Brief history of Baku. Black City bombers
Baku at the beginning of the 20th century. Baku oil and the Rothschilds. Ch.-1
A detailed acquaintance of the owners of the Parisian banking house of the Rothschild brothers with the Baku oil region of Russia dates back to the end of the 70s of the XIX century, when they acquired the Batumi Oil Industrial and Trading Society (BNITO) of A.A. Bunge and S.E. Palashkovsky due to financial difficulties of the former owners .
On May 16, 1883, on the basis of BNITO, a new firm “Caspian-Black Sea Oil Industrial and Commercial Society” (hereinafter “Caspian-Black Sea Society”) is established in Baku, which is already fully owned by the French banking house “br. Rothschild". Together with a block of shares, they receive 19 acres of the richest oil-bearing lands in the Baku villages of Balakhani, Sabunchi, Ramana, as well as a kerosene plant in Baku. Immediately, the company develops vigorous activity, buying kerosene from 135 small and medium-sized enterprises on mutually beneficial terms for shipment to the depths of Russia and foreign countries. Contracts for the sale of kerosene on commission are concluded by the Rothschilds on a preferential basis for enterprises; as a result, the company's export of oil products from Baku abroad increased from 2.4 million poods in 1884 to 30 million poods in 1889.
In 1907, the Rothschilds subsidized the G.M. Lianozov and Svya”, starting to control other oil companies with the help of this partnership: “Absheron Oil Company”, having taken 40% of its shares; "Shikhovo"; "Melikov"; “Russian Oil Partnership” and others. The “Caspian-Black Sea Society” owes its success to the connections that the Rothschilds (as previously the Nobels) established in the upper echelons of Russian power. David Landau, the father of the future, was the chief engineer of the Rothschild oil industry in Baku 1962 Nobel Prize laureate in physics Lev Landau. (L.D. Landau was born on January 22, 1908 in Baku, in the village of Balakhani).
The founder of the "Caspian-Black Sea Society" Baron Alphonse Rothschild (1827 - 1905), who headed the Parisian banking house since 1868, was the son of the most famous banker in Paris, James Rothschild (1792 - 1868). A characteristic detail: for services to the government, King Louis Philippe of France made James Rothschild an officer of the Legion of Honor. After the death of his father, Alphonse began to conduct all Parisian banking affairs. He will be the largest magnate of financial capital, playing an important role in world politics. Suffice it to say that it was A. Rothschild who organized the payment of indemnity to France after its defeat in the Franco-Prussian war in 1871, thereby retaining the head of the French government, Adolphe Thiers, in power. Through A. Rothschild, the tsarist government issued a number of loans in France. As a result, he received the right to preferential ownership of Baku oil enterprises. A. Rothschild controlled the Baku oil business until the last days of his life. After his death, the younger brother, Baron Edmond, began to deal with Baku affairs. One of the main figures of the Baku business was the chief engineer of the Parisian house “br. Rothschild” Georges Aron, who directly supervised the oil enterprises, the export and sale of oil and oil products. The board of the Caspian-Black Sea Society in Baku consisted of three directors: Maurice Ephrusi (son-in-law of A. Rothschild), Prince A.G. Gruzinsky and Arnold Feigel. Commerce adviser A. Feigel, who supervised all the draft, preparatory work of the company, was an authoritative person: for several years, on a voluntary basis, he was chairman of the Council of the Baku Oil Industrialists Congress.
The American Herbert Tvedl was the first to make an attempt at real construction of the Caspian-Black Sea pipeline with the aim of self-assertion both in the Absheron and in the Caucasus. In 1877 - 1878. he, together with an official of the Ministry of Finance, K. Bodisko, prepared four options for a unique project for the founding of the partnership of the Caspian-Black Sea oil pipelines. The main purpose of the established partnership was the construction of oil pipelines from oil fields to the ports of the Caspian, Chernoy and Seas of Azov(TsGIA Az.SSR, f.92, op.4, d.17, ll. 33 - 37). On the need to build oil pipelines from factories to berths for loading into sea vessels also wrote the greatest scientist-chemist DIMendeleev, who since 1863 studied the economy and the state of the oil fields in Baku. In 1877, D.I. Mendeleev traveled to the United States, in order, as the scientist explained, “... to find out where the reason for the prosperity of the oil business in America is, what is delaying this business with us and what should be done in order to eliminate the delay.”
Having become interested in Baku oil and the development of the oil business in the Absheron, D.I. Mendeleev (the scientist visited Baku four times) did not hide his disappointment when he learned about the sharp divergence of opinions among big businessmen regarding the construction of the Caspian-Black Sea oil pipeline: “If I have now ceased to deal with issues of Baku industry, this is mainly because - The Batumi oil pipeline, in my personal opinion, directed the Baku oil business in a direction undesirable for the success of Russian industry.
