Bolshevik vanguard in action: the case of The Baku Sovnarkom, 1917–18

Abstract

This article presents a comprehensive account of the Bolsheviks’ efforts to control Baku in 1917–18 by analyzing the reasons for their defeat. It argues that the Bolsheviks’ policy during this period in Baku was motivated by power rather than class concerns, and this ambition for power pushed them to pursue their goals even when in a desperate situation. Their defeat in Baku in 1918 demonstrates the clash between a pragmatic nationality policy and the actions of Bolshevik revolutionaries in civil war conditions, particularly while trying to establish control over regions without a significant number of ethnic Russians; indeed, the study of the Baku Sovnarkom illustrates the Bolsheviks’ disregard for the Transcaucasian peoples’ right to self-determination. This study contributes, therefore, to the literature on the Bolsheviks’ stance on the question of national self-determination during the revolutionary period, whilst also offering insights into the power-driven vision of Bolshevik vanguardism.

Notes

1 For an interesting evaluation about the similarities between the Bolshevik and Jacobin movements, see Chamberlin, ‘The Jacobin Ancestry of Soviet Communism’.

2 Baumgart, Deutsche Ostpolitik 1918, 198.

3 Riga, The Bolsheviks, 194.

4 Swietochowski, Russian Azerbaijan, 38–40.

5 Swietochowski, Russian Azerbaijan, 41.

6 For the population of Muslims and Armenians in the provinces of Transcaucasia in 1916, see Hovannisian, Armenia, 92.

7 By Muslims, I mean the Azerbaijani Turks (on their origins, see Altstadt, The Azerbaijani Turks, 1–14), who were referred to as ‘Tatars’ by Russian tsarist authorities. With the development of nationalism among Turkic peoples in Imperial Russia, Muslims from different regions tried to use a common Muslim identity as a basis for cooperation in political and cultural activites (for two very important studies on Muslim political movements in Tsarist Russia, see Zenkovsky, Pan-Turkism and Islam in Russia and Meyer, Turks Across Empires). Azerbaijani Turks had close political relations with other Muslim groups, such as Talishes and Lezgins, whilst all Transcauscasian Muslims frequently collaborated with each other during the revolutionary period. The First Congress of the United Mountain Peoples of the North Caucasus and Dagestan in Vladikavkaz on 1–9 May 1917 (old style), for instance, was mainly funded by the famous Azerbajani nationalist millionaire, Hacı Zeynelabidin Tagiyev (Marshall, The Caucasus, 59). Azerbaijani Turks were also not the only Turkic group in Transcaucasia – there were also Meshkhetian Turks and Qarapapaqs. The nationalist activist, Ömer Faik Numanzade (1872–1937), who cooperated with Azerbaijani Turks in 1917–18, was not Azerbaijani, but a Meshkhetian Turk from Akhaltsikh. As nationalist feelings increased after clashes with the Armenians, Azerbaijani leaders called themselves Turks more frequently. Mehmed H. Hacinski, an influential Muslim politican, used the expression ‘Azerbaijani Turks’ in a report submitted to the session of Muslim Fraction in the Seim on 1 May 1918 (State Archive of the Azerbaijan Republic/Azerbaycan Respublikası Dövlet Arxivi (hereafter ARDA), f. 970, siy.1, is.1, v. 31).

8 Süleymanov, Eşitdiklerim, Ohuduklarım, 215.

9 Suny, Baku Commune, 154-5.

10 Terry Martin, ‘Affirmative Action Empire: The Soviet Union as the Highest Form of Imperialism’ in Suny and Martin, A State of Nations, 68. Despite the opposition of Radek, Piatakov and Bukharin in 1915–16, Lenin insisted on the right of self-determination for minorities (Smith, The Bolsheviks, 7–19). Dmytryshyn argues, however, that Lenin had a more ambiguous position on national problem (Dmytryshyn, The Ukraine, 11–23).

