1918: Lankaran and Mughan are on fire

In 1918-1919, bloody events took place on the Mughan plain, Lankaran, and the foothills of the Talysh Mountains. August of this year marked the 100th anniversary of the defeat of the Molokan uprising that not only endangered the existence of the population living in the abovementioned geography, but also the sovereignty of the Republic of Azerbaijan. It was on September 9, 1919, that Alimardan bey Topchubashi, the head of the delegation of Azerbaijan at the Paris Peace Conference, presented a letter to the Chairman of the Supreme Council of Versailles based on a telegram he received from the government of Azerbaijan in Baku. The letter read: “The city of Lankaran and Lankaran Uyezd have been cleared of Bolsheviks and the authority of the government of Azerbaijan has been restored in the area.”[1]

However, prior to this letter, the Muslim population of the region had given great sacrifices. Mughan and Lankaran experienced severe losses for about a year and a half. The city of Lankaran, the Turkish villages in the lowlands of Mughan and Lankaran, and the Talysh mountain settlements in the foothills and the Caspian coastal areas were devastated. So what happened there? What was it that brought to Mughan the Bolsheviks, who were looking for a “revolutionary” experience; hungry Russian soldiers and officers, who were hunting for bread after the collapse of the Caucasus front; and the armed Armenian Dashnak units in the South Caucasus? What deep traces did these events – revolutionary and counter-revolutionary confrontation between White and Red Russia, bloody battles between the Muslim population of the region and the immigrant Christian communities, and even the incessant killings between the Molokans and the Subbotniks in the 19th and 20th centuries – leave in the fate and history of the region? To clarify these and other issues, there is a historical need to evaluate these events after 100 years. And this article is an expression of that necessity.

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Has anything been written about the horrific events that took place in Lankaran and Mughan between 1918 and 1919? Of course, there were initial attempts in the Soviet times to portray these events in accordance with the dominant Bolshevik ideology by creating a “heroic” epic in Mughan and Lankaran and interpreting the events in terms of class struggle by ignoring the national and religious massacres in the background of the Soviets’ “sacred task.”[2] 

The initiative to give the first objective assessment of these events during the Soviet period belongs to Colonel Israfil bey israfilbeyov of the National army of Azerbaijan, published in 1943 in the 46-47 issue of the newspaper "Azerbaijan", published in Berlin. The objective assessments of these events were made by Azerbaijani émigré leader Mirza Bala Mammadzadeh in his article titled “Liberation of Mughan and Lankaran” and published by Azerbaijan Journal (11th issue) In Turkey. A number of works have been published since the collapse of the Soviet Union in Azerbaijan as well. Although these works, written in historical and chronological style, are important steps forward, there are still many unexplained moments in the events of 1918-1919 in Mughan and Lankaran.[3] After the restoration of Azerbaijan’s independence, a number of speculative trends regarding the name of the “Mughan Soviet Republic” were also observed. Such cases are more likely to be found in the works of Russian researchers and in non-scholarly articles on many Russian websites.[4]

For example, Vasily Shambarov writes that the unit of Ziyatkhanov and other Tatar (Turk) beys attacked Mughan, whose population consisted of Russian villagers, and destroyed 50 villages, as a result, 30,000 people fled to Baku and Russia. Although the number of such mythological “works” has recently increased in Russia, the abovementioned claims are far from the truth. For Ziyatkhanov’s “unit” was never in Mughan and 30,000 Russian villagers never lived there.[5]. Victor Shnirel’man considers the 1919 “Mughan Soviet Republic” an exercise that led to the establishment of the 1993 Talysh-Mughan Republic.[6] Of course, these recent studies often use the phrase “Russian Mughan” but there are also some attempts to approach the subject from an objective standpoint.[7] In general, nevertheless, the historical literature on the complex Mughan-Lankaran events of 1918-1919 fails to delve deeply into the events.

