The Rise of Red Kurdistan

Abstract

Current literature on twentieth century Kurdish history overwhelmingly covers Kurdish populations and national movements within the borders of Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria. This article, hoin Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan,ever, focuses on Soviet Kurdistan and Kurdish policy in Azerbaijan between 1920 and 1937 through the broader question of national minorities within the republic. It is claimed here that the Soviet policy on Azerbaijani Kurds was part of a multilayered issue. First of vnall, the Kurds of Azerbaijan were semi-nomadic mountain dwellers transformed by the modernization policies implemented in Soviet territories. Azerbaijani Kurds were a national identity within the Soviet Union and thus subject to ethnophilic All-Union policies in those years. Finally, Kurds were one of the numerous national minorities in the Soviet Socialist Republic of Azerbaijan who were exposed to the national minority policies executed within the republic by the administration in Baku. The national minority policy in Azerbaijan was often contested and limited by local conditions and obstacles. Therefore, the granting of cultural rights in the 1920s to national minorities, which included the Kurds of Azerbaijan, the promotion of these rights in the 1920s and 1930s, and opposition to these policies can only be examined with regard to these three layers.

Notes

¹D. Muller, “The Kurds of Soviet Azerbaijan, 1920–91,” Central Asian Survey 19, no. 1 (2000): 41–7.

²Alexandre Bennigsen and Chantal Lemercier-Quelquejay, Islam in the Soviet Union (London, 1967), 130.

³Stephen Blank, The Sorcerer as Apprentice, Stalin as Commissar of Nationalities, 1917–1924 (Westport, CT, 1994), 138.

⁴T. Martin, The Affirmative Action Empire: Nations and Nationalism in the Soviet Union, 1923–1939 (Ithaca, NY, 2001).

⁵Uezd is a Russian term at secondary or district level administrative subdivision within the borders of Imperial governorates. This subdivision was used by the Russian Empire and in the early years of the Soviet Union. Okrug is also an administrative term at primary or regional level but denoted a larger territory than uezds.

⁶Despite current knowledge of the Yezidis's distinct identity, this group was considered to be part of the Kurdish population of the Soviet Union during the 1920s. In Armenia, the Yezidi Kurdish population was in Leninakan (Gumri) and Echmiadzin Uezds. According to 1924 figures, the Yezidi Kurdish population numbered 15,000–20,000. Except three villages, all of them were semi-nomadic and the literacy rate among Yezidi Kurds was 1 percent; “Partrabota sredi ezidov,” Zaria Vostoka, June 25, 1924, 4; “Ezidskaia Derevnia,” Zaria Vostoka, April 8, 1925, 4; “Zak. soveshchanie po rabote sredi natsmen'shinstv,” Zaria Vostoka, July 2, 1926, 3.

⁷A. Bukshpan, Azerbaidzhanskie Kurdy, Lachin, Kel'badzhary, Nakhkrai (Baku, 1932), 57–9; Tat'iana Aristova, Kurdy zakavkaz'ia: Istoriko-etnograficheskii ocherk (Moscow, 1966), 21, 37–9.

⁸Cherkez Bakaev, Iazyk azerbaidzhanskikh kurdov (Moscow, 1965), 6.

⁹Bukshpan, Azerbaidzhanskie Kurdy, 10; Bakaev, Iazyk, 6.

¹⁰“Iz poezdki v Kurdistan,” Zaria Vostoka, September 12, 1925, 3.

¹¹Bukshpan, Azerbaidzhanskie Kurdy, 50–51.

¹²Muller, “The Kurds,” 53.

¹³“Obrazovan Kurdistanskii okrug,” Zaria Vostoka, June 2, 1930, 5.

¹⁴Azərbaycan Respublikası Prezidentinin İşlər İdaresinin Siyasi Partiyalar və İctimai Hərəkatlar Dövlət Arxivi [The State Archive of Political Parties and Public Movements of the Executive Office of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan] (hereafter ARPİİSPİHDA) (fond) 1-(opis) 74-(delo) 408, “Protocol of Politburo of the AKP(b), no.101,” January 2, 1936. The newspaper Sovetskii Kurdistan (Soviet Kurdistan) continued to be published until 1960. See Cherkez Bakaev, Iazyk azerbaidzhanskikh kurdov (Moscow, 1965), 7.

