The Establishment of The Soviet Regime In Northern Azerbaijan. Resistance Against The Invaders

In the 1930s, the powerful anti-kolkhoz movement raised against the forced collectivization in the Azerbaijani village. In 1930, the Azerbaijani peasants, saying, “so that the kolkhoz would not get it” started the cattle slaughter. As a result, the number of cattle has decreased by half. In 1930, in Ganja, Nukha, Zagatala, Nakhchivan and other regions the armed anti- Soviet uprising took place. Although the main cause of these uprisings was forced collectivization, the hostile policy pursued by the Soviet authorities against intellectuals, religious leaders and national forces in general in Azerbaijan, gave impetus to the participation of all segments of the population in the anti-Soviet movement. These revolts and uprisings were political in nature and were directed against the Soviet power.

In 1930, the largest uprising took place in Shaki-Zagatala district. The main reasons for the uprising were: 1) the heavy tax system, which was used by the Soviet government in respect of individual farms. At that time when the qolchomaq farms accounted for only 3% of all farms, 50% of all collected taxes have been assigned to them. According to the rules, established by the authorities themselves, only one agricultural tax was to be collected from the population. However, in fact more than 12 taxes were collected; 2) as a result of food shortages in Shaki, the prices increased by 347% and workers all day had to stand in queues; 3) the economic policy of the state, based on the administrative-violent methods, and heavy taxes, along with the individual peasant farms, ruining free craftwork; 4) hostile attitude at the state level for the religious feelings and national traditions, closing mosques, branding as “enemies of the Soviet power” and repression against those, who received higher religious education in the leading universities of the East, had the title of Haji, Kerbelai and Meshedi and who fasted (Oruj) and made namaz (prayers); 5) realization of the need to restore the nation-state, as the only way out of this situation. Not surprisingly, on April 13, 1930, the uprising of Shaki began under the slogan “Caucasus must be released!” The rebels under the leadership of Mullah Mustafa Sheikhzade broke through the Soviet defenses, captured the city of Shaki and was released from jail the innocent detainees. The uprising spread to Zagatala and Balaken, where the number of rebels has reached 1000 people. To suppress this uprising, there were sent the troops of the State Political Department of Azerbaijan under the leadership of M.J. Baghirov, cavalry and police forces under the supervision of the Chief of the Office of Internal Affairs of Armenian Y.D. Sumbatov. In addition, they were sent to two infantry regiments and military equipment. As a result of 18 days of military operations, in the beginning of May 1930, uprising was ruthlessly suppressed.

Of the 50 rebellions in the South Caucasus, in March 1930, 40 took place in Azerbaijan, and the rest in the territories of Georgia and Armenia, where the population of Turkic-Muslim population. The elimination of the qolchomaqs as a class, in Georgia began with the district populated by Azerbaijani Turks Qarayazi Tiflis district. The large scale of the anti-Soviet uprisings occurred in 1930 in Nakhchivan, Ordubad, in the areas of Zangazur and Vedibasar of Armenian SSR, where Azerbaijani Turks lived. The rebels demanded to give up the policy of collectivization, to ensure the realization of the products not according to the established state prices, but the free market, stop the terror.