Mir Jafar Baghirov

Mir Jafar Baghirov
First Secretary of the Azerbaijan Communist Party
In office 1932–1953
Personal details
Born	September 17, 1896(1896-09-17) Quba, Azerbaijan SSR
Died	May 7, 1956(1956-05-07) (aged 59) Siberia
Political party	Communist Party of the Soviet Union (from 1918)
Children	Jahangir Baghirov, Jen Bagirov[1]
Occupation	teacher
Religion	atheist

Mir Jafar Baghirov Abbas oglu (Azerbaijani: Mir Cəfər Bağırov Abbas oğlu; 17 September 1896, Quba – 7 May 1956, Baku) was the communist leader of Azerbaijan SSR from 1932 till 1953, under the Soviet leadership of Joseph Stalin.^[2]

Early life

Born in Quba of Baku Governorate in 1896, Baghirov studied pedagogy in Petrovsk. During 1915-1917, M. J. Baghirov worked as a school teacher in a village in Khudat.^[3] During 1918 - 1921, he participated in the October Revolution and Russian Civil War in ranks of a commander of regiment, military commissar of Azerbaijani division, advisor of the Caucasus corps of the Russian military command, and the head of revolutionary tribunal of Azerbaijani division. After Soviet take over of Azerbaijan, Baghirov was appointed the Chairman of the Revolutionary Committee of Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. It was reported that Baghirov worked also for the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic's police. In 1927 through 1929, he served as the director of Department for Water Distribution of Transcaucasia. From February 1921 to May 1927 and December 1929 to August 1930, Baghirov was the head of state security services.

First Secretary of Communist Party

In 1932, M. J. Baghirov became the People's Commissar of Azerbaijan SSR and from 1933 till 1953 he was the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Azerbaijan Communist Party. In 1953, the bureau of the Central Committee of Azerbaijani Communist party appointed M. J. Baghirov to head the Council of Ministers of Azerbaijan SSR. After Stalin's death M. J. Baghirov was accused of waging repression, arrested in 1954, tried and sentenced to death by the Military Tribunal of Soviet Union. In his final 17-minute speech before the court, he favored the sentence and refused to apply for any pardon. Baghirov was executed in 1956.^[3][4] According to some sources he was expelled to Siberia where later died^{[citation needed]}.

M. J. Baghirov is a controversial figure in the Azerbaijani history. By 1940 an estimated 70,000 Azeris had died as a result of purges carried out under Baghirov.^[5] The intelligentsia was decimated, broken, and eliminated as a social force and the old guard Communist elite was destroyed. However, Baghirov was also successful in resisting the Armenian demands to cede Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast of Azerbaijan SSR to Armenian SSR.^[6]

He was credited for treating his junior son as an ordinary Soviet citizen. Baghirov sent his son, Vladimir (Jahangir) Baghirov, military pilot, to the Soviet Army to fight against Nazi Germany, where Vladimir was killed in the battle in June 1943 intentionally flying his plane into a German plane.^[7]

References

1. ^ "В Индии скончался сын коммунистического вождя Азеpбайджана [Son of the Azerbaijani leader died in India]". Novosti.ru. 2005-04-09. http://novosti.online.ru/news/misc/newssng/05/04/09_001.htm. Retrieved 2010-05-04. 
2. ^ "Stalin's Personality Cult. Three Times I Changed My Mind". Azerbaijan International. September 1999. http://azeri.org/Azeri/az_latin/latin_articles/latin_text/latin_73/eng_73/73_stalin_cult.html. Retrieved 2010-05-04. 
3. ^ ^{a b} "Directory of Biographies. Mir Jafar Baghirov". http://www.adam.az/az.php?subaction=showfull&id=1239596665&archive=&start_from=&ucat=28,29,53&go=headlines&category=53. Retrieved 2010-05-04. 
4. ^ "Republic of Azerbaijan. Ministry of National Security. Heads of special services of Azerbaijan. Mir Jafar Baghirov". http://www.mns.gov.az/bagirovmirdjafar1_en.html. Retrieved 2010-05-04. 
5. ^ Swietochowski, Tadeusz; Collins, Brian C. (1999). Historical dictionary of Azerbaijan. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, Inc. p. 31. ISBN 0-8108-3550-9. http://books.google.com/books?id=yjIZ6ymyNO8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Historical+Dictionary+of+Azerbaijan&cd=1#v=onepage&q=Mir%20Jafar&f=false. Retrieved May 3, 2010. 
6. ^ De Waal, Thomas (2003). Black garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through peace and war. New York and London: New York University. p. 138. ISBN 0-8147-1944-9. http://books.google.com/books?id=pletup86PMQC&pg=PA138&lpg=PA138&dq=Mir+Jafar+Bagirov+Karabakh&source=bl&ots=AZb3BUx7HP&sig=tPL9dpBRGcb8Ys6lLyYIRBhowWo&hl=en&ei=dDPgS4nsHIKENsWQvZEI&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Mir%20Jafar%20Bagirov%20Karabakh&f=false. Retrieved May 4, 2010. 
7. ^ "Фамилии летчиков, совершивших воздушные тараны [Last names of pilots involved in ram attacks]". http://www.soldat.ru/memories/podvig/spisok3.html. Retrieved 2010-05-04. 

External links

• (Russian) M.J.Baghirov biography
• "Hey Ismayil, Make Him Understand" (1962). A Satire about Mir Jafar Baghirov by Azerbaijani writer Mir Jalal.

Party political offices
Preceded by Vladimir Polonsky	First Secretary of the Azerbaijan Communist Party 1933–1953	Succeeded by Mir Teymur Yaqubov

Persondata
Name	Baghirov, Mir Jafar
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1896-09-17
Place of birth	Quba, Azerbaijan SSR
Date of death	1956-05-07
Place of death	Siberia