Between 1931 and 1935, the Shaumian Institute in Baku documented transcripts of the meetings and memorial evenings in which almost all survivors of the Lankaran and Mughan events participated. These documents, which have not been disclosed fully and some of the pages of which are still stamped confidential, serve as a valuable historical source for learning the true nature of those events. The national identity of more than 60 “revolutionaries” attending the meetings creates an interesting historical picture of the ethnic nature of these events: Vilmut, Faykovski, Yakov Grankin, Arzumanov, Ponomaryov, Mkhitaryan, Shafi Aliyev, Moisey Bocharnikov, Sapunkov, Sidomonov, Mohsun (Gadirli) Israfilbeyov, Shahramanov, Hayk Arustamov, Grisha Arustamov, Shirali Akhundov, Bakuradze, and others. These memoirs, mostly written by Bolsheviks, refer to events in Lankaran and Mughan in the following periods: until the October socialist revolution; from the October revolution to March events of 1918; from the March events to the collapse of the Baku Soviet People’s Commissars; from the collapse of the Soviet People’s Commissars to the establishment of the “Mughan Republic” in April 1919; and from the collapse of the “Mughan Republic” to the establishment of Soviet rule in Azerbaijan in 1920.

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The first Russian colonists had settled in Mughan since the 1830s. This was due to the fact that on October 20, 1830, the most highly approved opinion of the State Council was adopted: "about dukhobortsy, iconoclasts, Molokans, Judaizers and other heresies recognized as particularly harmful".[8] Between 1830 and 1880 Russian settlements, such as Andreyevka, Astarkhanka, Vel, Nikolayevka, Novogolovka, Pravoslavny, Privolny, and Prishib were established in Mughan and Lankaran. In 1880-1904, Alekseyevka, Grigoryevka, Petrovka, Podgorny, and Pokrovka were added to these settlements, and after 1904 Vyatsky, Golitsino, Dmitrovka, Kamyshovka, Krepostny, Mikhailovka, Olkhovka, North Forstadt and some others were founded.[9] According to the census of 1897, the total population of Russians who migrated to Lankaran Uyezd was 9,728, which was 7.43% of the uyezd’s population at the end of the 19th century. According to the 1897 census, of the population of Lankaran uezd  was 84,725 (64.68%) Turks, 35,291 (26.72%) Talyshs (18 974 men, 16 317 women). On the eve of the bloody events, according to the Caucasus calendar, of the 185,518 residents of Lankaran Uyezd, 170,000 were Muslim and 16,206 were Russian immigrants (6,974 Orthodox and 9,232 sectarians). At that time, 15,229 (85.1%) of the 17,801 residents of the city of Lankaran were Muslims, while 2,022 (11.4%) were Russians.[10]

However, despite their recent arrival, 116,296 dessiatins (Dessiatin is an archaic land measurement used in tsarist Russia. A Russian dessiatin is equal to 2400 square sazhens and is approximately equivalent to 2.702 English acres or 10,926.512 square metres or 1.09 hectar) of land suitable for cultivation were allocated to the Russian settlers at the expense of the treasury and the lands of the local population, which led to constant conflicts between the local Muslim population and the Christians. The Mughan plain was at the center of Tsarist Russia's migration policy. The General Land Administration and Land Affairs Department of Russia allocated 324,303 dessiatins of land to Russian colonists in Mughan, which was more than one-fifth of the total area allocated for migration (1,567,114 dessiatins) throughout the South Caucasus.[11] Under the auspices of state officials, the cultivated lands of the local population were granted to the Russian immigrants before harvesting, resulting in armed confrontation between the parties.

Although the Muslim peasants of Lankaran and Javad uyezds had 1.25 dessiatins of land per person, which they rented from landlords, the Russian peasants who were relocated to these lands were given 2.75 dessiatins per person at the expense of the treasury lands.[12] The Governor General of the Caucasus Viceroyalty Illarion Vorontsov-Dashkov, who traveled to Mughan in 1910, was fully satisfied with the colonization of Mughan by the Russian immigrants.[13] In order to protect the Russian lands which were taken from the Muslim population, the uyezd’s government officials officially distributed Berdan rifles to 10 out of every 100 people in the Russian villages of Mughan.