¹⁵Azərbaycan Respublikası Dövlət Arxivi [The State Archive of the Republic of Azerbaijan] (hereafter ARDA) (fond) 57-(opis) 1-(delo) 228-(listi) 2–5, 31 (1921).

¹⁶ARDA 57-1-864-2 (1931). On the Turkic course: Itogi vypolneniia pervogo piatiletnego plana razvitiia narodnogo khoziaistva ZSFSR (Tbilisi, 1934), 185; ARDA 57-1-1294-131, November 1938.

¹⁷L.A. Grenoble, Language Policy in the Soviet Union (Dordrecht, 2003), 124.

¹⁸Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv sotsial'no-politicheskoi istorii [Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History] (hereafter RGASPI) (fond) 558-(opis) 1-(delo) 2195-(listy) 1/6, after October 10, 1920; RGASPI 17-112-715-23-26/29, 32–6, September 30, 1925; RGASPI 17-69-59-27/55 and RGASPI 17-113-336-109/137, September 16, 1927; RGASPI 17-114-265-36/38, October 15, 1931; RGASPI 17-114-265-236, not later than October 19, 1931; ARDA 57-1-697-1/5, June 23, 1929.

¹⁹Itogi vypolneniia pervogo piatiletnego, 184.

²⁰These figures cover the 9–49 age range. Itogi vsesoiuznoi perepisi naseleniia 1959 goda, Azerbaidzhanskaia SSR (Moscow, 1963), 43.

²¹In 1924/25, the ratios of Turkic speakers to all students were: in industrial-technical tekhnikums, 497 students out of 652; in agriculture tekhnikums, 168 students out of 299; in agricultural-industrial tekhnikums, all students out of 587; in pedagogical tekhnikums, all students out of 1,704 students were Turkic. In all tekhnikums of Azerbaijan, 3,517 students out of 5,006 were Turkic. In 1925/26, in industrial-technical tekhnikums, 644 students out of 833; in agriculture tekhnikums 226 out of 485; in agriculture-industrial tekhnikums, 646 students out of 685; in pedagogical tekhnikums, 1796 students out of 1998; in pharmaceutical tekhnikum 53 students out of 66 were Turkic. In all tekhnikums of Azerbaijan, 4,057 students out of 5,979 were Turkic. See ARDA 57-1-456-56 (1926). In 1927, the ratios of students of tekhnikums at which Turkic was the only language of education to all tekhnikums in Azerbaijan was: in agricultural tekhnikums, 816 out of 1,625; in industrial-technical tekhnikums, 896 out of 1,126; in medical tekhnikums, 296 out of 575; in pedagogical tekhnikums, 2,178 out of 2,373. However, we should also underline that in some areas such as socio-economic or art courses, the students in Russian-only tekhnikums were in the majority. See ARDA 57-1-422-20, December 15, 1927.

²²ARDA 57-1-414-55, 56, 64, April 20, 1927.

²³Kommunist, no. 64, September 30, 1920; no. 66, October 3, 1920; no. 73, October 11, 1920. In the districts where national minorities lived, the language of education was to be decided according to the expression of the wishes of the parents of students, and to the daily language that was used in their homes; see “Resolution of the 3rd session of the 5th convocation of AzTsIK on the general primary education, May 29, 1928,” in Sobranie Uzakonenii AzSSR (Baku, 1928), 9: 173.

²⁴These lists changed in time. For a list produced in 1932 see: ARDA 57-1-1002-71, August 20, 1932. For changing list of nationalities at the All-Union level: F. Hirsch, Empire of Nations, Ethnographic Knowledge and the Making of the Soviet Union (Ithaca, NY, 2005), chapters 3 and 6.

