Zaur GASIMOV

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Zaur Gasimov, Master, doctoral candidate at the Institute for Central and Eastern European Studies, Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (Eichstätt, Germany).

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AZERBAIJAN’S LOST STATEHOOD: THE POST-1980S HISTORIOGRAPHY OF OCCUPATION

ABSTRACT

The author looks at the main trends in Azerbaijan’s Western historiography, works by Azeri émigrés in Europe, and “red historiography” publications of the Soviet occupation period. He concentrates on the “internal Azeri” debate that has been going on since the end of the 1980s regarding the Soviet occupation.

Introduction

The history of many nations knows of politically important facts and events that tend to remain on the historians’ agenda for a long time. In Azeri history, one of these is 28 April, 1920, when Bolshevik Russia occupied the republic and ushered in a period over which there is still no agreement among the public and the academic community. In the 20th century, Azerbaijan shared the fate of its Caucasian neighbors, the Baltic countries, and Western Ukraine, a fact that invited highly varied opinions from the local communists, Azeri émigrés, Western academics, members of the national-liberation movements, and Soviet historians. While Western historiography and Azeri intellectuals in Europe spoke about the “Azeri April” as occupation, Soviet historiography lauded “the triumph of Soviet power in Azerbaijan and the victory of the progressive forces.” Meaningful discussions about the country’s past outside the pinching limits of……………….

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