At the beginning of 1900, a cartel agreement was concluded between the company “br. Nobel and the Rothschild association Mazut, who decided to harmonize their trade policy in the domestic markets in order to establish control over the sale of petroleum products, i.e. E. Nobel and A. Rothschild joined forces in the export of Russian kerosene to the foreign market. It should be noted that the "Oil Industrial and Commercial Society" Mazut "", created in 1898, was completely controlled by the Parisian banking house of the Rothschilds through Mauritius Ephrussi, son-in-law of Baron Alphonse Rothschild. At the beginning of the twentieth century. the fixed capital of the company was 6 million rubles (24 thousand registered shares of 250 rubles each), the board was located in Moscow. The Mazut Company had a powerful regional sales network, its own towing shipping company on the Volga, big park tank cars for the transportation of petroleum products, repair shops in the village. Dyadkovo Yaroslavl province and other service structures. By the end of 1906, the Nobel-Rothschild cartel had warehouses located in many regions. Russian Empire. Naturally, the main most extensive storage system for petroleum products was created in Baku itself: by 1900 there were about 2,000 different storage facilities with a total capacity of 276.5 million poods.
The first to penetrate into the Baku oil business was French capital (represented by A. Rothschild), and then English capital (J. Wischau and others). If the initial capital of A. Rothschild in 1883 was 1.5 million rubles, then in 1912 - 1913. it exceeded 10 million rubles. The nationalization of the company "Caspian-Black Sea Society" and the association "Mazut" by the decree of the Baku Commune of June 2, 1918 had no direct relation to the Rothschilds, since back in 1912 they sold their Russian oil enterprises to the Anglo-Dutch trust "Royal Dutch Shell" "(the main rival of the American syndicate" Standard Oil "), receiving in return a significant stake in Shell. The Rothschilds became the owners of the banking institution of the Shell company in Paris, and already from 1912, English entrepreneurs began to lead in the oil business of Baku. With reliable information about the impending World War I, the Rothschilds ceded their oil business to the British. An important reason for the sale of their enterprises was the fact that the Rothschilds ultimately could not resist the Standard Oil syndicate in foreign markets, and the company Bro. Nobel". The very existence of the Nobmazut cartel meant the recognition of the leading role of the firm bro. Nobel" in the Russian oil business: it did not exclude, but only modified the forms of the hidden, sometimes open, struggle between the Rothschilds and the Nobels.
In June 1902, European oil kings Henry Deterding, Marcus Samuel and the Rothschilds decided to combine their efforts in the oil market and signed a comprehensive agreement, as a result of which the British Dutch company was absorbed by the larger company Asiatic Petroleum. At that time, more than half of the oil produced in the world came from Russia. The Rothschilds, during the Russo-Japanese War, gave Japan unlimited credit from the banks they controlled, which allowed the Japanese to fight the war much longer than the Russian command expected. Naturally, during this period, almost all foreign loans were closed for Russia, including, of course, by the Rothschilds themselves. In 1901, a turning point occurred in the evolution of the oil industry: it entered a period of a long and deep crisis, from which it never emerged until nationalization.
…
The decline in production during the first years of this century is associated with a marketing crisis that occurred just at the moment when drilling activity reached its maximum size: for example, from 1897 to 1900, the number of meters drilled in Baku increased from 85017 to 177388 m. under the influence of such intensive drilling, the next year, 1901, gave a sharp increase in the production of oil thrown onto the market; then all the markets were full of goods, and demand fell sharply. An indicator of a low level of demand may be price movements; Thus, crude oil in Baku in the factory district in 1900 reached 16 kopecks. for 16 kg on average per year, in 1901 the average annual price drops to 8 kopecks. and in 1902 to 7 kopecks. for 16 kg. Under the influence of such a strong fall in prices, drilling activity declined sharply: in Baku, the number of meters covered by drilling decreased from 177,388 m in 1900 to 161,690 m in 1901 and to 76,176 m in 1902. The decline in production, due to the general economic crisis, reached its limit in 1902. Since 1903, the market situation is improving again, demand is increasing, and prices, which in January were at the level of 7.3 kopecks. for 16 kg in the factory area, by the end of the year, in December, they rose to 15.9 kopecks. Since 1903, drilling activity in Baku has increased, and in the next 1904, production increases again; but this new upward trend is abruptly interrupted by the revolution of 1905, which was accompanied by the destruction of a significant part of the Baku industries. In addition, since the beginning of the new century, a sharp drop in the productivity of wells in old areas began to affect. In connection with all these circumstances, oil production is kept at a reduced level throughout the period, despite the presence of significant demand for liquid fuels. This low level of oil production after 1905 was one of the main factors in the fuel shortage that continued for many years.