²⁵Here Turk refers to the former Ottoman subjects or Turkic speakers who had vernacular closer to the Anatolian Turkic than Azerbaijani Turkic language. ARDA 57-1-777-59, March 21, 1929; ARDA 57-1-777-161 (1929).

²⁶ARPİİSPİHDA 1-14-83-61 (1936). The boundaries between language and dialect are determined by a number of linguistic and non-linguistic factors. This made the task extremely difficult. Grenoble, Language Policy, 20.

²⁷These issues were raised at local party meetings by party officials: A. Shamilev, “Sredi Ezidov,” Zaria Vostoka, June 14, 1924, 3; for an All-Union report covering eastern republics including Azerbaijan: RGASPI 78-6-86-71/83, October 15, 1935; RGASPI 17-114-734-91/105, December 11, 1935.

²⁸“Vse takzhe,” Zaria Vostoka, November 25, 1925, 4; “Sredi rabotnits i krest'ianok bol'she vnimaniia kurdianke,” Zaria Vostoka, January 6, 1926, 4.

²⁹Bukshpan, Azerbaidzhanskie Kurdy, 11.

³⁰“Eilagi: ot nashikh spetsial'nykh korrespondentov,” Zaria Vostoka, August 2, 1925, 5.

³¹“Soveshchanie kurdskogo aktiva,” Zaria Vostoka, April 22, 1926, 3.

³²This is not to say that it was always so. For example, in 1919, the Azerbaijani national government organized Kurdish cavalry divisions against Armenians and opened a Kurdish department at the military academy in Baku to train twenty cadets. See Bukshpan, Azerbaidzhanskie Kurdy, 69; Muller, “The Kurds,” 45–6.

³³RGASPI 17-114-265-237, not later than October 19, 1931; “O rabote sredi natsmen'shinstv (postanovlenie ZAKK raikoma VKP(b)),” Zaria Vostoka, July 13, 1926, 3.

³⁴ Bukshpan, Azerbaidzhanskie Kurdy, 67.

³⁵V.M. Molotov, “Rech’ tov. V.M. Molotova na prieme delegatsii trudiashchikhsiia Sovetskoi Armenii, 30 Dekabria 1935 goda,” Pravda, January 6, 1936, 3. L. Beria, the head of the Transcaucasian Soviet Socialist Federation, always emphasized this brotherhood in his speeches. He underlined that the brotherhood of three nations (Azerbaijanis, Armenians and Georgians) was an essential condition for the development of the region. See L. Beriia, Pobeda Leninsko-Stalinskoi natsional'noi politiki (Tbilisi, 1936); L. Beriia, Novaia Konstitutsiia SSR i Zakavkazskaia Federatsiia (Tbilisi, 1936); L. Beriia, Edinaia sem'ia narodov (Tbilisi, 1937).

³⁶The enmity between Armenian and Azerbaijani members of the AKP(b) was an impediment. RGASPI 17-84-75-38/43 (before February 11, 1922); V. Shklovsky and R. Sheldon, “The End of the Caucasian Front,” Russian Review 27, no. 1 (January 1968), 17–68; A.L. Altstadt, The Azerbaijani Turks: Power and Identity under Russian Rule (Stanford, CA, 1992), 39–44.

³⁷Bukshpan, Azerbaidzhanskie Kurdy, 91.

³⁸“Soveshchanie kurdskogo aktiva,” Zaria Vostoka, April 22, 1926, 3.

³⁹In 1920, the People's Commissariat of Nationalities (Narkomnats) in Moscow had already lost its role in educational activities. Grenoble, Language Policy, 38.

⁴⁰ARDA 57-1-222-2 (1921).

⁴¹Resolution of the 3rd session of the 5th convocation of AzTsIK on the general primary education, May 29, 1928, Sobranie Uzakonenii AzSSR (Baku, 1928), 9:173.

⁴²Biulleten’ ofitsial'nykh rasporiazdenii i soobshenii Narkomprosa Azerbaidzdanskoi SSR (Baku, 1926), 1:8, March 6, 1926; ARDA 57-1-453-196, March 15, 1927.