11 Daniels, A Documentary History of Communism in Russia, 66.

12 Smith, The Bolsheviks, 22.

13 Ulam, The Bolsheviks, 447–48.

14 Martin, ‘Affirmative Action Empire’, 67.

15 Smith, The Bolsheviks, 28 (see 23–28 for the Bolsheviks’ discussion of the ‘backwardness’ of national minorities).

16 Stalin, Works, II, 364.

17 Stalin, Works, II, 323, 324.

18 Smith, The Bolsheviks, 144.

19 Suny, Baku Commune, 344.

20 Tokarzhevskii, Iz istorii inostrannoi interventsii; Kadishev, Interventsiia i grazhdanskaia voina; Ratgauzer, Revoliutsiia i grazhdanskaia voina v Baku.

21 Marshall, Caucasus Under Soviet Rule, 85–95.

22 Gökay, ‘The Battle for Baku’.

23 Reynolds, Shattering Empires, 219–29.

24 Kazemzadeh, Struggle for Transcaucasia, 70.

25 Swietochowski, Russian Azerbaijan, 94–119, 129–39.

26 Riga, The Bolsheviks, 186–226.

27 Riga, The Bolsheviks, 217–18.

28 Altstadt, The Azerbaijani Turks, 79–91.

29 Smith, ‘Power and Violence’.

30 Ulam, Stalin, 56, 104, 118.

31 Elwood, ‘Lenin and Pravda’, 372.

32 Matossian, ‘Two Marxist Approaches’, 489.

33 Matossian, ‘Two Marxist Approaches’, 491.

34 Sumbatzade, Sotsial’no-ekonomicheskie, 197.

35 Resulzade, Azerbaycan Cumhuriyeti, 35. Ninety per cent of sailors were Russian, whilst none were Armenian (Ohandjanian, Österreich-Armenien, IX, 6585).

36 Martchenko, ‘Kutchuk Khan’, 106.

37 Suny, Soviet Experiment, 99.

38 Suny, Baku Commune, 14. During 1917, 225 strikes were organized in the oil industry and more than 65,000 workers and military servicemen attended the ‘Strike of September’ (Sumbatzade, Sotsial’no-ekonomicheskie, 197).

39 Akçura, Türk Yılı, 525–26.

40 Baykara, Azerbaycan İstiklal Mücadelesi, 209–10.

41 Keenan, ‘Mouvement Révolutionnaire’, 228.

42 Kazemzadeh, Struggle for Transcaucasia, 49–50. The official results of the elections were never published and these were unofficial figures published later (Swietochowski, Russian Azerbaijan, 95).

43 Suny, The Baku Commune, 156. The same happened when the Bolsheviks received 23–24 per cent of the national vote to the All-Russian Constituent Assembly in November 1917 and they closed the assembly in January 1918. They received less than 4 per cent of the votes in Transcaucasia in that election; Swietochowski, Russian Azerbaijan, 107–08.

44 Varandian, Arméno-Géorgien, 28.

45 Prime Ministerial Ottoman Archive/Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivi (hereafter BOA), YB. (21) 9/1.

46 Hovannisian, Armenia, 111.

47 Hovannisian, Armenia, 126.

48 Kaçaznuni, Taşnak Partisi, 42–43.

49 Varandian, Arméno-Géorgien, 57.

50 The National Archives, London (hereafter TNA), WO 95/4960 (report submitted to the Director of Military Intelligence by Major G. M. Goldsmith, 1 July 1919).

51 ‘Pamiati 26 Bakinskikh Komissarov’, 11; Dokumenty po istorii, 279.

52 Süleymanov, Qafqaz İslam Ordusu, 19.

53 Süleymanov, Qafqaz İslam Ordusu, 23.

54 TNA, FO 248/1196, document no. 106.

55 TNA, FO 248/1196, document no. 217 (report drafted in Baku, 9 April 1918). Britain was also responsible for the School’s fate since it did not provide the necessary support; Indian Office Records, British Library, London (hereafter IOR), IOR/L/MIL/17/5/3661, 7.

