Spring 1948. In a mountain village of Goycha, families are getting ready to leave their houses, orchards and the graves of their ancestors: they are to be taken hundreds of kilometres away, to the lowland of the Kura and Araz rivers. The war was over and people thought the hard years lay behind them. But alongside «recovery» and «development», the state was again deciding the fate of the population from above. This lesson explains three themes from 1945 to Stalin’s death (1953): the new industry, the continuing totalitarian regime and the deportation of Azerbaijanis. For the earlier period see «The Azerbaijan SSR in the Second World War», for the later thaw and Baghirov’s fall «Attempts at national revival: Imam Mustafayev and Vali Akhundov».
Recovery and new industrial centres
The Azerbaijan SSR had sent hundreds of thousands of people to the front; now the task was to put the economy back on a peacetime footing. The fourth five-year plan (1946–1950) aimed to restore industry and surpass the pre-war level. As in the 1930s, priority again went to heavy industry — oil, power, engineering — while consumer goods stayed in the background.
Five-year planDefinition
The centralised state planning of the Soviet economy for five years at a time; the targets were set by Moscow.
Oil was the republic’s main wealth, but the Balakhani, Surakhani and Bibi-Heybat fields, worked for decades, were running down on land. The way out lay at sea: in 1948 drilling work began in the open waters of the Caspian, and in 1949 the first oil came from Neft Dashlari. The trestles over the water later grew into a whole «sea town» (see «Economic history of Baku oil (1846–1949)»).
Mingachevir became the republic’s power and irrigation base, with a hydroelectric station and a reservoir on the Kura; the station went into service in 1953. Sumgayit was founded in 1949 on the Absheron coast as a centre of the chemical and metallurgical industry. In farming, cotton came first: collective farms received a cotton plan every year and irrigated land was extended. These projects needed labour — in the next section we shall see how this need met a political intention.
The totalitarian regime goes on
After the war the political regime did not change. Power was in the hands of one party: Mir Jafar Baghirov, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan (1933–1953), relied on the security organs and the whole administrative machine. The press, literature and science were under harsh censorship; ideological campaigns from Moscow («the struggle against cosmopolitanism» and others) reached Azerbaijan too, and the cult of Stalin permeated everything. Mass arrests and executions on the scale of 1937–1938 were not repeated, but the climate of fear remained (see «Collectivisation, the totalitarian regime and mass repressions»).
On 5 March 1953 Stalin died; that year the resettlement was stopped and Baghirov was removed as First Secretary. His fall and the thaw that followed are the subject of «Attempts at national revival: Imam Mustafayev and Vali Akhundov».
Claims of the Armenian leadership («Armenian provocations») and the deportation of Azerbaijanis
After the war the leadership of the Armenian SSR turned to Moscow and tried to have Nagorno-Karabakh handed to Armenia; in 1945 this attempt failed. At the same time, from 1946, Armenians from abroad were being «repatriated» to the Armenian SSR, and they needed housing and land. In the Kura–Araz lowland of the Azerbaijan SSR, meanwhile, there was a shortage of labour to extend cotton and grain fields. The Armenian leadership’s wish to make the republic ethnically Armenian and the centre’s economic calculations came together in one decision.
DeportationDefinition
The forced removal of a population — individuals or a whole ethnic group — from its home area by state decision.
On 23 December 1947 the USSR Council of Ministers adopted a decision «on the resettlement of collective farmers and other Azerbaijani population from the Armenian SSR to the Kura–Araz lowland of the Azerbaijan SSR». It envisaged 100,000 people for 1948–1950: 10,000 in 1948, 40,000 in 1949 and 50,000 in 1950. On 10 March 1948 a second decision set out measures to organise the move. The documents called the resettlement «voluntary»; in reality people were forced out of their homeland.
The deportees were brought from old Azerbaijani homelands such as Goycha, Zangezur and Vedibasar and settled in districts of the Kura–Araz lowland like Saatli, Sabirabad and Salyan. People used to the mountains faced the hard climate and living conditions of the new place, lost their livestock and homes, and were cut off from their home surroundings. The resettlement was stopped in 1953, after Stalin’s death; most of those moved did not return. The decision envisaged 100,000 people (10,000, 40,000 and 50,000); the actual number of those moved is given differently in different sources.
Interactive
Azerbaijani historiography treats this event not as an accidental economic move but as one stage of a policy of pushing Azerbaijanis out of their historic ethnic lands; the next stage came in the late 1980s (see «Perestroika, the start of the Karabakh conflict and the People's Movement»). Some researchers, however, also point to its economic side. In any case the fact is clear: people left their homeland against their will.
- 1945
The end of the war; the economy returns to peacetime
- 1945
The Armenian SSR leadership tries to have Nagorno-Karabakh handed to Armenia (without result)
- 1946–1950
The fourth five-year plan
- 1946
The «repatriation» of Armenians from abroad to the Armenian SSR begins
- 23 December 1947
USSR Council of Ministers’ decision on the resettlement
- 10 March 1948
Second decision on organising the move
- 1948
Drilling work begins in the open Caspian
- 1949
Neft Dashlari (Oil Rocks)
The first oil from the open sea.