One of the armed conflicts in Mughan was in the years of 1904-1905 between the landlords of Alar and Ergaya (the village Pokrovka was later settled in the area Ergaya) on the one hand, and the Russians living in Pokrovka, on the other hand. When the Alars were ordered to evacuate the land allotted to the Russians within 7 days, they started an armed resistance. The confrontation was so sharp that the Tsar government immediately sent Senator Aleksandr Kuzminski from Petersburg to Mughan to investigate the situation. Senator Kuzminsky met with representatives of the Alar and Pokrovka village communities in Novogolovka village on May 18, 1905, and temporarily settled the conflict. In his report to Petersburg, he acknowledged the right of the Alar community to fight for their lands.[14] The land disputes between the Russian settlers and the Muslim peasants continued until 1912. Based on the report by Senator Kuzminsky, Vladimir Lenin noted in 1912 that Christian sects were relocated to “Russify the outsiders.” Lenin wrote, “When the people of Alar were evicted from their lands, or in Senator Kuzminsky’s words, when they were ‘evicted and were not provided with new lands,’ the immigrants who invaded the lands of these people were armed at the expense of the treasury: local chiefs were ordered to ‘provide weapons to the population of the new villages of Mughan, and give Berdan rifles to 10 out of every 100 people.’”[15] After the declaration of Soviet government in Baku in 1917, its first target was Mughan. On December 12 of the same year, at an emergency meeting of the Executive Committee of the Baku Soviet and the Baku garrison, a decision was made to create armed groups and send those groups to Mughan.[16]

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After the 1917 revolution, Sultan bey Gulubeyov was appointed head of Lankaran Uyezd. Nusrat bey Nurullabeyov was the uyezd bailiff and Gulam Taghiyev, originally from Echara village, was the bailiff of Sebidesht, which comprises a large part of Mughan. After the revolution in Russia, the Russian villages of Mughan refused to pay taxes to the treasury and asked the neighboring Muslim villagers also to refuse to pay their taxes to the treasury and the khans. In some places, the peasants refused to submit to the government and created their own local governments in their villages. For example, the residents of Khirmandali village in Mughan declared their village a “Republic.” In the summer of 1917, there was a famine in Mughan, a region with large grain fields, and on August 18, Lankaran even introduced rationing for bread supply.[17] Most of the land in the mountainous part of Lankaran Uyezd was the property of Asgar khan Talishinski, and the Muslim villages under his control were also dissatisfied.

However, in March 1917, during Rasulzadeh’s 4-day visit to Lankaran, the discontent was eliminated and Asgar khan Talishinski was elected leader of the newly created Lankaran provisional committee, replacing Saturov, who “kept the people hungry,” oppressing not only the Muslim population, but also the Russian people. On the first evening of Rasulzadeh’s visit to Lankaran, Russian women of the city gathered in front of the hotel and chanted “do not let ‘Saturov the cruel’ rule us again.” By the way, 11 out of the 15 members of the Lankaran City Committee (Council), elected in March 1917, were Muslim while one was Russian, one was Armenian, and two were soldiers stationed in the city. As a result of the election, the lawyer Sultan bey Gulubeyov was elected head of the committee, Lankaran city notary Ganichev and military doctor Batanov became his deputies, and Taghi bey Bayrambeyov, Asad khan Talishinski, doctor Aliheydar Javadov and Yusif bey Mehmandarov were elected committee members.[18]  

World War I exacerbated ethnic, religious, and social tensions in Mughan. The military mobilization of the Russian population had led to the collapse of the Caucasus front since 1917 and a flow of many armed men to Mughan. Some of them were from the Russian villages of Mughan, while others came to Mughan to make a living. The influx also had a significant impact on the Russian population of Lankaran and Mughan, and their number in the region reached 20,000 during these bloody events.[19] Shirali Akhundov, a participant of the Lankaran events, also notes this in his memoirs.[20] According to the British, who were interested in the region at the time, there was a large Russian colony in Lankaran and Mughan along the Caspian Sea capable of having up to 5,000 people under arms.[21] Russian population in mugani and Lenkoran increased by more than 2 times in 20 years compared to the 1897 census, this is one hand was due to the resettlement policy of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Russia, Pyotr Stolypin, after the first Russian revolution, and on the other hand, to the influx of soldiers and officers who outgoing on the Caucasus front after the fall of the Romanov Empire.