56 Archive of the Directorate of Military History and Strategic Studies/Askeri Tarih ve Stratejik Etüt Başkanlığı Arşivi, Ankara (hereafter ATASE), K. 525, D. 2046, F. 004, F. 004-01 (Vehib Pasha's cyphered telegram to the Ottoman General Staff, 5 January 1918); ATASE, K. 525, D.2046, F-001 (Vehib Pasha's cyphered telegram to the Eastern Army Command, 10 January 1918).

57 Stalin, ‘Transcaucasian Counter-Revolutionaries under a Socialist Mask’, Pravda, 26–27 March 1918 (reprinted in Works, IV, 60).

58 Turkish Historical Society Archives/Türk Tarih Kurumu (hereafter TTK), Kazım Orbay Collection, Dosya: 17, No: 7 (Nuri Pasha's essay on the Army of Islam's operation in Caucasus).

59 Suny, The Baku Commune, 199–200.

60 Bol'sheviki v bor’be, 282–83. According to numbers given by Ömer Faik Numanzade, 30,000 rifles, 24 guns and 20 machine guns were seized from Russian soldiers (BOA, DH. EUM. 5. Şb. 55/26). These numbers were considerable.

61 Following the dispersal of the Constituent Assembly in Petrograd on 18 January 1918 (new style) by the Bolsheviks, the authority of Sovnarkom (the Council of People's Commissars) was only accepted in Baku in the Transcaucasia region (Hovannisian, The Republic of Armenia, 19). On 23 February 1918, the Transcaucasian Seim (parliament) was opened. Membership of Seim depended on the results of the November 1917 elections to the Constituent Assembly and Mensheviks, Musavatists and Dashnaks became the leading groups. The Seim proclaimed the formation of the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic on 24 February 1918. Soon after, as a result of the Ottoman military advance in Eastern Anatolia and Transcaucasia, conflicts in the Seim intensified. Georgia declared independence on 26 May 1918 and then Armenia and Azerbaijan followed suit on 28 May. Mensheviks, Musavatists and Dashnaks came to power in Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia respectively.

62 Suny, Baku Commune, 204.

63 TNA, FO 248/1196, document no. 240 (Ranald McDonnell's report, 4 May 1918, submitted to Sir Charles Marling).

64 Bol'sheviki v bor’be, 318-19; Dokumenty po istorii, 281.

65 Süleymanov, Qafqaz İslam Ordusu, 24-5.

66 Zhiltsov, ‘Generaly Musul’manskogo’, 131-2.

67 ARDA, f. 2918, siy.1, iş. 3,v. 75-76.

68 Süleymanov, Qafqaz İslam Ordusu, 52-3.

69 ARDA, f. 2918, siy. 1, iş. 1, v. 26.

70 ARDA, f. 2918, siy. 1, iş. 1, v. 34.

71 İlkin, Türk Ordusu, 7–14. There were about 3,000 Turkish POWs on Nargin Island in 1917–18; BOA, HR. SYS. 2448/23; BOA, HR. SYS. 2204/80 (Ambassador Cevad Bey's telegram on 6 March 1918 sent from Stockholm to the Ottoman Foreign Ministry).

72 BOA, HR. SYS. 2448/23.

73 ATASE, K. 51, D. 243A, F. 001-05.

74 Suny, Baku Commune, 203-04.

75 TNA, CAB 24/145 (Eastern Report, 18 April 1918, submitted to the War Cabinet).

76 American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions Archive, Bilkent University (hereafter ABCFM), Reel 717, p. 418 (Henry H. White's report on the situation in Caucasus).

77 ABCFM, Reel 717, pp. 570-1 (E. A. Yarrow's report drafted in Beijing, 7 June 1918, and submitted to the American Consul in Tiflis, F. W. Smith).