During 1913, compared with 1912, there were no significant changes in the distribution of world production between individual countries, while compared with 1906, the reporting year differs mainly in the size of participation in world oil production by Russia and the United States. States; at the same time, the results are far from in favor of Russia, especially if we take into account that back in 1901, domestic oil production accounted for 50.6% of world oil production, and North American - only 41.2%. It is interesting to note that the decrease in Russia's participation in world oil production cannot be attributed to the sad memory of the events of 1905, although, of course, these events also had their significance. The fact is that in the period 1901-1905. oil production fluctuated relatively slightly, by only 10 percent (in 1901, 705 m.p. were produced, in 1902 - 671 m.p., in 1903 629 m.p. and in 1904 - 655 m.p.), which fluctuations, obviously, could not reduce domestic participation in world production from 50.5% in 1901 to 43.4% in 1902, 38.6% in 1903 and 35.7 % in 1904, but it was during these years that oil production in the Union. The United States began to develop especially intensively (from 69 million barrels in 1901 to 117 million barrels in 1904), which was reflected in the importance of Russia in the world oil business.
Sources:
1. Demachy. Les Rothschilds, une famille de financiers juifs. — Paris, 1896.
2. List of vessels of the Caspian bulk fleet with an indication of capacity, adopted by the Council of the Congress of Baku Oil Producers for the collection of per capita dues. - Baku: publishing house of the Council of the Congress, 1912. - 130 p.
3. Mendeleev D.I. Works. T.10. — M.: AN SSSR, 1949. — 400 p.
4. Akhundov B.Yu. Monopoly capital in the pre-revolutionary Baku oil industry. - M .: "Sotsekgiz", 1959. - 200 p.
5. Monopoly capital in the Russian oil industry. 1883 - 1914. Documents and materials. - M. - L.: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1961. - 200
6. Fursenko A.A. Oil Trusts and World Politics (1880s-1918). - M. - L., USSR Academy of Sciences, 1965. - 250 p.
7. Nardova V.A. The beginning of the monopolization of the Russian oil industry. 1880 - 1890s. - L.: Nauka, 1974. - 250 p.
8. Ibragimov M.D. The oil industry of Azerbaijan in the period of imperialism. - Baku: Elm, 1984. - 210 p.
9. Samedov V.A. Oil and the Russian economy (80-90s of the XIX century). Baku: Elm, 1988. - 190 p.
10. Polonsky L.A. Banking house br. Rothschild in Baku. - Baku: Elm, 1998. - 300 p.
11. (Kafengauz L.B. Evolution of industrial production in Russia. M.,
1994. P.71–72). 
Without going into ancient history of this city, until now, for example, science cannot determine at least the date of construction of the Maiden Tower, but let me remind you that when Russian troops occupied the city in 1803, its entire population, about 6 thousand people, consisted of Iranian-speaking Tats (Parsi ). Apparently, the policy of the Shah of Iran contributed to the change in the ethnic composition of the city. However, the oldest mosque in the city, built in the 12th century, was originally called "Lezgi".
Baku was in the shadow of Shamakhi for a long time, and when the Russian Empire formed provinces in Transcaucasia, the city was included in the Shemakha province. In 1859, when Shamakhi was destroyed by an earthquake, the provincial institutions were moved to Baku, and the province itself was renamed Baku. The status of the provincial center could not contribute to the development of the city, and any decisive growth of its population. So, before oil production began in Baku, the city was inferior in population to many settlements in Transcaucasia, including Tiflis, Shushi, Gandzak, Kars, Kutais, Gyumri, Goris ...
The beginning of oil production in Baku (seventies of the 19th century) led to a sharp change in its significance and a rapid increase in population. At the same time, the city mainly grew at the expense of Armenians, Russians, and Poles. In 1872, the tsarist government put up for auction 68 oil-bearing sites, as a result of which Vermishyan, Mirzoyan, Ter-Hakopyan, Lalayan, Lianozov, Bezhanyan, Onikyan, Tsurinyan, Karabekyan, the Sargsyan brothers, as well as the Armenian company "Partners" were among the owners. There were other buyers, but most of the Baku oil ended up in the hands of the Armenians, and their further contribution to the development of oil production in Baku cannot be overestimated.
It is interesting that three Transcaucasian Turks subsequently joined the number of major oilmen in Baku: Nagiyev, Asadullayev and Zeynalabdin Tagiev, a companion of the Sarkisyan brothers. However, it was the Armenian and Russian oilmen who contributed to the transformation of Baku into a major industrial center. The oil industry of Baku and the role of Armenians in it is a separate and extensive topic that requires its own researcher. We only note that over time, as a result of the sale and consolidation of individual companies and partnerships, the Rothschilds, Mantashyan, Nobel, Mirzoyan, Tagiev and the Ghukasyan brothers took the leading positions in the oil industry in Baku.