Ponomaryov, a Russian officer who came from the Caucasus front to Baku and then to Mughan, believed that the revolutionary movement had hardly anything to do with Baku, and that the Mughan revolution was organized by Russian soldiers returning from the front lines of the imperialist war. Speaking about the establishment of a party organization in Mughan on October 7, 1931, with a group of Mughan “revolutionaries,” at a memorial event, Ponomaryov explicitly stated that the Mughan organization was not formed as a result of the proletarian revolution as it was in Baku. He asked: “How was the party organization created in Mughan? Most of you know this as participants of the 1918 events in Baku and Lankaran. As a participant in the events, I would say that in 1918, while there was a civil war between Musavat and the Bolsheviks in Baku, there was a national rather than a political struggle in Mughan. The Russians were on one side and the Turks on the other side.”[22] Ponomaryov openly stated that there was no need to seek traces of revolution in Mughan: “The Caucasus Front had been destroyed, we were returning and we were hungry, we had weapons, and Mughan had bread. We went to Mughan to seize that bread using the power of our weapons”. In fact, Ponomaryov’s words reveal the truth about the Mughan tragedy: the slaughter of the Turkic population, the plunder of their villages, and even the plundering of the wealthy monarchist Russian peasants was related to this bitter truth. In the autumn of 1917, famine spread throughout Russia and, as Rasulzadeh said, “Russia, which fed the whole world with its bread, was hungry.”[23]

After the Tsarist government was overthrown, Russian soldiers and officers, who were coming from the battelfileds of the WWI to Mughan, sold their large ammunition reserves to the Russian population of the region. Former soldier Moisey Bocharnikov, who was a participant in the events, wrote, “I was from the village of Petrovka and I was armed by leaving Nicholas’s army. These was a cavalry squadron in our village and its soldiers were selling weapons to the people.”[24] Petrikov, who took an active part in the Mughan events, recalled that after the collapse of the Tsarist government, the army was dissolved and returned home by Kernensky’s command. Local Mughan soldiers and officers, who fought in the imperialist war, returned home as experienced soldiers and, on the other hand, the Russian peasants bought the weapons from the soldiers.[25]

Matveyev, an assistant of the Lankaran unit commissar Garlin, confirms the same issue with the Russian armament on the eve of the bloody events. He notes that when the Tsarist army was dissolved, Prishib, Privolny, and other Russian villages of Mughan had already established self-defense groups. The dissolved border guards gave their weapons to the Russian peasants, and some of their weapons were brought to Lankaran.[26] At the same time, some of the participants in the Mughan events admitted that a number of Russian groups had also sold weapons to the Turkic population and stated that these Russian groups had been disarmed.[27]

As a result of this, on the eve of the religious confrontation and national massacres that began in the spring of 1918, Mughan became a powder keg, and the Russian population was unilaterally armed. In general, however, the national massacres in Mughan and Lankaran began immediately after the March 1918 events in Baku, and as the first incident of the March events, an excuse for the disarming the ship Evelina was said to ensure the safety of the Russian population of Lankaran and Mughan.[28] While hundreds of Tatar Cavalry Regiments (Azerbaijani Regiments of the Caucasian Native Cavalry Division which was known as Savage Division) of the former Russian Imperial Army – J. H.) officers were disarmed on the Evelina for an expedition to Lankaran, in a neighboring port the ship Alexander Zhandr  of the Bolshevik-Armenian - coalition was preparing for the expedition to Lankaran and after their participation in the March battles, the Soviet and the Dashnak troops unloaded their weapons and ammunition, and left Baku for Lankaran. At the end of March, they arrived at the city port.[29]

