ثورة كنجه (1920)

The 1920 Ganja revolt (Azerbaijani: Gəncə üsyanı) was a popular uprising against the Soviet occupation that took place in Ganja on 26 to 31 May 1920. The goal of the uprising was to overthrow the Soviet government in Azerbaijan. This was the largest rebellion against Soviet rule in Azerbaijan in the 20th century, and caused the most losses. The organizers and leading force of the uprising were officers of the army of the former Azerbaijan Democratic Republic.

The 1st Infantry Division of the Azerbaijan Army, the units of the 3rd Ganja Regiment in the city, the training team of the 3rd Sheki Cavalry Regiment, an artillery battery, and the personnel of the commandant's unit subordinated to the divisional headquarters were mainly involved in the organisation of the uprising. Qachaq Gambar, Sari Alakbar, Qachaq Gasim Kolakhani, Qachaq Mikayil and others also participated in the Ganja uprising with their armed men. The armies of the surrounding villages joined the rebellion army. Their number was more than 10 thousand people.On the eve of the uprising, units of the 20th infantry division of the 11th Red Army took up positions in and around the city. The 178th and 180th infantry regiments of the division were in the Armenian neighbourhood of the city, and the communications battalion and commandant unit of the 3rd brigade were in the Azerbaijani part of the city. The 40th Cavalry Brigade was stationed around the village of Zurnabad. On 25 May, the II regiment of the Taman Cavalry Brigade was also brought to Ganja.

During the uprising that started on the night of 25–26 May, the rebels quickly took control of the important facilities of the city, the Red Army units in the Azerbaijani part. The military warehouse, the city prison, the railway station, the building of the emergency commissariat was also captured. On 28 May, the leaders of the Ganja uprising and the city community gathered at the district court building to celebrate the second anniversary of the declaration of Azerbaijan's independence.

On 29 May, the Bolshevik attack on the rebels ended in failure. The Bolshevik forces were unable to fulfill their task in the attack carried out from several directions. On the contrary, the counterattacks by the rebels put the Bolshevik forces in a difficult position. Later, the XI Red Army command brought additional forces to Ganja. Before the start of the next battles on 30 May, the 11th Red Army had 5 infantry regiments, 6 cavalry regiments, 7 separate units and detachments, 57 cannons and 2 armoured vehicles in Ganja. Most of these forces were deployed to the north of the city, and from there the main attack began on 31 May. Rebels who could not leave the city, as well as civilians, were surrounded and shot en masse. After the suppression of the rebellion, 12 generals, 27 colonels and lieutenant colonels, 46 captains, staff captains, 12 generals, 27 colonels and lieutenant colonels, 46 captains, staff captains of the Azerbaijani army, along with prominent figures such as Major-General Muhammad Mirza Qajar, Qachaq Gambar, lawyer Ismayil Khan Ziyadkhanov, writer Firidun Bey Kocherli, engineer Abuzar Bey Rzayev and teacher Mirza Abbas Abbaszadeh, lieutenants and second lieutenants, 146 ensigns and sub-ensigns, and 267 other military personnel were shot by the Bolsheviks.

The situation before the uprising

April Invasion

On 21 and 23 April 1920, the Revolutionary Military Council of the Caucasian Front, under the leadership of S.G.Ordzhonikidze, ordered the XI Red Army to cross the border of Azerbaijan on 27 April and occupy the entire territory. On 26 April, the XI Red Army headquarters moved to Derbend to lead the offensive. The attack of the XI Army began at 12 o'clock on the night of 26–27 April. 70,000 XI Red Army, the "III International" in front, 3 more armoured trains and 300 infantrymen, crossed the bridge over the Samur River. Among the leaders of this troop were Anastas Mikoyan and Gazanfar Musabeyov.

On the same day, the ACP Ganja District Committee formed the Revolutionary Committee of Gubernia after hearing about the events in Baku. In the evening of the next day, Governor Khudadat Bey Rafibeyli signed the act on the transfer of power to the Revolutionary Committee in the entire Ganja Governorate. Ganja Revolutionary Committee consisted of chairman Ibrahim Aliyev, deputy Farhad Aliyev, Vakilov, Sultanov and Eminbeyov.