Baku developed and grew at an accelerated pace, and by 1917 was one of the largest (together with Tiflis) cities in the South Caucasus. Naturally, Transcaucasian Turks also moved to the city. So, according to the All-Russian census of 1897, out of the total population of the city (111,094 people), there were 40,341 Transcaucasian Turks, or, according to the census, Caucasian Tatars. However, when the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was proclaimed in May 1918, it was Baku that was chosen as the capital of a new education in the history.
True, there was an embarrassment with the capital. The government of the Azerbaijan Republic could not move to Baku for about four months. Finally, on September 15, 1918, Baku was occupied by the Turkish army, on the bayonets (or rather, in the convoy) of which the "government" of the republic entered the capital, marking this event with a terrible massacre of the defenseless Armenian population of the city.
Within three days, over thirty thousand residents of Armenian nationality were slaughtered in Baku. As a matter of fact, the genocide of the Armenian population in the territory proclaimed by the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic lasted from spring to late autumn of 1918, and then also in 1920. During this period, approximately 250 thousand people were slaughtered. The most numerous victims were in the Nukhi-Aresh region - 65 thousand people, in Baku and Shushi - thirty thousand each.
Nevertheless, in the unleashed war, the Transcaucasian Turks began to suffer defeat after defeat, which was facilitated by the withdrawal of the main part of the Turkish army from the region, and by April 1920 Azerbaijan was on the verge of death and the end of its short history. In the conditions of the widespread collapse of the front, Azerbaijan was forced to invite the 11th Red Army, which saved it from complete annihilation. The Bolsheviks not only saved Azerbaijan, but also "increased" its territory at the expense of the Talysh and Lezgi territories. The Armenian provinces of Artsakh, Utik and Nakhichevan were also transferred to the hastily sovietized Azerbaijan.
In the Soviet period of the history of Azerbaijan, Baku, perhaps, was the most calm city in terms of interethnic relations. In any case, there is no information about any major clashes in this city. This was the reason for the new settlement of the industrial and rapidly developing city by Armenians, whose number in Baku by 1988 exceeded two hundred thousand. Discrimination against Armenians in Azerbaijan was on the rise, and, starting from the end of the sixties of the XX century, it was no longer limited to obstacles to career advancement, a virtual ban on the study of the history of Armenia, the Armenian language, etc.
The year 1988 marked the beginning of the end for the Armenian population of Baku, a city for which the Armenians did more than anyone else, a city whose peculiar appearance was drawn by Armenian architects and built by the hands of Armenian workers, a city that has more reason to be called Armenian than received an ethnonym only in 1936 "Azerbaijanis".
The Transcaucasian Turks, "outraged" by the request of the people's deputies of Artsakh (Karabakh) to reunite the region with Armenia, responded with an ax and mass pogroms. In Sumgayit and Gandzak, and then throughout the Republic of Azerbaijan, including Baku, mass pogroms and killings of Armenians began.
The pogroms and murders of Armenians in the Azerbaijan SSR, which lasted for almost two years (from the end of February 1988 until the end of the second decade of January 1990), had two apogees: the end of November 1988 and January 1990. On November 21, 1988, overnight, by order from the same center, pogroms and murders began in Gandzak, Mingachevir, Kazakh, Khanlar, Shamkhor, Akhsu and others. settlements Azerbaijan Republic. More than two hundred thousand Armenians were expelled from Azerbaijan, most of whom lived on historically Armenian land. Many innocent people died.
However, these days Baku suffered less than other cities. The government of Azerbaijan "saved" more than two hundred thousand inhabitants of Baku of Armenian nationality as hostages of the Turkish ax, a bloody argument for putting pressure on the union authorities. From the very beginning of 1990, this "argument" was used: pogroms and killings of Armenians began everywhere in the capital of Azerbaijan.
The bloody orgy of the Transcaucasian Turks in Baku in 1990 was not much different from the September 1918 genocide. Moreover, nowhere in the archival documents of that time, I had to come across cases of cannibalism that took place in January 1990 in Baku. Everything else: burning people alive, throwing babies out of the windows of looted apartments, gang rapes and dismemberment of unfortunate victims, as if it was written off from the picture of the beginning of the century. The Azerbaijani factor - the factor of the killer-mob, the factor of the bloody ax - was demonstrated to the world in all its horrific details. Cannibalism was added to this, when the pogromists, with the awakened instinct of a nomad - a Turk, ate the flesh of their victims.
There were many victims, but today no one can give an exact, or even approximate, figure: Soviet President Gorbachev, concerned about his own image, contributed to the fact that refugees, including Russians, were scattered throughout the Union. However, there would have been many times more victims if Soviet troops had not been brought into Baku on January 20. The murderers and rioters, sensing that the defenseless victim of the ax could be saved, tried to resist the troops entering the city, but after the decisive actions of the military, they were forced to retreat. However, more than a hundred rioters were killed.