Shaumian was interested in sending the Dashnak military units to Lankaran to “establish” a Soviet government. Doctor Zakharyan, who was also a participant in the events, said, “I remember Shaumian’s speech at a meeting about the ways to sustain the Soviet government. During the speech, he said that the Dashnak units would be ours. Shaumian was right. After a while, all of the Dashnak military units were on the Bolshevik side.”[30] Faykovsky, who was brought to Baku on the eve of the March massacre and was sent to Mughan immediately afterwards, said he was serving in the Baku Red Guard: “On March 16, we were summoned to disarm the Evelina, and the Baku Musavatists wanted to send a part of the Tatar cavalry, which had returned from the frontline, to Lankaran to organize their military presence in the region. We were able to disarm the Evelina. Then our unit participated in the March events ... At the end of April, our unit left for Lankaran.”[31] Mkhitaryan, one of the “heroes” of the Baku events, recalled that Musavat sent 100 soldiers of the Tatar cavalry to Lankaran on the Evelina without the approval of the Baku Executive Committee, they were given an ultimatum to hand over their weapons. “We, including Eser (Socialist-Revolutionaries) Sukhartsev, disarmed the Evelina. Then our unit left for Lankaran on the Alexander Zhandr, bombed the city with cannons and destroyed the nest of Musavat. The unit and the artillery were led by Kahramanov and Arustamov, accordingly”.[32]

Stupin, who came to Baku from the Caucasus front, recalled his departure to Lankaran: “When the army was leaving the front at the end of 1917, I and my comrades left the front for Baku. Three days later, I signed up for the First International Regiment in Baku and the day after, we were sent to Lankaran.”[33] Pavlov, another participant in the events, said that a teacher came to Baku from Mughan, and he said that the situation in Mughan was not good: “I was working for Kozhemyak (D. Kozhemyak was the Chairman of the newly created Extraordinary Commission at that time - J.H.). We, eight people, gathered at the Moscow Hotel and discussed how to help Mughan.  It was necessary to send two canons and an airplane. We were told that the people of Mughan wanted to create a free Cossack voluntary unit but the revolutionaries were against it, however, the Turks were robbing us and we needed help. “I explained the situation to Alyosha [Chaparidze] and he said ‘God knows, they just talk, we should be careful so that nobody stabs us in the back.’ Many refugees came to Baku from different places. We gathered their weapons. Sukhartsev was then secretary of the Revolutionary Committee. I told the refugees that the Shahsevens (The Shahsevan (Azerbaijani: Şahsevənlər - are a branch of the Turkic Oghuz groups, sub-ethnic group of Azerbaijani people, located primarily in Iran and on the territory of the present-day Republic of Azerbaijan. The name Shahsevan means "adherents of the Shah")[34] could attack Baku and they should fight against them. Sukhartsev found two canons. I went to an aviation school and got an airplane to send the cannons to Mughan. All ammunition was loaded onto the Alexander Zhandr and sent to Lankaran.”[35] It is clear that the March events incited the national and religious confrontation not only in Baku, but also in Mughan.

Prior to the known incidents, in addition to providing the Russian population with armaments, two militarized units were established on the basis of the former Russian border post in Lankaran and Mughan. Shortly afterwards, the militants, consisting of the members of the local Russian population, joined the military. The military unit in Lankaran was led by Colonel von der Osten-Sacken, who had just returned from Ardabil (city in Northern of Iranian Azerbaijan), and a military unit in Privolny, which later was expanded to the interior of Mughan, was led by Colonel F. M. Ilyashevich who was one of the former commanders of the 29th Russian Border Troops in Prishib. Colonel Ilyashevich had a great influence among the Russian population of Mughan for his cruelty towards the Muslims of the region.[36] Ilyashevich and his armed Russian units had no limits to their cruelty, especially against those living around Prishib and Bilasuvar. These death squads were commanded by Lieutenant Boris Khoshiev considered as the right hand of Colonel Ilyashevich.