- 1949
Sumgayit is founded
- 5 March 1953
Stalin dies
- 1953
The resettlement is stopped
- 1953
Mingachevir power station goes into service
| Person | Date | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Mir Jafar Baghirov | 1933–1953 | First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan (Bolsheviks), from 1952 of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan; removed in 1953 |
| Joseph Stalin | 5 March 1953 | leader of the USSR; the resettlement was stopped after his death (1953) |
| Cause | Result |
|---|---|
| The depletion of onshore fields | The move to the sea: Neft Dashlari (1949) |
| The need for power and irrigation | Mingachevir power station and reservoir (1953) |
| The Armenian leadership’s intention, housing for repatriates, the lowland’s need for labour | The decision of 23 December 1947 and the deportation (1948–1953) |
| The changes after Stalin’s death (1953) | The resettlement is stopped |
| Feature | The 1930s | 1945–1953 |
|---|---|---|
| Leader | M. J. Baghirov | M. J. Baghirov (similar) |
| Economic priority | five-year plans, heavy industry | fourth five-year plan, heavy industry (similar) |
| Oil production | mostly onshore | in the open sea (Neft Dashlari) — a difference |
| Form of repression | 1937–1938: mass arrests and executions | arrests, ideological campaigns, surveillance, resettlement of a population |
A source and tasks
The decision said that the collective farmers and other Azerbaijani inhabitants of the neighbouring republic would be removed from its territory and moved to the irrigated plains of the lower Kura and Araz. The move was divided over three years: ten thousand people in the first, forty thousand in the second and fifty thousand in the third. The document called the process «voluntary». In their new place the settlers were to work on collective farms, mainly in cotton and grain fields. The decision had been adopted by the country’s supreme executive body; its carrying out was entrusted to local party and state organisations.
Source tasks
Problem
1) Name the event, the body that adopted the decision, the date of the decision, and from which republic to which the people were moved — none of this is named in the text.
2) Explain one political and one economic cause of this decision.
3) Give two consequences of the event that are NOT stated in the text.
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Solution
2) Political: the Armenian leadership’s intention to make the republic ethnically Armenian; the totalitarian regime’s habit of deciding the fate of populations from the centre. Economic: the need for labour for cotton and grain in the Kura–Araz lowland; housing and land for Armenians arriving from abroad. Marks: both — 1; one — ½.
3) Azerbaijanis lost their homes, property and cultural surroundings; the Azerbaijani population in Armenia fell (historiography sees this as one stage of the policy of pushing Azerbaijanis out of their historic ethnic lands); a hard climate and living conditions and losses in the new place. Marks: two consequences — 1; one — ½; the plan stated in the text earns nothing.
Exam-type tasks
Chronology
Problem
Put the events in chronological order:
1. The USSR Council of Ministers’ decision on the resettlement
2. Stalin’s death
3. The founding of Sumgayit
4. The start of the fourth five-year plan
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Solution
Step 2: the order is 1946 → 1947 → 1949 → 1953.
Answer: 4, 1, 3, 2.
«Not related»
Problem
Which of the following is not related to the economy of the Azerbaijan SSR in the post-war decade?
1. Oil production at sea at Neft Dashlari
2. The Mingachevir power station
3. The founding of Sumgayit
4. Food requisitioning (prodrazvyorstka)
5. The extension of cotton growing
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Solution
Step 2: food requisitioning was a tool of war communism (in Azerbaijan 1920–1921), not of the 1940s.
Answer: 4.
Coded item
Problem
Choose the correct statements about the deportation of Azerbaijanis from the Armenian SSR:
1. The decision was adopted on 23 December 1947
2. The deportees were to be settled in the Kura–Araz lowland
3. The decision was adopted by the Supreme Soviet of the Azerbaijan SSR
4. 50,000 people were planned for 1948
A) 1, 2 B) 1, 3 C) 2, 4 D) 3, 4 E) 1, 2, 4
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Solution
Step 2: 3 is wrong — the USSR Council of Ministers took the decision.
Step 3: 4 is wrong — 10,000 were planned for 1948; 50,000 was the figure for 1950.
Answer: A (1, 2). «E» tempts, because the figure in 4 is attached to the wrong year.
Remember
- The fourth five-year plan (1946–1950) put heavy industry first — oil, power, engineering; consumer goods stayed in the background.
- As onshore fields ran down, the move to the sea followed: in 1948 drilling work in the open sea, in 1949 the first oil at Neft Dashlari; the Mingachevir station (1953) and Sumgayit (1949) became new centres.
- The totalitarian regime went on under M. J. Baghirov (1933–1953): one party, censorship, ideological campaigns, a climate of fear.
- The decision of 23 December 1947 (USSR Council of Ministers): 100,000 Azerbaijanis (10, 40, 50 thousand) to be moved in 1948–1950 from the Armenian SSR to the Kura–Araz lowland; a second decision on 10 March 1948.
- The move was called «voluntary» but was forced; it was stopped in 1953, after Stalin’s death, and most of those moved did not return.