The murderers were buried with honor at the urgently organized cemetery (on the site of the old Armenian cemetery), later called the alley of martyrs (shekhidlar khiyarbani), which should be taken not only as an exaltation of murderers and cannibals, but also as an insult to Islam, for there is no greater blasphemy than to name pogromists and murderers by martyrs, that is, people who died for their faith. Today, the alley of martyrs has been turned into a pompous structure, on the example of which a new generation is brought up. How it will grow, and what it can learn from the example of "heroes" - killers, I think, is clear to everyone. Hostages continue to live in the city, however, they are no longer of Armenian nationality.
Baku is a provincial city of the Transcaucasian region, on west bank Caspian Sea, at 40°21"N and 67°20"E d.; 45679 inhabitants.
Orthodox churches - 3, Armenian-Gregorian. - 2, Lutheran. - 1, catholic. prayers. house, mosques - 11. Kerosene plants - 23, for the preparation of lubricating oils - 6 (production for 1,491,000 rubles), mechanical - 4, sulfuric acid - 3, steam mills - 11 (production for 3,000,000 rubles), tobacco. factories - 3, caravanserais - 36, shops - 1300.
The name Baku, or Bakuie, is derived from the Persian badkube, a blow of wind, which indicates the long-standing fame of the local strong NW winds (north). B. has existed under this name since the beginning of the Muslim era, but it was probably founded earlier, since gas outlets near B., or eternal fires, were known to fire worshipers. It is believed that under the Sassanids there was a city called Bhagavan.
B. from VIII Art. was under the rule of the Arabs, then the Shirvan khans, from the XVI century. before the beginning of the XVIII century. was mostly in the possession of the Persians. In 1723, after a long siege, B. surrendered to the squadron of Admiral Matyushkin and was annexed to Russia, but in 1735 was again ceded to Persia and controlled by khans who were dependent on the Persian Shah. In 1796, when Count Zubov was here, the Baku Khan Hussein-Kuli swore allegiance to Russia, but then again fell away, and when Russian troops appeared after the annexation of Georgia in 1806, the Khan expressed his obedience and the surrender of the city was scheduled for February 8 1806 Upon surrender, the commander-in-chief, Prince. Tsitsianov was treacherously killed; the city surrendered to Russian troops only on 3 October. In 1806, after the flight of the khan, he was made a county, and in 1859 - a provincial city.
Back in 1860, B. had only 13,831 inhabitants. and very little trade. Since that time, the development of oil fields in its environs, the many oil refineries in the city, the development of shipping in the Caspian Sea, of which B. became the center, and the construction of a railway to the Black Sea have changed B. beyond recognition. No city in Russia has developed so rapidly. The inhabitants in it are undoubtedly much more official than the number, since a one-day census was not carried out. The number of inhabitants is probably from 80 to 100 thousand.
On the seashore, in the southern part of the city, an excellent embankment stretches for 2 versts, on which there is a large pier of the Caucasus and Mercury society, the governor's house, next to it the former khan's garden, many shops, etc.
The embankment is followed by several well-paved streets with houses of European construction. An Asian city with flat roofs of thin boards with kir (oil earth) and narrow streets was built on the hillside in terraces. Here are the ruins of the Khan's palace of beautiful Muslim architecture of the 15th century, and next to it is the Shah's mosque, built in 1078. On the seashore, near the fortress wall of the old city, there is a round Maiden's Tower, the subject of many Eastern legends. Now it is turned into a lighthouse.
To N from the pier on the seashore is the so-called. Black city, where oil refineries are concentrated. His name comes from the thick black smoke emitted during heating by oil residues. Previously, the smoke was even thicker, as there were no convenient devices for burning residues.
In total, up to 49.5 million poods were mined in Baku in 1888. kerosene and other lighting oils from petroleum and 2.5 million poods of lubricating oils, for the production of which and fuel 173 million poods were used. crude oil. In 1888 it was exported along railway in Batumi lighting oils 29.5 million poods. (in 1887 only 18 million) and by sea 20 million poods; oil residues by sea exported in 1888 to 50, and in 1889 about 60 million pounds.
The oil industry and trade are of paramount importance for B., but in addition, other branches of trade also flourish here. Due to the convenience of its harbor and the fact that it is the central point of the Caspian Shipping Company, B. is a storage point for Transcaucasian and Persian goods going to the interior provinces of Russia and partly abroad through the Black Sea - cotton, rice, silk, wine, dry fruits, nuts wood, fish, as well as Russian manufactured goods, iron products and sugar, going from here to various cities of Transcaucasia and Persia. Relations with the mouths of the Volga and the Persian ports are very lively.
