History of BakuThe history of the city of Baku goes back to the great antiquity, though the exact date of its rise is not known up to now. The territory of the Apsheron Peninsula where the city is situated enjoys a favourable geographical position, a convenient bay, a warm, dry climate, a fertile soil, natural minerals, and therefore the emergence of the ancient settlements here is quite natural. The district of Gobustan is to the southwest of modern Baku by the Caspian Sea. Here in the vast space were pastured numerous herds of animals the images of which are fixed on the rocks of the neighbouring mountains. The pictures dating back to 8 milleniums reflect different hunting scenes, ceremonial and ritual processes of the ancient dwellers of these places.    The archeological excavations carried out in the city of Baku and its vicinities prove the existence of the settlement here before our era. The archaic pre-Zoroastrian burial places found in 1888 during the digging of the foundation pit of the base of the former Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in the place of an old Muslim cemetery speak of the city’s ancient origin too. In the foundation pit were found ancient burials in the form of stone boxes in several rows one above another, also a tomb in the shape of a big tendir (fireplace) the contents of which were six or seven human skeletons in half-seated position. There were clay bowls of an irregular shape in front of the skeletons. This was a family tomb going to the times of the tribal system of the society. Since olden days Baku, its oil, “a burning soil” has been known far beyond its borders. The Medieval written sources related to Baku invariably refer to “the eternal flames” in its vicinities. One of the first to report about them at the beginning of the V century was Byzantine Prisk Paniyski who, while describing the cities of Caucasian Albania, mentioned the place where “the flame rises out of the reef”. The Arabian historian al-Balazuri also informs of oil and salt in Shirvan in 754. With the spread of Islam in the region beginning from the IX century Baku is mentioned in the written sources of Arabian geographers and historians as a small, but a developed feudal city. Invariably there are sources of white and dark gray oil in Baku. Caravans came here for oil from all parts of the Middle East. Slavonic, Khazar, Byzantine, Chinese, Iraqi, Syrian, Kenyan, Venetian, Iranian, and Indian tradesmen arrived in Baku. Being located in the intersection of trade routes Baku was always in the focus of attention of foreign invaders fighting for the influence in the region. In the second half of the IX century the decline of Abbas’ caliphate and the reinforcement of the tendency of decentralization in the countries under the caliphate led to the formation of a number of independent states. The state of the Shirvanshahs was one of such states. Medieval Baku, along with Shamakhy turned into one of the main cities of Shirvan. The city started its real development in the XI century when the state of the Shirvanshahs gradually found itself in the centre of developments in the region. It was at this time that they first started to wall Baku. The evidence of this is the stone inscription discovered during the restoration of the walls, which runs that the walls were erected by Shirvanshah Manuchuhr II (1120-1160).The further development of the Shirvanshahs’ state was achieved under Akhsitan I, Manuchuhr II’s son. He successfully repelled the assaults of Saljuks and nomadic Kypchaks. During his reign a strong fleet was created in the Baku port. So in 1175 he managed to repel the Russians’ assault that had attacked the vicinity of Baku on 73 vessels. In 1191 Shirvanshah Akhsitan transferred his residence from Shamakhy to Baku. For the first time Baku became the main city of the Shirvanshahs.    In 1501 Shah Ismail Khatai of the Safavis’ dynasty invaded Shirvan and lay a siege to Baku. At this time the city was enclosed with the lines of strong walls, which were washed by sea on one side and protected by a wide trench on land. The besieged inhabitants of Baku fought with fortitude, relying on the impregnability of their fortification. In the absence of the city’s ruler Gazi-bay his wife led the city’s defense. She ordered to execute Shah Ismail’s messengers who had come to her with the proposal to lay down their arms. Having seen the reluctance of the besieged to surrender Ismail ordered to undermine and explode the big stone in the wall. The inhabitants resisted 3 more days, but then the fortress’s defense was broken by the Safavis’ troops who annihilated lots of inhabitants. Realizing the uselessness of further resistance 70 noble citizens of Baku with the Koran in their hands, the swords round their necks and shrouds on their backs turned to Ismail and declared their obedience to him. Ismail occupied the fortress without delay. Plenty of gold and jewelry were taken away from the occupied treasury of the Shirvanshahs. Though this campaign of Ismail against Shirvan inflicted a heavy blow on the Shirvanshahs’ state, it still managed to survive till 1538. In 1538 Shah Tahmasib, the Safavis’ ruler put an end to the Shirvanshahs’ reign and united the entire Shirvan including Baku under the Safavis’ state.
The II half of the XVI century and the beginning of the XVII century were marked by the sequence of wars between the Safavis’ state and the Ottoman Turkey. At that time Baku changed hands. In 1578 the city was occupied by the Ottoman army. In 1580 the Safavis defeated the Ottoman forces, but in 1684 the Ottomans recaptured Baku. In 1590 the Safavis’ Shah Abbas I had to make heavy peace with the Turks according to which they took over the northern and southern provinces of Azerbaijan. Shah Abbas I made use of the respite in the war with the Ottomans, reinforced the army and resumed the war. In 1607 Baku was transferred to the dominion of the Safavis again.