78 TNA, CAB 24/144 (Eastern Report, 21 March 1918).

79 ATASE, K.1857, D. 133, F. 003-07 (Nuri Pasha's telegram, 2 April 1918, sent to the Ottoman General Staff).

80 Ahundzade, Mart Hadisesi, 4; Süleymanov, Eşitdiklerim, Ohuduklarım, 220–21.

81 Kazemzadeh, Struggle for Transcaucasia, 70.

82 Suny, Baku Commune, 217-18.

83 Martchenko, ‘Kutchuk Khan’, 107.

84 The Archive of Political Parties and Social Events of Azerbaijan Republic/Azerbaycan Respublikası Siyasal Partiler ve İctimai Xareketler Arxivi (hereafter ARSPİHA), f. 5, siy.1, iş. 21,v. 5.

85 Suny, Baku Commune, 218-21.

86 Swietochowski, Russian Azerbaijan, 117.

87 Suny, Baku Commune, 224; Ahundzade, Mart Hadisesi, 14. For a new and extensive study of the March Events based on old Azerbaijani sources see Smith, ‘Power and Violence’.

88 Kaçaznuni, Taşnak Partisi, 44.

89 ATASE, K. 2922, D. 515, F. 012-02. According to Resulzade, 10,000 Muslims were killed (Resulzade, Azerbaycan Cumhuriyeti, 38). For Pomiankowski, the number was more than 12,000 (Pomiankowski, Ottomanischen Reiches, 336).

90 TNA, WO 95/4960 (report, 1 July 1919, submitted to the Director of Military Intelligence in London by Major G. M. Goldsmith).

91 ARSPİHA, f. 5, siy.1, iş. 21,v. 6.

92 According to figures provided by the Armenian National Council's special commission, 8,988 Armenians were massacred (Kazemzadeh, Struggle for Transcaucasia, 143). For Baikov, most of those Armenians killed were poor (Baikov, ‘Vospominaniia o revoliutsii’, 132–33). For some interesting information regarding the Armenian massacre, see TNA, FO 371/5089 (Scotland Liddell's interview with Nuri Pasha in 1920) and Ohandjanian, Österreich-Armenien, X, 7371 (Report of Major Mayr to Kress von Kressenstein, the diplomatic representative of Germany in Tiflis).

93 Swietochowski, Russian Azerbaijan, 117.

94 TNA, FO 248/1196, document no. 217 (British report, 9 April 1918, from Baku).

95 Korganoff, Participation des Arméniens, 178.

96 TNA, FO 248/1196, document no. 226 (Bristow's cyphered telegram, 6 May 1918, sent from Tebriz to Tehran and Lieutenant General Lionel Dunsterville).

97 ARSPİHA, f. 276, siy.2, iş.128, v.1.

98 Aydemir, Enver Paşa, 61.

99 Narimanov, Izbrannye proizvedeniia, 122–23.

100 TNA, FO 248/1196, document no. 217 (British report, 9 April 1918, from Baku).

101 Imperial War Museum Collection, London (hereafter IWM), Catalogue Number: Document 1845 (William Henry Lacey's telegram to his wife from Baku, 25 April 1918).

102 ARSPİHA, f. 5, siy.1, iş. 21,v. 7; TNA, FO 248/1196, document no. 219 (report, 15 April 1918, sent from Baku to Sir Charles Marling).

103 Dokumenty po istorii, 284.

104 Korganoff, Participation des Arméniens, 180.

105 ARSPİHA, f. 5, siy.1, iş. 21,v. 5-8.

106 ARSPİHA, f. 276, siy.2, iş.20, v.48.

107 ATASE, K. 2922, D. 515, F. 012-02.

108 Pipes, Soviet Union, 201. Muslim Socialists also proposed the abolition of the Armenian National Council (Narimanov, Izbrannye proizvedeniia, 124).

109 IOR/L/MIL/17/5/3667, 27.

110 Korganoff, Participation des Arméniens, 180.

111 Çakmak, Büyük Harpte, 269.