Between the population two nationalities prevail: - 1) Azerbaijani Tatars, completely incorrectly called Persians. They are Shiite Muslims and imitate the Persians in many ways, but their language is Turko-Tatar. They make up a mass of laborers, but among them there are many merchants and owners of oil fields, and 2) Armenians, in whose hands most of the trade and many oil fields. There are not so many Russians as Armenians and Tatars, but more than in other cities of Transcaucasia, except for Tiflis, and not only military officers and officials, but there are owners and employees in the oil fields, the best artisans, drafters (the latter exclusively Molokans).
Climate of Baku. average temperature years 14.3; January 3.4; April 11.1; July 25.8; October 16.6. Autumn here is much warmer than spring, for example. November has the same temperature as April. There are no particularly severe frosts, but the thermometer often drops to -10 °, although not for long. Sometimes it snows for a week or more, and for the first time in 80 years, in December 1888, the Baku raid froze for a short time. Precipitation during the year falls 235 mm. More in December, January and October. There is almost no rain in summer and the climate is generally very dry.
In Baku and its environs at 100 versts to the west and east, an unusually strong and gusty NW wind blows from time to time, usually called the nord. The strongest ships cannot go against him. After a few hours north, there is no dust in the city, all of it has been carried away to the sea, but pebbles are floating in the air. The reasons for the Nord's extraordinary strength are not exactly known; it occurs in all months, but is strongest only from October to April. Nord is one of the main reasons why there are almost no trees in Baku; with the strongest irrigation, they succeed only in places protected from the wind.
In B. and its environs, a change in the boundaries of the sea and the mainland has long been noticed. Near the city, 2 versts, between capes Shikhov and Bailov, in the sea, there is a sunken building in the form of an oblong quadrangle, with round towers. The natives call it bail stones. Khanykov believes that it was built in the XIII century.
Baku district occupies the east. part of the Baku province; space 3457 q.v., or 360202 tithes, inhabited by 100560 (without city 54881). Most of the occupies the Apsheron Peninsula, all consisting of a low limestone upland, and in the west. part of the county passes the last low spur Caucasus mountains- Shabani (356 m). Only in the NW part of reaches the higher slopes of Mount Shuguz, and here are the only forests and more fertile soil on gentle slopes and in valleys. On the Apsheron Peninsula, the soil is generally infertile, the climate is dry, only in the NE of the peninsula did the inhabitants make good use of spring waters and have excellent orchards and orchards. Of the rivers, there is one shallow Sumgayit with brackish water. Winter crops, wheat and barley are sown without irrigation. In u. there are salt lakes and the most important oil fields in Russia. There are 64 mosques in the county (some were built in the 15th century), four schools, three mechanical factories and two chemical factories.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Baku was the largest industrial center in Transcaucasia. More than 300 thousand people lived here, a significant part of whom worked in the oil fields. The national composition of the population of Baku was also diverse. No wonder they say that Baku residents are a special supranational community, akin to Odessans or Rostovites. Naturally, Baku did not escape the general upsurge of the revolutionary movement that took place in the Russian Empire in the early years of the 20th century. Only unlike the cities of Central Russia, here Armenian and Azerbaijani nationalists coexisted with the usual Social Democrats and Social Revolutionaries. Anarchists also appeared in Baku - representatives of the extreme left-wing trend in the Russian revolutionary movement, who associated social liberation with the complete destruction of any state power. Strange as it may seem, but in a rather traditional environment of Baku people, anarchist ideas gained a certain distribution, and among the Baku anarchists there were many not only Russian residents of the city, but also Jews, Armenians, Georgians, and even Azerbaijani Turks and Persians. Modern Azerbaijani researcher I.S. Bagirova calls the approximate size of the anarchist movement in Baku at the beginning of the 20th century about 2,800 people - and this is without the Maximalist Social Revolutionaries, who, in their ideological views and practice, were very close to the anarchists. At the same time, Bagirova notes that, according to other estimates, the number of anarchists in pre-revolutionary Baku did not exceed 1,400 people.
In the period 1904-1908. Baku became the main center of the anarchist movement in the Caucasus. Although anarchist groups and organizations also operated in Tiflis, Kutaisi, Armavir, Novorossiysk, Ekaterinodar and many other cities, it was in Baku that the most numerous and active anarchist movement was formed. Of course, this was due to the large proportion of the industrial proletariat in the population of the city. People from all over the Russian Empire flocked to Baku to work in the oil fields, which turned the city into a kind of "melting pot". Difficult working conditions on oil rigs and factories forced workers to think about exploitation and struggle for their rights and interests. At the same time, as in every large commercial and industrial city, there was a rather numerous and influential criminal world in Baku. As they would say now, organized crime in Baku has become the second main source of the formation of revolutionary movements in the city, first of all, the anarchist movement, with the ideology of which professional criminals have in common a complete rejection of the state and state power, a negative attitude towards the police and the court, a tendency to expropriation and extortion .
