Uprisings of the Azerbaijani People against the Soviet Occupation (1920–1921)

The article comprehensively highlights and analyzes the anti-Soviet uprisings in Azerbaijan during the occupation period (from April 1920 to February 1921), which broke out in many regions of the country. From the first days of the Soviet occupation, a dictatorial regime was established in the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic created by the Bolsheviks, and bloody repressions were carried out against the indigenous Azerbaijani population, especially the military, clergy, and intelligentsia. The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR) national army was liquidated. The article shows that uprisings against the occupation erupted in several regions of the Republic. The Ganja and Garabakh uprisings were especially massive. All uprisings of 1920–1921 were anti-Soviet in nature. The rebels demanded the restoration of the former government, an end to the persecution of the Azerbaijanis, and the liberation of the territory of Azerbaijan from the atrocities of the Russian army and the Bolsheviks. The uprisings were led mainly by officers of the ADR army and Turkish officers who came to the aid of the Azerbaijanis, as well as by the representatives of the clergy and former statesmen. However, there was no single coordination center for the leadership of the uprisings. In addition, the forces of the local detachments and the Red Army were unequal. The XI Red Army brutally suppressed these uprisings and carried out punitive measures. The article reveals the activities of the Special Department of the XI Red Army and local Soviet punitive bodies to eliminate the Resistance Movement of the Azerbaijani people. Patriots were punished as bandits and counter-revolutionaries. And those people who suppressed the Resistance Movement were presented to the Azerbaijani people as its liberators and defenders for seventy Soviet years.