112 Azerbaycan Türk Hanlıkları, 225–35.

113 ARDA, f. 970, siy.1, iş.1, v.47-47a.

114 Aydemir, Enver Paşa, 428.

115 ARDA, f. 970, siy.1, is.1, v. 33 (from Mehmed H. Hacinski's report submitted to the common session of Muslim Groups of Seim, 1 May 1918).

116 For Enver's telegram to Talat Pasha, see TTK, Kazım Orbay Collection, Dosya: 2, No: 9; and for his telegram to Kazım Karabekir, see Dosya: 8, No: 155.

117 Cebesoy, Milli Mücadele, 42-3.

118 Yamauchi, Hoşnut Olamamış, 20.

119 BOA, HR. SYS. 2456/49.

120 T. C. Genelkurmay Başkanlığı, Üçüncü Ordu, 553.

121 Hovannisian, Armenia, 205.

122 ABCFM, Reel 717, p. 570-1 (E. A. Yarrow's report from Beijing, 7 June 1918, submitted to the American Consul in Tiflis, F. W. Smith); Moberly, Campaign in Mesopotamia, 180; ATASE, K. 2916, D. 487, F. 0042 (report on the situation in Caucasus, 28 February 1918); BOA, DH. EUM. 5. Şb. 55/26.

123 TTK, Kazım Orbay Collection, Dosya: 17, No: 7 (Nuri Pasha's memoirs on the Army of Islam's operation in Caucasus, p. 4).

124 Prime Ministerial Archive of the Republic/Başbakanlık Cumhuriyet Arşivi, 930.01.1.17.1, p. 85 (letter, 19 July 1918, sent by Mehmed Emin Resulzade to the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister, Mehmed H. Hacinski).

125 ARDA, f. 2918, siy.1, iş.3,v. 74.

126 Bol'sheviki v bor’be, 423-5.

127 For a detailed analysis of the Bolshevik attitude towards international revolution and the Bolsheviks’ expectations from workers abroad, see Albert, ‘From “World Soviet” to “Fatherland of All Proletarians”’.

128 Tokarzhevskii, Iz istorii inostrannoi, 99.

129 Kadishev, Grazhdanskaia voina, 105.

130 ‘Pamiati 26 Bakinskikh Komissarov’, 14.

131 Tokarzhevskii, Iz istorii inostrannoi, 99.

132 Tokarzhevskii, Iz istorii inostrannoi, 100.

133 Baikov, ‘Vospominaniia o revoliutsii’, 128.

134 ARSPİHA, f. 276, siy.2, iş.20, v.44. According to a letter sent from Baku to Gandja, there were 2,000 Caucasian Muslims and 2,000 Iranian Muslims in the Red Army (TTK, Kazım Orbay Collection, Dosya: 12, No: 83).

135 Steklov, Armiia Musavatskogo Azerbaidzhana, 53.

136 E. D., ‘Аzerbаidzhаnskoe krеst’ianstvо’, 80.

137 Tuğaç, Bir Neslin Dramı, 183–84.

138 Dokumenty po istorii, 285.

139 Swietochowski, Russian Azerbaijan, 136–37.

140 Tokarzhevskii, Iz istorii inostrannoi, 109.

141 Dokumentı po istorii, 290.

142 Bol'sheviki v bor’be, 508-09.

143 T. C. Genelkurmay Başkanlığı, Üçüncü Ordu, 557.

144 ‘Pamiati 26 Bakinskikh Komissarov’, 18 (Political Commissar Anastas Mikoian's telegram to Djaparidze, 21 June 1918).

145 Kadishev, Grazhdanskaia voina, 113.

146 ARSPİHA, f. 303, siy.1a, iş.19,v. 18.

147 ARSPİHA, f. 276, siy.2, iş.128, v.2.

148 IWM, Private Papers of Colonel C. B. Stokes (CBS 3/2), Catalogue Number: Documents. 2347.

149 ARSPİHA, f. 303, siy. 1a, iş. 19, v.17.

150 Suny, Baku Commune, 296–7.

151 ‘Pamiati 26 Bakinskikh Komissarov’, 22 (Shaumian's telegram to Lenin and Stalin, 9 July 1918).