Active anarchist agitation in Baku began in 1904, and in 1905 a number of anarchist organizations arose in the city. They operated both in Baku itself and in its working suburbs - Bibi-Heybat, Balakhani and the Black City. Recall that in pre-revolutionary Baku there was a clear division - wealthy citizens lived in the city center, where oil fields were banned, and oil was produced in the suburbs of Balakhani, Bibi-Heybat and the Black City. The workers lived there. “Everything is black, walls, earth, air, sky. You smell the oil, you inhale the fumes, the pungent smell suffocates you. You are walking among clouds of smoke that cover the sky,” a contemporary described the general view of the Baku “Black City”. Naturally, the workers, dissatisfied with working conditions, often went on strike. During the general strike in the summer of 1903, more than 90 oil towers were set on fire in Baku, in December 1904 - more than 200 towers, and in August 1905 in Bibi-Heybat, out of 600 towers, 480 were burned.
In Baku, the Anarchy group arose, in Bibi-Heybat - "Struggle", in Balakhani - "Revolt", in the Black City - "International". The group of anarchist-communists "Anarchy", which operated in Baku itself, was created by the workers of one of the local enterprises, who previously sympathized with the Social Democrats, but denied the parliamentary struggle and eventually switched to anarchist positions. The ideologist of the Anarchy group was Sargis Kalashyants, a former member of the Hunchak party, who published the pamphlet Toward Struggle and Anarchy under the pseudonym Sevuni.
On July 1, 1906, as a result of a split in the "Anarchy" group, another anarchist organization was created - the Baku group of anarchist-communists "Red Hundred". Its activists claimed that they left the ranks of Anarchy because of the bureaucracy and indecision of the members of the group. The "Red Hundred" strove for more radical and successful, according to the "Red Hundreds", methods of armed struggle. The "Red Hundred" was headed by V. Zeints and A. Stern. Also, smaller groups appeared in Baku: “Anarchists-Bombers”, “Anarchists-Individualists”, “Red Banner”, “Bread and Freedom”, “Terror”, “Land and Freedom”, “Black Raven”, etc. Ethnic composition Baku anarchists of that time was motley, like the population of the city. Russians predominated, but Armenians, Jews, and Georgians were also numerous in the groups (there were 8 Georgian revolutionaries in the Red Hundred). The group of anarchists "Azad" was Azerbaijani in composition. Armenians came to the anarchist movement, as a rule, from the nationalist and socialist organizations "Hunchak" and "Dashnaktsutyun", having become disillusioned with their ideology and methods of struggle. As for the Jews, they came from social democratic and social Zionist organizations.
Among the Azerbaijanis who joined the anarchist movement, there were many yesterday's robbers - "kochi", who became politicized and decided to give an ideological orientation to their activities. It was the former Koches who formed the backbone of the Azerbaijani anarchist group "Azad", which appeared in 1906 and numbered 15 people. The Azad group was headed by the brothers Aga-Kerim and Aga-Sanguli. According to the "old memory", the Azad group was in confrontation with a group of criminals led by Teymur Ashurbekov. But when, at the end of 1907, the police arrested both Ashurbekov and the Azad leader Agha-Kerim, the Azad anarchist group ceased to exist. A number of former Kochi who were part of it left for other groups. The average age of anarchists was somewhat older than in the western regions of the Russian Empire - approximately 28-30 years. This was explained by the fact that in Baku the main part of the movement's activists were workers of local enterprises, and not young students.
The activation of the anarchist movement in the city was facilitated by the next bloody clashes between Azerbaijanis and Armenians. The tsarist government allocated 16 million rubles to organize assistance to Baku residents who suffered as a result of the massacre. But the allocated funds ended up in the hands of a joint-stock company of manganese industrialists, who, in fact, embezzled state money, refusing to give assistance to Baku workers. A strike began, which lasted two months, but the entrepreneurs still did not want to share the money. In the end, the anarchists killed the director of the factory, I. Dolukhanov, and also made an attempt on the director of the factory, Urquhart, who was also the British vice-consul. In the working environment of Baku, this action of the anarchists was supported, and the entrepreneurs, frightened by the next assassination attempts, were forced to pay the workers.
But Dolukhanov was not just an industrialist, but also a sponsor of the Armenian Dashnaktsutyun party. Naturally, the Dashnaks could not leave unpunished the murder of such a prominent figure associated with their party. In response to the death of Dolukhanov, in September 1906, the Dashnaks killed the leader of the Anarchy group Sargis Kalashyants, as well as several anarchist workers. A bloody war began between the two organizations, in which 11 anarchists and 17 Dashnaks died. After the death of Kalashyants, the Anarchy group was also headed by the Armenians Kh. Zakharyants and A. Ter-Sarkisov and the Russian F. Yatsenko. In the same September 1906, while trying to escape from prison, the leaders of the Red Hundred group, V. Zeints and A. Stern, were killed. After their death, the Red Hundred group was headed by Russian workers M. Zayachenkov and P. Studnev. In addition to the Dashnaks, the Green Hundred, an armed detachment hired by Baku entrepreneurs to protect themselves from expropriations and attacks by revolutionaries, became a serious opponent of the anarchists.
