What is it about?
The article, by Aydın Alizade (Doctor of Philosophical Sciences), examines the underground struggle of the Musavat party to restore Azerbaijan's independence between 1920 and 1926, following the country's occupation by Bolshevik Russia. The research is based mainly on the investigative case files of arrested underground members, supplemented by other sources; it follows a narrative method and is presented as the first study of its kind on this topic. The author covers: The first underground organization (1920–1923) — the left-wing faction of Musavat that emerged after the Bolshevik takeover, its leadership (Mirzabala Mammadzade, Abdul Vahab Mammadzade), a military wing led by Dr. Dadash Hasanzade, the illegal newspaper "Istiglal," and contacts with the Turkish consulate in Baku and Georgia's independence movement. The destruction of this first organization by the Azerbaijan State Political Directorate (ADSİ) in 1923, followed by arrests and exile. The second underground organization (1923–1926) — rebuilt under Hasanzade and Ahmed Hajinski, focused on educational and patriotic work among youth, distribution of banned nationalist literature, and ties to émigré leader Mammad Amin Rasulzade. Its collapse — arrests of the leadership in March 1926, mass repressions, and death sentences or exile handed down in 1927. The main conclusion is that the secret Musavat organization laid the groundwork for the Azerbaijani people's struggle to restore state independence immediately after the Bolshevik occupation, and played an exceptional role in strengthening national self-awareness — a legacy the author traces forward to Azerbaijan's restoration of independence in 1991.
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Why is it important?
Historical value The author is the first to introduce into scholarly circulation investigative case file No. 500518 ("Dadash Hasanov and Others") from the archive of the State Security Service of Azerbaijan — a primary source that had not previously been systematically studied. The work recovers a little-known episode — the existence of an organized anti-Bolshevik underground inside the country in the 1920s, rather than focusing solely on émigré activity (Rasulzade and others abroad). Political and ideological significance for contemporary Azerbaijan The article directly links the underground Musavat struggle of the 1920s to the restoration of independence in 1991, situating it within a national narrative of continuous struggle for statehood. The human dimension The article restores the names and fates of specific individuals (Dr. Hasanzade, Hajinski, and dozens of others) who were executed or exiled for their convictions. Academic significance The work fills a gap in the historiography of the Azerbaijani national movement of the interwar period, which to date has focused mainly on 1918–1920 (the period of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic) and on the émigré movement, rather than on the domestic underground after the occupation.
Perspectives
The author views the Musavat underground not merely as a local episode of resistance, but as evidence that anti-Soviet opposition should be studied on a broader geographic scale than is customary — one that goes beyond the well-documented centers of resistance in central Russia and Ukraine. In the author's assessment, the Caucasus, and Azerbaijan in particular, deserve to be seen as an active and organized front of anti-Bolshevik struggle in their own right, with its own military structures, press, regional network, and cross-border ties (notably with the Georgian independence movement). The author suggests that this material opens the way for regional studies of the southern periphery of the USSR and for comparative work on the forms, methods, and duration of resistance across different parts of the Soviet Union — a perspective that, in his view, has so far been underrepresented in the historiography.
prof Aydin Arif oglu Alizade
Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences
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This page is a summary of: AZERBAYCAN’IN BAĞIMSIZLIĞINA KAVUŞMASI İÇİN GİZLİ MÜSAVAT’IN VERDİĞİ MÜCADELE ÜZERİNE BİR ARAŞTIRMA (1920–1926) A RESEARCH ON THE STRUGGLE OF THE SECRET MUSAVAT UNDERGROUND FOR AZERBAIJAN’S INDEPENDENCE (1920–1926), İstanbul Aydın Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, January 2021, Istanbul Aydin University,
DOI: 10.17932/iau.iausbd.2021.021/iausbd_v13i3005.
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