During the change of government in Ganja governorate, armoured trains started moving from Baku to Ganja. As they approached the city, they engaged in a major battle with bands of Musavatists who tried to block their path. On 1 May, Soviet armored trains and landing companies of the 28th Infantry Division captured the Ganja station and the railway district of the city. The next day, the regiments of the II Cavalry Corps and the Taman Cavalry Division arrived Ganja and occupied the city as well as its subordinate districts.

After the telegram sent by Lenin to the leadership of Soviet Azerbaijan on 5 May, which was regarded as the recognition of Soviet Azerbaijan as a new state, a telegram signed by Ibrahim Aliyev, the chairman of the Revolutionary Committee of Gubernia, arrived from the Ganja Revolutionary Committee on 8 May. In this telegram, the recognition of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic by the RSFSR was welcomed by Ganja governorate and the telegram expressed readiness to fight mercilessly against those who exploit the working class of the whole world. At the same time, during the Ganja uprising, many villagers did not even know about the sovietization of the country.

=== Policy towards the ADP Army === On 28 April, according to the decree of the Azerbaijan Revolutionary Committee, the People's Commissariat for Military and Naval Affairs was established and Chingiz Yildirim was appointed as its first commissioner. The next day, the Azerbaijan Revolutionary Committee appealed to the soldiers of the Azerbaijani army, urging them to help the Red Army in the fight for the Soviet government. On the same day, a decision was made to immediately subordinate the Azerbaijani army to the XI Red Army and re-form it on the basis of the Workers-Peasants' Red Army while keeping the name of Azerbaijan for the appropriate number and units of army. The newly formed army was initially (in May) the successor of the former ADR army in terms of its personnel and equipment, only its name was changed and it was called the Red Army. Soldiers and officers were already serving in the army under the new government. On the 30th of the month, Chingiz Yıldırım appointed the former Deputy Minister of Defense Aliaga Shikhlinski as his temporary assistant.

They began to appoint members of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan to the former army units in order to concentrate the political leadership in their hands. According to the recommendation of the Azerbaijan Revolutionary Committee (ARC) and by order of the People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs of the Azerbaijan Soviet Republic, Ahmad Rzayev was appointed as the commissar of the military units located in Ganja on 4 May. On 7 May, the ARC made a decision to subordinate the renamed army and navy to the 11th Red Army and the Volga-Caspian military fleet "in terms of operational, administrative, organizational and all types of supplies". Subordinating parts of the former ADR army to the XI Red Army was not only a political activity. It was important to increase the personnel of the XI Red Army, which entered the Caucasus.

In order to implement this, according to the decision made on 11 May by the commander of the XI Red Army, Mikhail Levandovsky, member of the Revolutionary Military Council, Konstantin Mekhonoshi, and chief of staff, Alexander Remezov, the Azerbaijani units located in the Ganja district should be subordinated to the commander of the 32nd division, The inspectors of the 11th Red Army were instructed to re-form the Azerbaijani units, as well as to draw up a plan to create the 1 st United Azerbaijan worker-peasant red Soviet rifle division. On that day, Chingiz Yıldırım wrote:

The Revolutionary Military Council of the XI Red Army and the Military-Naval Commissariat of the Azerbaijan Soviet Republic were instructed to re-form the Azerbaijani army on the basis of the Workers and Peasants' Red Army. The re-formation of the fleet should be carried out together with the command of the Caspian Red Fleet. The mobilization and formation of units is conducted by the Military-Naval Commissariat of the Azerbaijan Soviet Republic.