152 Bol'sheviki v Bor’be, 508.

153 Kazemzadeh, Struggle for Transcaucasia, 130-1.

154 Kazemzadeh, Struggle for Transcaucasia, 134.

155 ATASE, K. 3188, D.50, F. 008-02 (Nuri Pasha's telegram to the Eastern Army Command, 23 July 1918).

156 Tokarzhevskii, Iz istorii inostrannoi, 124.

157 Tokarzhevskii, Iz istorii inostrannoi, 124.

158 Tokarzhevskii, Iz istorii inostrannoi, 128.

159 ARSPİHA, f. 276, siy.2, iş.20, v.44.

160 Kazemzadeh, Struggle for Transcaucasia, 134.

161 TNA, FO 371/3259 (War Office paper, 2 April 1918).

162 The Dunsterforce was a military mission of 1,000 men established in Northern Persia in 1917. Its troops arrived from fronts such as France, Egypt, and Mesopotamia, and they included Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, and South Africans. The Dunsterforce's objectives were to proceed from Northern Iran to Tiflis, topple the Soviet Government in Baku, and achieve control of Northern Caucasus and the Caspian; see Dunsterville, Adventures of Dunsterforce; Sareen, British Intervention, 50–80; and Mitrokhin, Three Missions, 5–59.

163 ARSPİHA, f. 303, siy.1a, iş.14, v. 88–89; Donohoe, Persian Expedition, 207.

164 Kadishev, Grazhdanskaia voina, 126.

165 Suny, Baku Commune, 312.

166 ARSPİHA, f. 5, siy.1, is.33, v.1–3.

167 Mitrokhin, Three Missions, 45–46.

168 ARSPİHA, f. 303, siy.1a, iş.14, v.2.

169 ARSPİHA, f. 303, siy. 1a, iş. 18, v. 4.

170 ARSPİHA, f. 303, siy. 1a, iş. 18, v. 5.

171 Süleymanov, Eşitdiklerim, Ohuduklarım, 236-7.

172 Délégation l’Azerbaïdjan, Situation Economique, 4.

173 Baikov, ‘Vospominaniia o revoliutsii’, 123-5.

174 ‘Pamiati 26 Bakinskikh Komissarov’, 16 (Shaumian's telegram to Stalin, 10 June 1918).

175 Lenin's draft and the decree of the Central Executive Committee on the nationalization of banks from 27 December 1917 are in Bunyan and Fisher, Bolshevik Revolution, 316–17, 323.

176 TNA, FO 248/1196, document no. 63.

177 BOA, HR. SYS. 235/13. For a comparison between the numbers of Muslim and Christian pupils in the schools of Transcaucasia, see Kavkazskii kalendar, 284–310.

178 Baikov, ‘Vospominaniia o revoliutsii’, 126.

179 IOR/L/PS/11/138-P3418 (telegram from General Officer Commanding in Central Mesopotamia to Commander in Chief, India, 8 August 1918).

180 IOR/L/PS/11/138-P3418.

181 Suny, Baku Commune, 318–21.

182 Bol'sheviki v bor’be, 616–17; ARSPİHA, f. 303, siy. 1a, iş. 18, v.2.

183 Kadishev, Grazhdanskaia voina, 133.

184 Suny, Baku Commune, 330–31.

185 Stalin, Works, IV, 261 (Stalin's article from Pravda, 23 April 1919).

186 Riga, The Bolsheviks, 218, 221; Smith, ‘Power and Violence’, 205.

187 Marshall, The Caucasus, 52.

188 Resulzade, Bir Türk Milliyetçisinin Stalin'le İhtilal Hatıraları, 35.