Azerbaijan: A Quest for Identity Under Soviet Rule, 1920-1991

Dissertationsprojekt von Rafi Beykhanov

Betreuer: Prof. Dr. Andreas Renner

Soviet rule in Azerbaijan was one of the most important periods in the formation of Azerbaijani national identity. After the occupation of the short-lived Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (1918-1920) and the establishment of Soviet Azerbaijan, the Soviet regime began to construct a new nationalism and national identity which would characterize Azerbaijan not only in the Soviet period but also in the post-Soviet era of independence.
Azerbaijan's case is not unique compared to other major non-Russian peoples of the Soviet Union that developed national identities and nation-states during the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the Civil Wars. Indeed, the nationality policy was largely identical in all of them during the rule of the Soviet regime. Through the Azerbaijan case study, we can thus also better understand the Soviet nationality policy and the construction of nationalism and national identity in the other republics of the former Soviet Union.
In this study, I will examine and analyze Soviet nationality policy and the construction of national identity in Azerbaijan. What kind of nationalism and national identity did the Soviet regime build in Azerbaijan? What was the role of local Azerbaijani intellectual and political forces in the construction of nationalism and national identity during the Soviet regime and how was it different from Soviet nationality policy? How did the Sovietization of Azerbaijan in the early years of Soviet rule contribute to the construction of Azerbaijani nationalism and national identity? How did the Soviet regime under Stalin's dictatorship lay the foundations for nationalism and national identity in Azerbaijan? What kind of culture, history, and national identity was built during this period, and what were the political and ideological reasons behind them? What were the political reforms during Khrushchev's leadership and how did they influence Azerbaijani national self-expression? What kind of Azerbaijani nationalism and national identity developed in Azerbaijan during the long period of Brezhnev's leadership? How did Gorbachev's reforms, Perestroika and Glasnost, and the political events that took place in the late 1980s in Azerbaijan change Azerbaijani nationalism and national identity? What kind of culture, history, and national identity was beginning to be built during this period and how was it different from Soviet nationalism?