During the reformations, units of the former Azerbaijani army were reorganised. According to the decision by the Military and Naval Commissar of the Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan dated 16 May, the name of the 3rd Ganja Infantry Regiment was changed to the 3rd Azerbaijan Workers and Peasants' Red Rifle Regiment, and the 1 st Infantry Division (which later revolted) was merged with the 2nd Infantry Division and the name was changed to the 1 st Workers and Peasants' Red Rifle Brigade. The 1 st Workers' and Peasants' Red Rifle Brigade became a part of the 1 st Azerbaijan Workers' and Peasants' Red Division. (The headquarters of the 1 st infantry division took the name of the Azerbaijan Workers and Peasants' United Division). Almost at the same time, by the decision of the Military-Naval Commissioner of the Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan, the name of the Military School of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was changed to the Workers-Peasants' Red Command Courses. The task of reshaping the training units was assigned to General Aliagha Shikhlinski, a former army officer who at that time was the assistant to the Naval Commissar of the Azerbaijan Soviet Republic: "The reshaping of the training units should be carried out according to the instructions of my deputy Aliagha Shikhlinsky".

=== Military and political situation === On 10 May, the Bolshevik uprising began and was suppressed by the Armenian government. Suppression was also helped by England and the Dashnaks were offered weapons worth 1 million pounds sterling, which they accepted on 19 May. Although the uprising was suppressed, an armed struggle against the government broke out in a number of regions of Armenia. On 18 May, the government of Soviet Azerbaijan even sent 17 wagons of food and 5 million rubles to the rebelling Shamshadin region. Nevertheless, after long battles, the Armenian insurgents, numbering 1600 people, crossed the Azerbaijani border. In Soviet Azerbaijan, the Armenian Red Insurgent Regiment (1 st Kazakh Insurgent Regiment) was formed from them.

The May uprising of the Bolsheviks in Armenia coincided with the period when the 32nd Rifle Division of the XI Red Army crossed the border of the Kazakh province with Armenia. Armenian detachments withdrew from Karabakh under the pressure of the Red Army. Armenian units were also retreating from Karabakh under the pressure of the Red Army. On 18 May, the commander of the 32nd infantry division, Steiger, received an order from the XI Red Army that "all parts of the division should be concentrated around Shusha by May 25 and strong detachments should be sent in the direction of Nakhchivan - Julfa - Ordubad." The goal here was to capture those territories. According to the order, on 20 May, the first brigade of the XX division was sent from Ganja to Shusha along the Yelenendorf-Chaykend-Tartar-Khankendi route. At the same time, the division's second brigade and headquarters remained in Ganja. On 20 May, rebels and people's militia units, with the help of Azerbaijan SSR, captured Caravanserai, which was the border region of Armenia with Azerbaijan. The next day, Red Army units also entered here. However, the Ganja and Zagatala uprisings, as well as the conflicts in Zangezur and Karabakh, diverted the forces of the XI Red Army from some targets.

Status of the Parties

=== Former Azerbaijani army === At the time of the uprising, the 1 st Azerbaijani infantry division of the ADR had not yet been re-formed in the Soviet way. This division, with a total number of 1800 people, consisted of the III Ganja Rifle Regiment, the training detachment of the III Sheki Cavalry Regiment, an artillery battery and the commandant team of the divisional headquarters. The leadership of the division was not changed either. For example, Major General Amir Kazim Mirza was the head of supply of the Govanli-Qajar division and was also the commandant of the city until 20 May.

=== XI Red Army === The 178th and 180th infantry regiments of the 20th division were stationed in the south-eastern part of Ganja where Armenians lived, and the personnel of the commandant unit of the Taman Cavalry Brigade and the communication battalion were located in the northwestern part of Ganja, i.e. where the Turks (Azerbaijanis) lived. The III brigade commanded by Alexander Schirmacher consisted of 2,000 personnel, 30 machine guns and one light artillery division.

The 20th Cavalry Brigade, located in the village of Zurnabad, 20 km southwest of Ganja, had 450 personnel, one cavalry battery and 8 machine guns. The division's artillery headquarters and a two-gun battery were located in the German colony Yelenendorf, located 5-6 km south of Ganja. On 25 May, the II regiment of the Taman Cavalry Brigade was also sent to Ganja.

