THE PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE

He came from Yerevan, to all intents and purposes a provincial, who made a brilliant career in Baku without relatives or ties and what one might call a "cultural background", small things which immediately identify an outsider. The latter is particularly relevant if you have chosen an academic path. And here it is important that you work hard to prove to others, and especially yourself, that you are cut out for something. In 1931 Heydar Huseynov graduated from the state university in Baku in the philosophy department, and then continued to study on a postgraduate programme there. Nowadays, this doesn't seem anything special, but in those years one had to pay for one's college education, students had to work hard and a postgraduate course was regarded as an unheard-of (and not particularly necessary) luxury. 

The young Huseynov worked tenaciously towards his goal - he was most interested in the philosophical views of our country's poets, enlighteners and ancient scholars. In 1939 he presented his PhD at the academic council of Tbilisi State University with his subject "The philosophical views of M.F. Axundzada". He was a man not only of great purpose and industry but he also had a great talent for organization. This is what one of his students, the academician and doctor of philosophy, Fuad Hasimzada, wrote about him: "We have people who think deeply and raise important questions but they are unable to work consistently towards solving these questions. One of Huseynov's positive qualities was that he was consistent and tenacious in his work and a good organizer. He was not only an initiator, but he also appraised worthwhile initiatives proposed by others quickly and created conditions for implementing important socio-cultural enterprises."

Philosopher, bibliographer and teacher

Huseynov's talent was spotted quite early. At the age of 30 he was already combining the professions of teacher and academic researcher. He fairly rapidly became a leading expert, working on the Azerbaijani Soviet Encyclopaedia. He also worked at the Institute of Encyclopaedias and Dictionaries at the republican branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences. It was there that Huseynov's talent as a researcher and organizer was fully revealed. In the pre-war years the Russian-Azerbaijani Dictionary, the Russian-Azerbaijani Schools Dicti-onary and the Azerbaijani-Russian Dictionary of Definitions were published under the direction of the young scholar (he was only 31 years of age).

Heydar Huseynov managed to write several other books over 12 years. "His greatest contribution to national science is his numerous analytical works on history and the development of social thought," Dr of Philosophical Sciences and well-known writer, Niyazi Mehti, says. "On the basis of creative work and biography he researched the views of the great Nizami and Fizuli, as well as priceless analytical material on Sufism." He also studied the works of ancient philosophers, mostly the works of Bahmanyar, the 9th century thinker.

Heydar Huseynov wrote the preface to Nizami's less-known but fine and complex poem "Igbalnama (Book of Happiness)", in which he researches the great poet's humanistic views. Huseynov's works "Nizami's Public Views" and "Nizami's Attitude to Sufism" are also dedicated to the same subject. Anyone interested in the literary traditions of the East and the great poet's personality should read Huseynov's work.

The poem "Igbalnama" is possibly the world's first Utopian work, which was written about 350 years before Thomas More's celebrated "Utopia". Huseynov wrote the following about this masterpiece: "Nizami not only describes an abstract free society. He first and foremost traces what he sees as the principles of a society of free people. In presenting such principles as job equality, equal distribution of harvest and health care, Nizami sincerely believed in the creation of freedom and happiness by human hands."

Those who shake your hand

Heydar Huseynov also studied the works of his contemporaries, and here one may recall the articles and essays on prose and drama by Cafar Cabbarli and the verse of Samad Vurgun. However, his masterpiece was another book with the modest "library" title "From the history of Azerbaijani social and philosophical thought of the 19th century" - it was the product of years of hard work. It contains a mass of information about the life, work and views of Azerbaijani poets and enlighteners of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century - Abbas Qulu Aga Bakixanov, Mirza Safi Vazeh, Mirza Kazimbay, Mirza Fatali Axundov, Huseyn Zardabi, and many others. The book was acclaimed by leading scholars from Russia, Georgia and Estonia. Unfortunately, it was his last book. It was then 1949 - the year of post-war repressions. Mir Cafar Bagirov, head of the Azerbaijani Communist Party Central Committee, played an active part in them. It was a year of the persecution of academics who had been given some freedom during wartime. And Heydar Huseynov at that time was nothing less than vice-president of the Academy of Sciences of the Azerbaijani SSR (at the age of 41!). It was difficult to "accept" him as a high-ranking person, and Bagirov began to shape public opinion against him.

Huseynov was called for questioning and charged with associating with uncles who had been living for many years in Iran and Turkey, and that his relatives were involved in anti-Soviet activities. The NKVD had a number of methods of "investigation" which could prove anything but for a while they were not applied to such a high-ranking person (in such cases public exposure was first required). And so Huseynov was first released. However, the real reason for Bagirov's sudden dislike was soon revealed, and it proved, of course, to be the philosopher's last book. Bagirov disagreed with Huseynov's opinion about the substance of the national liberation movements in the North Caucasus in the middle of the 19th century. By all accounts, he clearly discerned in Huseynov's book support for the kind of anti-imperialist nationalism, which, by Soviet standards, was fraught with consequences. Soon, on Bagirov's instructions, a flood of custom-made anti-Huseynov articles started pouring into literary and academic journals, one of which Bagirov took the trouble to write himself.

It is curious that Huseynov's book was highly rated by intellectuals, history professors and philosophers, and he received a Stalin Prize for it (the top prize then awarded to academic and cultural figures). In 1950 Bagirov assembled a council of academics and hurled criticism at Huseynov and those people who were writing rapturous articles about his book, shaking Huseynov by the hand and warmly congratulating him, aware which way the wind was blowing, began to turn against their old friend. However, they were saving their own skins.

And here one can detect a logical pattern - the cream of the cream who were at this meeting were loath to take part in the persecution and did not betray their friend. One of them was the distinguished literary scholar and critic, Mammad Dadas-zada, and the other the writer and public figure, Mirza Ibrahimov. This was a tremendously courageous action, and it did not escape the attention of Bagirov (who was previously head of the republic's state security). He said to Dadas-zada at the time: "I am convinced you are an inveterate enemy of the Soviet people. You are an agent of Turkish intelligence in the ranks of our workers, and Ibrahimov was reminded that he was once a street urchin. Neither was intimidated and neither voted against their disfavoured comrade.

Eventually, Heydar Huseynov was expelled from the party for "anti-party behaviour, deviousness and double-dealing". And he, like everyone else, was well aware that the next step would be arrest, then the firing squad or a long period of exile (which was tantamount to murder and which, depending on one's strength, could drag out to two-five years).

In these circumstances, Heydar Huseynov found the only true solution. On 15 August, at just 42 years of age, he hanged himself in his own apartment. Four years later, at a session of the Central Committee bureau, Mirza Ibrahimov, who refused to betray his friend, would say: "Heydar Huseynov's blood is on Bagirov's hands and conscience." And two years later Bagirov himself was shot.