The high-profile events associated with the Baku anarchists include the battle in the Sevastopol restaurant on September 11, 1906. A large number of anarchists from various groups arrived at this institution to hold a meeting. However, the police, having learned about the event, surrounded the restaurant, calling for reinforcements in the person of the soldiers of the rifle battalion. A shootout broke out, as a result of which the police managed to arrest 38 people and found a whole warehouse of small arms in a neighboring house. Large-scale repressions began against the Baku anarchist movement, which led to the arrest of 88 people. At the same time, many anarchists managed to escape from the city. Some of them subsequently settled in Batumi, where, under the leadership of David Rostomashvili (“Black Datiko”), they created the Batumi worker syndicate of anarchist-communists “International”, which borrowed the methods of struggle of the Baku anarchists.
In 1906-1908. Baku anarchists committed many attacks, attempts and murders. Most often, the victims of the attacks were the police. Thus, Baku anarchists killed an assistant to police chief Zhgenti, district guards Kudryashov and Zavgorodniy, detectives Levin, Rachkovsky and Dolzhnikov, bailiffs Richter and Prokopovich, prison superintendent Prokopenko, policeman Pestov. In addition, the Swedish citizens Eklund and Toisson, who worked, respectively, as a manager and engineer at the Nobel factory, became victims of the attacks. The Red Hundred group claimed responsibility for these attacks. The perpetrators of the murders were Abram Stern, the Shlimak brothers, the Shishkin brothers, Polyakov, Staroverov, Ter-Galustov. As you can see, the composition of the anarchist militants, to match Baku, was also international. In addition, the militants of the Anarchy and Borba groups in 1906 killed the managers of the Bibi-Heybat oil fields Urbanovich and Slavsky, the secret police officer Tavmisyants. In December 1907, a bomb was thrown at the Chief of Police of Baku, Lieutenant Colonel Chernyshev, who survived only by a lucky chance.
The daring attack of the anarchists on the Tsesarevich mail steamer, which belonged to the Kavkaz and Mercury society, was widely known. Members of the anarchist-communist group "Red Hundred" I. Mdinaradze, N. Beburashvili, S. Topuria, G. Gobirakashvili participated in the expropriation. The seized funds went to the organization of assistance to the striking workers and the organizational needs of the anarchist movement. After all, in addition to "ex" and attacks, Baku anarchists also tried to engage in agitation and propaganda activities, issuing leaflets, proclamations and brochures. The anarchist press of that time praised the "feats of the fallen fighters", propagated expropriations and assassination attempts as an obligatory component of the revolutionary struggle. A characteristic feature of the Baku anarchists, as well as the anarchists of Transcaucasia as a whole, was a greater, compared with Western or Central Russia, propensity for expropriations and close ties with the criminal environment - the local color affected.
Ultimately, it was criminalization that discredited the anarchist movement in Baku. By 1907-1908. The palm from political organizations was intercepted by such groups as the Baku Society of Terrorists and Individualist Anarchists, Black Raven, Terror and Red Banner, which were more criminal than revolutionary, and specialized in robbing shops and firms. As in the criminal world, there were occasional clashes between competing anarchist groups, ending in armed clashes. Anarchists died in skirmishes and fights with each other, which also contributed to the decline of their authority in the working environment of Baku. In addition, the Social Democrats were gaining strength in the labor movement, who created an image for themselves of more thorough and serious fighters for the workers' cause. The Social Democrats waged an active ideological struggle against the anarchists, constantly exposing the criminal bias in the activities of the Baku anarchist groups.
After the defeat of the first Russian revolution of 1905-1907, mass repressions against the revolutionary movement began in Baku, as well as throughout the country. Naturally, the first thing the city police dealt with was anarchist groups. In March 1908 alone, the Baku police arrested 50 members of the Red Hundred group, who were sentenced to exile in Siberia. In 1909, arrests of anarchists continued, and during a search of the apartment of certain D. Veselov and E. Rudenko, explosives, bombs, and underground literature were found. In the same 1909, the Baku police managed to arrest almost all members of the Black Raven, Terror and Red Banner groups, who became famous for a series of robberies and robberies. Thus, after large-scale police repressions in 1908-1909. the anarchist movement in Baku was actually crushed. The Baku anarchists were not destined to recover from the consequences of such a serious blow - in the "oil capital" of the Caucasus, the movement of supporters of anarchy came to naught and did not show serious activity even in the years civil war, which became the period of the revival of anarchism.