⁴³ARDA 57-1-452-6, 20, 20ob, December 8, 1927.

⁴⁴ARDA 57-1-453-197, March 15, 1927.

⁴⁵ARDA 57-1-453-125, August 23, 1927.

⁴⁶ARDA 57-1-228-215, December 9, 1922.

⁴⁷ARDA 57-1-664-4ob, June 12, 1928.

⁴⁸ARDA 57-1-452-2, December 28, 1926. Greek language was also modified in 1927, see ARDA 57-1-453-115, 119, January 1, 1927.

⁴⁹ARDA 57-1-453-197, March 15, 1927; ARDA 57-1-452-6, 20, 20ob, December 8, 1927; ARDA 57-1-777-56ob, March 21, 1929.

⁵⁰ARDA 57-1-453-197, 199, March 15, 1927; ARDA 57-1-452-7, 8, 9, 17, December 8, 1927.

⁵¹Muller, “The Kurds,” 47–8.

⁵²“Po uezdam Azerbaidzhana,” Zaria Vostoka, April 25, 1924, 3.

⁵³Zaria Vostoka, April 12, 1925, 1.

⁵⁴ARDA 57-1-864-12, 13 (1931).

⁵⁵RGASPI 17-114-265-236, 242–3, October 7, 1931.

⁵⁶ARDA 57-1-864-12, 13 (1931).

⁵⁷“Rech’ t. Vaganiana,” Zaria Vostoka, June 9, 1926, 3.

⁵⁸Bukshpan, Azerbaidzhanskie Kurdy, 61.

⁵⁹“Sredi nakhichevanskikh kurdov,” Zaria Vostoka, February 4, 1925, 3.

⁶⁰ARPIISPIHDA 1-14-83-37, October 28, 1936.

⁶¹Bukshpan, Azerbaidzhanskie Kurdy, 5.

⁶²Ibid., 72–4.

⁶³ARDA 57-1-864-115, 116, February 15, 1931.

⁶⁴On the Turkification of Talish prior to the Soviet rule, see ARPİİSPİHDA 1/14/83/30, 31, 33, October 28, 1936; also for the account of Talish expedition B.V. Miller, Predvaritel'nyi Otchet o Poezdke v Talysh Letom 1925 g. (Baku, 1926), 4–5; on the Turkification of Kurdish population prior to the Soviet rule, see Muller, “The Kurds,” 42–5; ARDA 57-1-777-54, March 21, 1929; ARDA 57-1-864-115, 116, February 15, 1931; Bukshpan, Azerbaidzhanskie Kurdy, 61, 72–4; ARPİİSPİHDA 1-14-83-37, October 28, 1936; on the Turkification of Tsakhurs see ARDA 57-1-777-54, March 21, 1929.

⁶⁵ARPİİSPİHDA 1-14-83-38/42, December 1, 1931; ARPİİSPİHDA 1-14-83-37, October 28, 1936; Bukshpan, Azerbaidzhanskie Kurdy, 65, 67.

⁶⁶ARDA 57-1-864-125, February 15, 1931. The case of Khakass in RSFSR is a concurring example, see F. Hirsch, “Toward an Empire of Nations: Border-Making and the Formation of Soviet National Identities,” Russian Review 59, no. 2 (2000): 212, 213.

⁶⁷ARDA 57-1-864-118, 119, February 15, 1931. Vartashen was a district where the Udi population is settled. The contemporary name of this region is Oguz. Actually, Kurds were not the only ethno-linguistic group that lost their native tongue in the previous episodes of history. Isolated Armenians and Greeks in Georgia also had similar problems. ARDA 57-1-873-8, April 29, 1932.

⁶⁸ARDA 57-1-864-135 (1931). The resistance of the Russian population to nativization campaigns and even nationalist attitudes to the native peoples was not confined to Azerbaijan. For the Kazakh case, see Matt Payne, “The Forge of the Kazakh Proletariat? The Turksib, Nativization, and Industrialization during Stalin's First Five-Year Plan,” in A State of Nations, Empire and Nation-Making in the Age of Lenin and Stalin, ed. R. Suny and T. Martin (Oxford, 2001), 223–52.

