From the Letter of S. Shadunts to the Transcaucasian Regional Committee, Comrade Ordzhonikidze
On the Necessity of Allocating the Highland Part of Karabakh and Zangezur into a Single Autonomous Unit Directly Subordinate to the Government of the Transcaucasian Federation Shusha, June 18, 1923
I find that, for the proper resolution of the national question both in Karabakh and in Zangezur, and for the economic revival of this land (Karabakh and Zangezur), it is necessary to separate the Highland part of Karabakh together with Zangezur into a single autonomous unit.
As early as 1920, under the Musavatist government, at the non‑partisan congress of Karabakh peasants, our faction declared that the Highland part of Karabakh was an inseparable part of Azerbaijan, but that the final incorporation of this region into Azerbaijan would depend on the policy pursued by the Musavatist government. Unfortunately, the same must be repeated now. The facts presented in the Committee’s draft (the massacre of Armenians in Shusha, the disarmament of the Zangezur detachment in Shusha, the complete disregard of the interests of the Highland zone) clearly demonstrate that it is impossible to leave this land within Azerbaijan under the attitude that has prevailed until now. Therefore, I believe that this autonomous region must be directly subordinated to the Transcaucasian Council of People’s Commissars.
S. Shadunts
This question can be addressed in greater detail if the Transcaucasian Regional Committee raises it for discussion together with the draft of the Committee on the Affairs of Nagorno‑Karabakh. I must add that I am submitting this issue independently of the Committee.
S. Shadunts
From the Minutes of the Plenum of the Transcaucasian Regional Committee of the RCP(b)
On the Allocation of Nagorno‑Karabakh into an Autonomous Region June 27, 1923
Present: Members of the Transcaucasian Regional Committee: Comrades Ginzburg, Guseinov, Kakhiani, Kasumov, Karaev, Kirov, Lukashin, Makharadze, Mirzoyan, Mikhailov, Musabekov, Myasnikov, Orakhelashvili, Ordzhonikidze, Pleshakov, Sturua, Tskhakaya, Eliava, Yakubov.
Heard: …8. Report of the Karabakh Committee (Comrades Shadunts and Karakozov).
Resolved: 8. To instruct the Central Committee of the AKP within one month to separate Nagorno‑Karabakh into an autonomous region, providing land and water allotments to the peasants of the designated districts. (Resolution adopted unanimously, with three abstentions – Comrades Lukashin, Mirzoyan, and Orakhelashvili).
Decree of the Azerbaijan Central Executive Committee
On the Formation of an Autonomous Region “from the Armenian Part” of Karabakh July 7, 1923
Tsarist autocracy, striving to enslave the national minorities of the former Russian Empire, did not hesitate to resort to the destruction of even small nationalities by setting them against one another. The Armenian‑Muslim massacres of 1905–1906 in Transcaucasia serve as the clearest proof of the ruinous policy of Great Russian autocracy. At the very moment when the revolutionary working masses of Transcaucasia openly began to express their indignation against capitalist oppression, the hand of Tsarist generals Vorontsov‑Dashkov sowed the seeds of enmity between two kindred, historically connected peoples – Armenians and Muslims.
This became even more evident when Transcaucasia was fragmented into three “independent states,” in which leadership passed to a handful of national‑chauvinists – Musavatists, Dashnaks, and Mensheviks, lackeys of Western capital, who placed domination over national minorities at the forefront. During the brief existence of these “states,” much blood of the working peasantry was shed in the mountains of Karabakh and other parts of Transcaucasia.
The elimination of national oppression and inequality, in whatever form they may appear, and the replacement of national hostility and hatred with unity in a single state union, is one of the fundamental tasks of the workers’ and peasants’ revolution and Soviet power.
In fulfillment of this task, the Azerbaijan Central Executive Committee of Soviets decrees:
To form from the Armenian part of Nagorno‑Karabakh an autonomous region as an integral part of the Azerbaijan SSR, with its center in the settlement of Khankendi.
The governing bodies of the autonomous region shall be the Regional Executive Committee and the local Soviets.
Until the formation of the Regional Executive Committee, a temporary revolutionary committee shall be established, charged with convening within two months a congress of Soviets to elect a permanent executive body. Note: All pastures, forests, orchards, and actual possession of land and water shall remain with their current holders.
The Regional Executive Committee shall be supplied with all necessary financial and technical means from the general resources of the Azerbaijan SSR, by direct order of the AzCEC.