History

Regarding the dates of the beginning and end of the uprising, there is no consensus in the sources. Georgian historian Giorgi Mamulia and Ramiz Abutalibov wrote the book "Odlar yurdu", here the date of the start of the uprising was indicated as 22 May. Journalist and researcher K. Bayramov indicated that in most documents of the Bolsheviks, the date of the beginning of the uprising üas 25 May, and the date of the final suppression of the uprising was 31 May. At the same time, the report of the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs indicates that the uprising lasted until 30 May, and according to Linchevsky, a participant in the suppression of the uprising and the evenings of reminiscences in 1937, the city was "cleared of Musavatists" on the night of 1–2 June. At the same time, Linchevsky believed that the disarmament from which the uprising began took place on the night of 25–26 May.

Qachaq Mammadgasim from Samukh, the leader of the Qachaq group, and Jahangir Bey Kazimbeyli, one of the organisers of the uprising, mentioned in their memoirs that the uprising began on 24 May. According to Kazimbayli, the uprising was suppressed on the night of 3–4 June. This date was also mentioned in his letter to Khanlar Bayramov by Zahid Khan Khoyski, a participant in the uprising and later emigrant. In his work, Khanlar Bayramov was based on the dates mentioned by the participants of the uprising.

There are also differences of opinion regarding the starting time of the uprising. According to the memoirs of Jahangir Bey Kazimbeyli, the disarmament of the Bolsheviks began at 20:00 and ended at 23:00. In the Soviet literature, it was mentioned that the uprising started at 3 o'clock in the night, and the townspeople joined the uprising from 5 o'clock in the morning.

In the encyclopaedia "Civil war and military intervention in the USSR" published in 1983, the events were explained from 26 May, and the suppression of the rebellion was recorded as 31 May. In the encyclopaedia "Revolution and Civil War in Russia: 1917-1923", published in Russia in 2008, it is mentioned that the uprising in Ganja took place on 25–31 May. Almost the same dates can be found in the book written by the British historian Jonathan Smele. He also noted that the uprising began on the night of 25–26 May, and on 31 May, the Red Guards managed to concentrate the main forces that suppressed the uprising in Ganja.

Nagi Bey Sheykhzamanli, who was the head of the counter-revolution organisation during the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, also noted in his memoirs that the uprising lasted for 9 days.

=== Preparation === A member of Central Committee of the ACP (b), Azrevkom and the Revolutionary Military Council of the Caucasian Front Sergo Ordzhonikidze received a report from the Turkish communist Mustafa Subhi. In this document, under the title "Report on the results of the visit to Ganja", it was reported about a secret meeting that took place in the estate of Shahmalinsky, located in Samukh, two weeks before the uprising. Former Prime Minister Nasib Bey Yusifbeyli, Governor General of Gazakh Province Amiraslan Khan Khoyski, former Minister of Internal Affairs Mustafa Bey Vakilov, Jahangir Bey Kazimbeyli and Turkish General Nuru Pasha participated in this meeting. The purpose of their secret meeting was to prepare for the uprising.

On 23 May, the new head of one of the divisions (According to Kadishev, the Azerbaijani division, and according to Darabadi, the XX division) came to the city from the headquarters of the XI Army together with the command staff. The events that provoked the Azerbaijani units to revolt, the radical change of the division's leadership and the plans for the renewal of its personnel. On that day, a secret meeting was organised in the cemetery. At the meeting attended by the officers of the former army, General Mohammad Mirza Qajar declares the importance of revolt. Joint headquarters and operative groups were created here.

In advance, the rebels organised secret weapons depots in the city. Armed groups of local residents retreated to the surrounding villages. A group of soldiers under the leadership of the head of the military garrison, Major General Javad Bey Shikhlinski and the commander of the Ganja Infantry Regiment, Colonel Jahangir Bey Kazimbeyli, drew up an operational plan of the uprising. The former commandant of Ganja, Major General Muhammad Mirza Qajar, was assigned to build defensive fortifications around the city. According to Jahangir Bey's memoirs, the leaders of the rebellion planned to use the unexpected attack to quickly disarm the Red Guards and unite with the Azerbaijani army units fighting the Armenians in Karabakh and the Georgian army to liberate the country.