⁶⁹ARDA 57-1-864-5 (1931).

⁷⁰Robert Service, Stalin: A Biography (London, 2005), 78.

⁷¹Jeremy Smith, The Bolsheviks and the National Question, 1917–23 (London, 1999), 146–7.

⁷²Blank, The Sorcerer as Apprentice, 113.

⁷³ARDA 57-1-777-54ob, March 21, 1929; also see the presentation of the commissar of the AzNarkompros, M.Z. Kuliev, at the sixth congress of All Azerbaijan Soviets, on the tasks of cultural construction in the Republic, April 6, 1929; Kommunist, no. 81, April 9, 1929.

⁷⁴M.G. Veliyev (Bakharly), Azerbaidzhan (Fiziko-geograficheskii, etnograficheskii i ekonomicheskii ocherk) (Baku, 1921), 50; cited by Bukshpan, Azerbaidzhanskie Kurdy, 76.

⁷⁵ARDA 57-1-864-120, February 15, 1931. Tara, kamancha and zurna are local musical instruments.

⁷⁶ARDA 57-1-864-122, February 15, 1931.

⁷⁷ARDA 57-1-864-124, February 15, 1931.

⁷⁸Bukshpan, Azerbaidzhanskie Kurdy, 77.

⁷⁹Ibid., 75–7.

⁸⁰The first expedition was led by G. Chursin, an ethnographer from Tbilisi, in 1924. G. Chursin, “Azerbaidzhanskie kurdy,” Izvestiia Kavkazskogo istorki-arkheologicheskogo instituta 3 (1925): 1–16; E. Pchelina, “Po Kurdistanskomu uezdu Azerbaidzhana,” Sovetskaia etnografiia 4 (1932): 108–21; V. Sysoev, “Kurdistan,” Izvestiia Azerbaidzhanskogo komiteta okhrany pamiatnikov stariny, iskusstva i prirody 3 (1927): 25–44; V. Sysoev, “Lachin”, Izvestiia Azerbaidzhanskogo komiteta okhrany pamiatnikov stariny, iskusstva i prirody 3 (1927): 45–53.

⁸¹ARDA 57-1-864-12, 13 (1931).

⁸²Decree of the Central Committee of the AKP(b) on the execution of the universal compulsory education in AzSSR, August 28, 1930; Bakinskii Rabochii, no. 201, August 28, 1930.

⁸³For this mobilization in 1929 and 1930, and consequences, see Terry Martin, The Affirmative Action Empire: Nations and Nationalism in the Soviet Union, 1923–1939 (Ithaca, NY, 2001), 163–5.

⁸⁴Resolution of the congress of the All Azerbaijan Soviets on the report of the Commissar of the AzNarkompros on the introduction of universal compulsory primary education in Azerbaijan, February 16, 1931, Sobranie uzakonenii AzSSR (Baku, 1931), 20: 378.

⁸⁵ARDA 57-1-878-12 (1931).

⁸⁶Sobranie Uzakonenii AzSSR (Baku, 1931), 38: 607; Bakinskii Rabochii no. 243 and 244, October 18–19, 1931.

⁸⁷The resolution of the ninth congress of AKP(b) on the report of the Central Committee of the AKP(b), Bakinskii Rabochii, no. 28, February 1, 1932.

⁸⁸ARDA 57-1-873-6/9, February 29, 1932.

⁸⁹Bukshpan, Azerbaidzhanskie Kurdy.

⁹⁰Ibid., 82.

⁹¹“Izuchenie kul'tury kurdov,” Zaria Vostoka, August 11, 1933, 4.

⁹²ARPİİSPİHDA 1-14-83-77 (1936); ARPİİSPİHDA 1-14-7-122 (1937).

⁹³ARDA 57-1-1291-94/96 (Spring 1938).

⁹⁴Basile Nikitine, Les Kurdes: Étude Sociologique et Historique (Paris, 1956), 287–92.