To establish a mixed commission composed of representatives of Nagorno‑Karabakh, Lowland Karabakh, Kurdistan, and the central authority of the Azerbaijan SSR, tasked with drafting the statute of the region, effecting the actual transfer of administrative units into the autonomous region of Karabakh, and determining the boundaries of the autonomous region. The commission must complete its work by August 15 of this year.
Chairman of the AzCEC: M. B. Kasumov Secretary of the AzCEC: Khanbudagov
Decree of the Azerbaijan Central Executive Committee
On the “Nationalization” (Azerbaijanization) of State Institutions in the Azerbaijan SSR July 31, 1923
From the moment Soviet power was proclaimed in Azerbaijan, the Turkic language, as the language of the majority of the population, was declared the state language. Continuing the consistent work of preparing the conditions and possibilities for the actual transfer of all record‑keeping and correspondence in all state organs of the Azerbaijan SSR into the Turkic language, the Azerbaijan Central Executive Committee decrees:
To nationalize (introduce the Turkic language into) the apparatuses of the AzCEC, the Council of People’s Commissars, the People’s Commissariat of Education, the Commissariat of Justice, the Commissariat of Internal Affairs, the Commissariat of Agriculture, the Commissariat of Food, and the Commissariat of Social Security, as the apparatuses most closely connected with the peasant masses.
To oblige all other commissariats and institutions to conduct all their relations and correspondence with the districts in the Turkic language.
The commissariats listed in §1 shall conduct correspondence among themselves exclusively in the Turkic language.
The language of communication between the commissariats of the Azerbaijan SSR and the institutions and commissariats of the RSFSR and the USSR shall be Russian.
Commissariats and institutions not listed in §1, until they have fully established record‑keeping and correspondence in the Turkic language, are obliged to conduct correspondence and relations with the nationalized commissariats in parallel in both Turkic and Russian.
Every citizen of the Azerbaijan SSR has the right to address any Soviet institution in his native language, and all Soviet state institutions are obliged to provide answers and explanations in the language in which the document was submitted.
The AzCEC obliges all institutions and commissariats to print forms, announcements, certificates, inscriptions on railway tickets, and all postal‑telegraph papers in both Turkic and Russian.
The Turkic language, as compulsory, must be introduced for subject study in all schools, higher educational institutions, courses, etc.
The language of communication with the Autonomous Region of Karabakh shall be Armenian.
Chairman of the AzCEC: M. B. Kasumov Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of the Azerbaijan SSR: G. Musabekov Secretary of the AzCEC: T. Aliyev
Circular Letter to the Karabakh Regional Committee, the Jevanshir and Jebrail District Committees
July 1923
The Highland part of Karabakh has been separated into an autonomous region.
The Central Committee of the AKP proposes, for the purpose of explaining the importance and necessity of this measure, to conduct a broad agitation campaign among the population both in district centers and in localities and villages, first discussing the issue within party organizations and cells, guided by the theses being sent.
The campaign is to begin immediately upon receipt of this circular.
Reports on the progress of the campaign are to be submitted by the agitation departments of the district committees.
Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party: A. Karaev Head of the Agitation Department of the Central Committee: Erfurt
The Government of the Azerbaijan SSR on the Autonomy of the Armenians of Nagorno‑Karabakh as an Expression of Their Right to Self‑Determination
(From the Report for 1922–1923)
One of the most important events in the sphere of administrative division and internal construction of Azerbaijan must be considered the formation of the autonomous region of Nagorno‑Karabakh, populated [by Armenians]. This region has its long history, characterized by prolonged inter‑ethnic struggle.
Simultaneously with the transition to peaceful construction, the Azerbaijan Soviet power, in fulfillment of its fundamental task of granting self‑determination to peoples and liberating them from national oppression, first of all ensured for Karabakh the conditions of peaceful existence, and then proceeded to its internal organization on the principles of fraternal unity and independent regulation of daily life.
The Central Commission on the Affairs of Nagorno‑Karabakh, organized under the Council of People’s Commissars, subjected all aspects of life in Nagorno‑Karabakh to thorough examination. The population was provided with the broadest assistance in bread, building materials, the organization of schools and hospitals, a printing house and newspapers. Finally, in order to grant Nagorno‑Karabakh the possibility of expressing its independence and initiative, it was separated into a distinct autonomous region.
During the reporting period, the question of organizing the Nakhichevan district was also under consideration.
Council of People’s Commissars of the Azerbaijan SSR. Report to the III All‑Azerbaijan Congress of Soviets, 1922–1923. 708
Yuri Barsegov “Nagorno-Karabakh in International Law and Global Politics”