The III Sheki Cavalry Regiment, commanded by Colonel Tokayev, was located in Aghdam and Tartar. There was a conflict between the soldiers of the Sheki Cavalry Regiment and the 282nd Regiment of the XI Red Army located in the same place just before the Ganja Uprising. Attempts by the Red Army soldiers to steal the horses of the Sheki Cavalry Regiment were responded with shooting by the Azerbaijani units, which led to the conflict. As a result, on 21 May, the units of the III Sheki Cavalry Regiment located in Tartar and the local population revolted. According to Soviet sources, during the uprising, 80 members of the Red Army forces, including the regimental commander Naumov, were killed by the rebels. However, the number of Red Army soldiers and the appeals by the ASSR People's Commissar for Naval Affairs, Chingiz Yıldırım and the ASSR People's Education Commissar Dadash Bunyadzade to tolerate the new government caused the uprising to calm down. Relying on the help of the 3rd Sheki Cavalry Regiment, the organisers of the Ganja Uprising sent two officers to Aghdam and Tartar regions to meet with the regiment commander and inform about the upcoming uprising. Eristov, Sumbatov and Israfil Bey Yadigarov were sent to Georgia to establish contact with the Georgian army.

Rumors circulated in teahouses and local barracks that Christians would be given new Red Army uniforms but not Muslims. Opinions such as "Russians want to restore their power over Muslims" spread among people and created a basis for rebellion.

On the eve of the uprising, armed groups under the leadership of Qachaq Gambar and Sari Alakbar gathered in the village of Nuzgar, located west of Ganja. Since Jahangir Bey Kazimbeyli's house was always under surveillance, he held those secret meetings either in Baghmanlar on the outskirts of Ganja or in the villages on the banks of Kura. The last meeting was held on 24 May around 4 o'clock in Baghmanlar. In this meeting, the places and methods of fighting were determined. After a certain signal, the qachaq groups were supposed to attack from Baghmanlar, cross the Ganja river and attack the Red Army unit located in the Armenian part of the city. One of the Tabors, with the help of qachaqs, was assigned to surround the area where the red division was located and force them to surrender. The other battalion was assigned to capture the most important state facilities such as the post office, telegraph, and military warehouses and to disarm the Sharia Regiment. The operative document of the XI Red Army dated 1 June stated that:

The next actions of the rebels, after liberating the city, were in the direction of gaining access to the railway and cutting off the connection between Baku and Aghstafa. They wanted to cut off the connection of Baku with the delegation that was conducting peace negotiations with the Georgian delegation at the Poylu station.

According to the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, the armed uprising was organised by members of the Musavat Party.

=== Start === The command of the 11th Red Army considered the main issue of rebuilding and "redding" the army units formed during the ADR era in order to prevent the possibility of rebellion and armed resistance against the Soviet regime within the republic. After the leadership of the military ministry was changed, the commanders of divisions and units began to be changed. On 20 May, the new leadership team of the 1 st Azerbaijan Division, headquartered in Ganja, arrived in the city and began their duties. National army officers were to be replaced by "red" soldiers loyal to the new regime.

The city commandant found out about it 2-3 hours before the start of the uprising, and therefore they decided to remove the Azerbaijani soldiers on guard duty and surround their barracks. But they can deliver this warning only to the XX infantry division. Museyib Shahbazov wrote:

The uprising began on the night of 24–25 May 1920. In a short time, the important facilities of the city, the Red Army units in the neighbourhoods inhabited by Azerbaijanis were taken under control. The military warehouse, the central prison, the railway station, the building of the emergency commissariat was captured.

The uprising began on the night of 24-25 May 1920. In a short time, the important facilities of the city, the Red Army units in the neighborhoods inhabited by Azerbaijanis were taken under control. The military warehouse, the central prison, the railway station, the building of the emergency commissariat was captured.

On 3 June 1920, the report sent to Baku by the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs stated: