The year is 1945. The world has not yet left the war, but two events draw Baku’s attention: the film «Arshin Mal Alan», based on Uzeyir Hajibeyli’s musical comedy, is being made, and the republic’s own Academy of Sciences begins work. Over the next forty years Azerbaijani culture developed under two forces: on one side a network of schools, institutes, theatres and museums spread wide, on the other the Communist Party kept ideological control over everything. This lesson teaches you to tell apart the achievements of the period in education, science, the arts and architecture, their fields and their leading figures. For the political background read «Attempts at national revival: Imam Mustafayev and Vali Akhundov» and «Social and economic growth in the 1970s–1980s: the leadership of Heydar Aliyev».
The frame: culture and ideology
The Soviet authorities saw culture as building «national in form, socialist in content»: art had to mobilise the people for the Party’s policy. Creative unions (of writers, composers and painters) worked under the supervision of Party bodies, and publications were checked by the censors (Glavlit). Within this frame a single official method was accepted for literature and the arts.
Socialist realismDefinition
The official method of Soviet literature and art: it required life to be shown in line with Party ideology, «in revolutionary development», with the worker and builder as the hero.
Control was not equally harsh in all years. The second half of the 1940s and the early 1950s were the hardest years of the totalitarian regime: creative people worked under ideological pressure. In the mid-1950s the «thaw» began, the climate eased a little, and poets and painters turned more boldly to national themes. Yet Party control and censorship lasted until the end of Soviet rule. The status of Azerbaijani as the state language is not a topic of this lesson; for it see «Attempts at national revival: Imam Mustafayev and Vali Akhundov».
Education and science
After the war the school network was rebuilt and compulsory schooling was extended: it was seven-year at first, and from the end of the 1950s the move to eight-year schooling began; in the following decades universal secondary education spread. There were schools teaching in Azerbaijani and in Russian. The main centre of higher education was Baku State University, founded in 1919; beside it, institutes of oil and chemistry, medicine, economics and teacher training prepared the specialists that industry and schools needed.
The turning point in the organisation of science was the founding of the Azerbaijan SSR Academy of Sciences in 1945. It was built on the Azerbaijan branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and its first president was Mirasadulla Mirgasimov. Its institutes worked in oil, geology, chemistry, physics, history, language and literature. Academician Yusif Mammadaliyev was renowned in petrochemistry, and the ophthalmologist Academician Mustafa Topchubashov in medicine.
Some people born in Baku became known worldwide: the cosmonaut Musa Manarov worked about a year on the Mir orbital station in 1987–1988. For offshore oil production (Oil Rocks, 1949) see «The post-war decade: economy, totalitarian rule and deportation».
Literature, music, fine art and cinema
In the war years cultural life did not stop: poets wrote verse on the front, composers wrote songs, and theatre and philharmonic artists performed to military units with front-line brigades. The most visible results of those years were the anthem of the Azerbaijan SSR in 1944 and, in 1945, the filming of «Arshin Mal Alan» and the founding of the Academy (see «The Azerbaijan SSR in the Second World War»).
In literature Samad Vurgun, Suleyman Rustam, Rasul Rza, Mirza Ibrahimov and Mehdi Huseyn were at work; in the 1950s–1960s poets such as Bakhtiyar Vahabzadeh and Nabi Khazri turned to social and national themes. In 1947 the 800th anniversary of Nizami Ganjavi was marked. In music the national school of composition created by Uzeyir Hajibeyli was carried on. Hajibeyli wrote the music of the Azerbaijan SSR’s anthem in 1944 and died in 1948.
Gara Garayev wrote the ballets «The Seven Beauties» and «The Path of Thunder», Fikrat Amirov the opera «Sevil» and the symphonic mughams «Shur» and «Kurd-Ovshari», and Niyazi the symphonic mugham «Rast»; Niyazi also became known worldwide as a conductor. In fine art Sattar Bahlulzade showed Azerbaijani nature in his landscapes, and Tahir Salakhov showed the labour of oil workers («Repairmen») in strong colours. In cinema «Arshin Mal Alan» (1945) became one of the best-loved films: Rashid Behbudov played Asgar, and later founded the Song Theatre.
Architecture, the press and cultural-educational institutions
In architecture Soviet monumentality merged with national traditions. In Baku one of the best-known examples of the monumental style of the Stalin era is the Government House, while the first line of the Baku Metro opened in 1967.
Libraries, clubs, theatres and museums opened in the districts; in Baku such centres of culture and education as the Opera and Ballet Theatre, the Drama Theatre and the Song Theatre, the Nizami Museum of Literature and the Akhundov State Library were at work. The main centres of musical life were the Conservatoire and the Philharmonia. Radio, and from the mid-1950s television, brought culture to the masses. The press was under the supervision of Party bodies; for example, the newspaper «Kommunist» was the organ of the Central Committee of the Azerbaijan Communist Party.
