place in the country. Democratic Azerbaijan was replaced by Bolshevik Azerbaijan. A real threat hung over the lives of the ADR's leaders. For some time Rasulzada went into hiding in the village of Lahic in what was then Samaxi District. However, while attempting to cross into Georgia, which was still independent, he was arrested and sent back to Baku.

Here he was helped by his joint work with the Bolsheviks in 1905-1907 and his personal friendly relations with Stalin who had arrived in Baku to take part in the work of a plenum of the Baku Soviet. He released Rasulzada from Bayil prison and suggested that he travel to Moscow and work in the Commissariat on Nations which he was leader of at the time. The offer was accepted.

As Rasulzada himself has admitted, his friendship with Stalin helped him in Moscow, too. But he was unable to change his ideas and dreams of his country's independence and so he decided to get away from Moscow.

Life as an еmigrе was difficult for Rasulzada. Continuing his struggle for Azerbaijan's independence, he was not always understood even among those who used to share his views. After wandering in different countries he finally ended up in Turkey. His family - his wife, two sons and daughter - remained in Baku. For the first time in his many years of emigration he had the opportunity to correspond with his family. But all his attempts to get his family out of Baku were in vain.

The repressions of the 1930s caught up with the eminent politician's family. His elder son Rasul was shot in Baku. His wife Umbulbanu, his stepmother Maral xanim [mode of address] and his children were extradited to Kazakhstan. Maral died on the journey and his wife and daughter Latifa died in exile. Rasulzada died of diabetes in Istanbul on 6 March 1955. His younger son Azar committed suicide a year later.

FROM A LETTER BY MAMMAD AMIN RASULZADA TO I.V. STALIN

Dear Stalin! 

My friends were very surprised when they heard that you had released me from the high-security prison. And I can understand them: after all, many workers have been executed just for being members of the Musavat Party. I was its leader. But this miracle became possible thanks to you and it was you who recalled our past friendship and dragged me out of prison in Baku.

This friendship has also helped me in Moscow. Of course, I have had to experience difficulties but no more than the rest. I have also enjoyed certain privileges, and all this is down to your concern for which I am very grateful.

Nevertheless, when leaving Moscow I did not see you because I decided to flee Russia. I believe you will understand me: I was unable to ask for your permission because I did not believe that you would let me go. And at the time I would have had to say goodbye forever to my dream of leaving Russia. But I couldn't even think about that because it meant renouncing that to which I had devoted all my life and consigning myself to forced inactivity and the role of a bystander to what is now happening in Russia.

And what is now happening in Russia is practically the same as what happened here 100 years ago. Just as 100 years ago, Russia is once again annexing more and more new colonies…

…Knowing that brutal centralism is the basic principle for the Bolsheviks, I said before that this party is essentially an imperialist one and that in the near future it will radically change its policy in relation to lesser peoples. This was later confirmed, but at the same time, in the two years I was in Moscow I understood something else, too: the eastern peoples, and in particular the Turkic peoples, will, despite everything, eventually win their independence. That is why I cannot stand dispassionately aside while, on the one hand, ethnic minorities come from a period of national self-awareness to the idea of an ethnic revolution, and on the other, you are trying to undermine people's faith in their own future.

However, you will not get what you want. The peoples of the East will live as they themselves wish to do and not based on communist standards and principles. They will fight all those who stand in their way. And they will seek allies, those who might be able to help them. That is why they first believed in the principles of Wilson and then your declaration. But just as Wilson's principles were buried by the treaties of Versailles, Troyes and Sevres, your declaration has resulted in the occupation of Ukraine, Turkestan and the Caucasus. That is why my Azerbaijan has the same right to fight against your occupation as had heroic Turkey in its struggle against the Triple Entente.

Although I have not changed my political ideals and am continuing my struggle I would like to assure you that I will never forget what you did for me. 

With profound respect Mammad Amin Rasulzada Istanbul, December 1923.

The letter was published in the fifth issue of the "Novyy Kavkaz" ["New Caucasus"] magazine, 23 January 1924, in Istanbul.