   After Peter’s death in 1725 the Caspian areas became a burden on the Russians. A big army was required to maintain the occupied territories, but the incomes did not cover the expenses. By 1730 the situation had deteriorated as Nadir shah, a talented commander rose in Iran. Nadir Shah’s successes in Shirvan made the Russians conclude an agreement near Ganja on March 10, 1735 according to which the Russian troops were withdrawn from Baku. Again Baku went under the dominion of Iran. In the spring of 1796 by Yekaterina II’s order General Zubov’s troops started a large campaign of the tzarist military forces in Transcaucasia. Baku surrendered after the first demand of Zubov who had sent 6 thousand militants to capture the city. On June 13 1796 the Caspian flotilla entered the Baku bay and a garrison of the Russian troops was placed in Baku. General P.D.Sisianov was appointed the commandant of the city. But after Yekaterina II’s death her son Pavel I ordered to cease the campaign of the Russian forces and withdraw them back to Russia. In March 1797 the tzarist troops left Baku. In addition the Gulustan treaty signed between Russia and Iran in 1813 legalized the annexation of the Baku kahanate to the Russian empire. However, the treaty did not solve all the Russian-Iranian contradictions. And the former Baku khan did not give up his hope to return to the power. In July 1826 when the Iranian army invaded the boundary of Northern Azerbaijan a detachment headed by Huseingulu khan made for Baku and seiged the city. He was actively supported by the inhabitants of Baku and its neighbouring villages that revolted against the Russians. But the defeat of the Iranian army as well as the action of the Russian army directed against the Baku khan, forced the latter to return to Iran in October 1826. With the termination of the last Russian-Iranian war in 1828 the Turkmanchay treaty was signed which divided Azerbaijan between Russia and Iran along the river Araks and officially annexed the occupied areas including Baku to Russia. That was a national tragedy; however the treaty contributed to the termination of wars in the region and its further development.
In 1859 after a devastating earthquake in Shamakhy, the centre of the province was transferred to Baku, and the province was renamed as Baku. Government offices began to be formed in the city. As a result Baku entered a qualitatively new level of development taking the first place for its social and economic indices among other cities of Azerbaijan in the second half of the XIX century.
Baku was developing not only economically, but also culturally. In 1873 the first Azerbaijani National Theatre was founded. In 1875 the first newspaper began to be published. In 1864 Nariman Narimanov founded the first national public library. In 1908 the first opera in the East “Leily and Majnun” was staged. Printing work was developing, publishing houses were being opened, newspapers including “Baku”, “Kaspiy”, “Bakinskiy rabochiy”, “Hummat”, “Yoldash”, also different brochures, books and magazines came to be published in Azerbaijani and Russian. 
 World War I that broke out in 1914 caused elements of disorganization in the Baku oil region too. The unemployment sharply grew; the living standards of the workers grew worse. Revolutionary movement grew in the country. In February 1917 the tsarist government fell in Russia. Under new conditions the “Musavat” Party holds a dominating position in Azerbaijan. Having been established in October 1917 it upheld the self-determination of the nation since the very beginning of its foundation. At the end of October 1917 the first congress of the “Musavat” Party took place in Baku which determined the tactics and strategy of the organization in the coming political struggle. The leader of the party was M.E.Rasulzade.
In March 1918 the Baku Soviet arranged a massacre against the peaceful defenceless population of the Turkish quarters which resulted in the death of about 10 thousand citizens. Under the pretence of the struggle against the Musavat members the Bolshevik and Armenian gangs started the annihilation of the peaceful Azerbaijani population. The Azerbaijani quarters were fired both from the air and sea. The massacre of the city’s Moslem population was headed by S.Shaumyan, the Chairman of the Committee of Revolutionary Defence of Baku. The Chief of the headquarters of the Red Army in Baku was Z.Avetisyan, a colonel of the tsarist army and a member of the Dashnak Party. The outrages in Baku from March 30 to April 2, and further in the uyezds, were nothing but a genocide committed against the Azerbaijani people. It was because of this that the Soviet power failed to last longer and quit the stage ignominiously in the very year of 1918.    With the outbreak of World War II again Baku turned out to be in the focus of attention of the great world powers. After the Soviet-German non-aggression pact had been signed in 1939, the USSR started to provide Germany with oil. In 1939-1940 France and England planned to bomb Baku and to occupy the Baku oil industry district. In the French generals’ opinion such kind of operation would have weakened the economic might of the Soviet Union and led to the collapse of the Soviet system. England also had an analogous plan. The headquarters of the British Royal Air Forces thought that “three squadrons of bombers operating for a period of time from 6 weeks to 3 months could put the oil fields out of action”. Only the Germans’ powerful attack on the western front forced the allies to postpone their plans with respect to Baku The contribution of Baku in the successful defeat of fascism was very weighty. During the war the oil reserves of Baku comprised 75% of the country’s overall oil reserves, and 90% of the jet fuel consisted of Baku oil. Taking into consideration the growing demand for oil, the Baku oil workers reached the record level of oil extraction in 1941 – 23,482 million tons. Never before such amount of oil had been extracted and up to now, this record has not been surpassed yet. Baku became one of the biggest and most significant industrial centres of the former Soviet Union. Electronics, instrument engineering, light and food industry developed intensively along with the oil extraction, oil refining and oil machine building. Within a relatively short period of time there were built in Baku such big industrial objects as the factory of domestic air conditioners, the Baku instrument making factory, and the factory of electronic computers, the factory of champagne wines, the factory of deep water bases and other enterprises which won not only the domestic market of the Soviet Union but also the markets of numerous foreign countries for the products of high quality. Baku became the biggest centre of education and culture. Almost all the big higher educational institutions of Azerbaijan were located in Baku, here tens of theatres, palaces of culture functioned successfully, there were held social, scientific, professional forums of international and All-Union significance.
After the collapse of the USSR the Supreme Soviet of Azerbaijan accepted a declaration “On the Restoration of the State Independence of Republic of Azerbaijan”. In accordance with this declaration Republic of Azerbaijan was proclaimed sovereign on October 18, 1991. For the second time in the history of the XX century Baku became the capital of an independent state. |
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