Interactive
- 1944
Anthem of the Azerbaijan SSR with music by Uzeyir Hajibeyli
- 1945
«Arshin Mal Alan» is filmed
- 1945
The Azerbaijan SSR Academy of Sciences is founded
- 1947
800th anniversary of Nizami Ganjavi
- 1948
Death of Uzeyir Hajibeyli
- 1953
Fikrat Amirov’s opera «Sevil»
- 1967
The first line of the Baku Metro opens
- 1982
Death of Gara Garayev
- 1987–1988
Musa Manarov’s long flight on the Mir station
| Person | Field | Main work or achievement |
|---|---|---|
| Uzeyir Hajibeyli | composer | the 1944 anthem; music of «Arshin Mal Alan»; died 1948 |
| Gara Garayev | composer | the ballets «The Seven Beauties» and «The Path of Thunder» |
| Fikrat Amirov | composer | the opera «Sevil»; the symphonic mughams «Shur» and «Kurd-Ovshari» |
| Niyazi | conductor, composer | the symphonic mugham «Rast» |
| Rashid Behbudov | singer, actor | Asgar in «Arshin Mal Alan»; the Song Theatre |
| Samad Vurgun | poet, playwright | co-author of the anthem’s words (with S. Rustam) |
| Tahir Salakhov | painter | «Repairmen» |
| Mirasadulla Mirgasimov | organiser of science | first president of the Academy of Sciences |
| Yusif Mammadaliyev | chemist | development of petrochemistry |
| Mustafa Topchubashov | ophthalmologist | academician, medical science |
| Musa Manarov | cosmonaut | 1987–1988: on the Mir station |
| Cause | Result |
|---|---|
| The existence of the Azerbaijan branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences and the need of the oil and chemical industry for research (one of the reasons) | the founding of the Azerbaijan SSR Academy of Sciences in 1945 |
| Party control and censorship | socialist realism as the official method; limits on themes and ideas |
| The «thaw» of the mid-1950s | relatively freer turn to national themes |
| Mass schooling and radio, television and cinema | culture reached the broad masses |
| Growing cities and state commissions | the Government House, the Metro and other public buildings |
| Criterion | Late 1940s – early 1950s | Mid-1950s – 1980s |
|---|---|---|
| Ideological climate | the harshest pressure, the totalitarian regime | relative easing, but censorship remains |
| Education | post-war rebuilding of the school network, seven-year compulsory schooling | the move to eight-year schooling (from the late 1950s), spread of universal secondary education, more colleges |
| Science | founding of the Academy (1945) | a growing network of institutes; Manarov’s flight on Mir (1987–1988) |
| The arts | the Hajibeyli school, the anthem (1944), film, opera and symphonic mugham | painters (Bahlulzade, Salakhov), symphonic mugham and ballet, the spread of television |
Source and exam-type tasks
In 1945 a new scientific centre began work in Baku. The war was still going on. Before that the republic’s scholars had worked in the Azerbaijan branch of the highest scientific centre of the USSR; the new centre was created on the base of that very branch.
The centre’s institutes worked in oil, geology, chemistry, history, language and literature. The oil and chemistry institutes dealt with the country’s main branches of industry, the institutes of history, language and literature with the people’s past and culture.
Source tasks
Problem
1) Name the body that the text does not name, the body on whose base it was created, and its first president.
2) Explain two conditions that made the founding of this body possible.
3) Give two consequences of its founding that are NOT stated in the text.
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Solution
2) For example: scholars and scientific experience from years in the branch already existed in the republic; research experience had built up in oil, geology, chemistry, history, language and literature. Another acceptable answer: the need of the oil and chemical industry for research. Marks: both conditions — 1; one — ½.
3) For example: the network of institutes grew and research began to be carried out in the republic’s own centre; national scientific personnel were trained and the research base grew stronger. Repeating the list of fields from the text earns nothing. Marks: two consequences — 1; one — ½.
Exam task: matching
Problem
Match the people to their fields:
1. Musa Manarov
2. Fikrat Amirov
3. Tahir Salakhov
4. Mustafa Topchubashov
a) fine art
b) symphonic mugham
c) medicine
d) cosmonautics
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Solution
Step 2: Amirov wrote the symphonic mughams «Shur» and «Kurd-Ovshari» — 2-b.
Step 3: Salakhov is a painter («Repairmen») — 3-a.
Step 4: Topchubashov is an ophthalmologist and academician — 4-c.
Answer: 1-d, 2-b, 3-a, 4-c.
Exam task: «not related»
Problem
Which does NOT belong to the Azerbaijan SSR Academy of Sciences?
A) being built on the Azerbaijan branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences
B) having Mirasadulla Mirgasimov as its first president
C) having institutes in oil and chemistry
D) being located in Baku
E) having Yusif Mammadaliyev as its first president
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Solution
Step 2: B and E speak of the first president, so only one can be right. By the lesson the first president is Mirasadulla Mirgasimov (B); Yusif Mammadaliyev is a petrochemist.
Answer: E.
Exam task: chronology
Problem
Put the events in chronological order:
1. The first line of the Baku Metro opens
2. The Academy of Sciences is founded
3. Death of Uzeyir Hajibeyli
4. Musa Manarov’s flight on the Mir station
5. The opera «Sevil»
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Solution
Step 2: Next come «Sevil» — 1953 (5) and the Metro — 1967 (1).
Step 3: The last is Manarov’s flight — 1987–1988 (4).
Answer: 2, 3, 5, 1, 4.
As we see, culture in the 1940s–1980s bore the mark of both success and control. For the next stage see «Perestroika, the start of the Karabakh conflict and the People's Movement».
Remember
- Culture was understood as «national in form, socialist in content»; Party control, censorship and socialist realism were the official frame, and the climate eased relatively in the mid-1950s.
- The Azerbaijan SSR Academy of Sciences was founded in 1945 on the Azerbaijan branch of the USSR Academy; its first president was Mirasadulla Mirgasimov.
- Baku State University dates from 1919; in the Soviet period the network of colleges grew in oil, chemistry, medicine and teacher training.
- Hajibeyli (anthem 1944; died 1948) had his school carried on by Garayev (ballets), Amirov («Sevil», «Shur», «Kurd-Ovshari») and Niyazi («Rast»).
- In science, besides the Academy of 1945, the Baku-born cosmonaut Musa Manarov (Mir, 1987–1988) became known worldwide.
- In architecture the Government House (the monumental style of the Stalin era) and the Baku Metro (1967) are the symbols of the period; the press stayed under Party supervision, while the network of libraries, clubs, theatres and museums spread in the districts.