History of the Baku Oil Industry. Part 32

After the discovery of oil fields, Baku became a special place, where various economic and political interests of international coalitions, industrial clans and leaders were concentrated and clashed. VK begins publishing chapters from the book by Ismail Agakishiev "History of the Baku Oil Industry and the Second Oil Boom (second half of the 19th century - beginning of the 20thcentury.)". The book presents a historical analysis of the emergence and current state of the Azerbaijani oil industry.

The year of 1990 was full of dramatic and unpredictable events. The leader of the country, Mikhail Gorbachev initiated system changes in the state and broke the old and outdated structure of government, but could not offer to the society a better model of development.  His perestroika policy had an aim to improve the living standards of the Soviet population.  His innovations, however, resulted in the breakdown of the system that was built for 70 years by the enormous effort and suffering and dying of the millions. It soon became clear that Gorbachev did not have any clear plan. Certain internal and external actors were interested in the dissolution of the USSR. These actors realized that the multi-ethnical state has no bigger threat than ethical conflicts and invested a lot of effort into encouraging ethnical and intra-republican conflicts.  In this situation, the USSR government, aware of the possible provocations, acted irresponsibly. The biggest and the most dangerous among the  ethical conflicts that shook the basis of the state was the territorial conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

It started in 1988. As a result of the improvident and provocative inaction of the central authorities, on January, 20, 1990 Gorbachev order army to enter Baku - the city whose oil save the USSR from the defeat in World War II. Military vandalisms caused hundreds of deaths among the Baku population, killing those whose father and grandfathers were fighting in the Soviet Army during the war. The presumptuous behavior of the army in Baku provided a fertile ground for the separatist movement in Azerbaijan.  Although, as a result of the change of the state and party leadership and the introduced state of emergency , the situation in the republic got more stable, it became obvious that the previous scheme of relations with Moscow center cannot be restored. A. Vezirov, first secretary of the Azerbaijani Communist Party and his surrounding were squeezed between the central party authorities and the local Popular Frond that wasbecoming more and more influential.  Due to some objective and subjective causes they were unable to control the situation in the country, while Vezirov himself could not retain the authority he had.

Gorbachov, who contributed to the dissolution of the USSR, introduced the institute of the president and himself became the first president of the country. He also introduced the similar system in the other republics of the Union.  By March, 1991, most of them elected their presidents. These positions were new only formally - in fact, most of the local heads of the Communist party now became the presidents. Thus, the reason for the conflicts and contradictions in the country leadership was laid, leading to the dissolution of the USSR.

The first president of Azerbaijan Ayaz Niyazi ogly Mutallibov was born in Baku on May, 12, 1938. He started his career as a technician in a research institute in 1958. In 1962 he graduated from Azerbaijani oil and chemistry institute and a year after joined the Communist Party. In 1959-1974 he worked  in Baku factory of electric devices where he made a career from a master of the assembling workshop to the director.

In 1974 Mutallibov became the General Director of Bakelectrobytmash industrial complex. In 1977 he moved to party work, becoming the second secretary of the Nariman district committee in Baku.  In 1979 he was appointed the Minister of the Local industry of Azerbaijan. In 1982 he became the vice-chairman of the Council and Ministers and the head of Azerbaijani Gosplan. In January 1989 Mutallibov entered the top level of the party hierarchy and also became the chairman of the Council of Ministers. After the events of January 1990 Mutallibov was made the head of the Azerbaijani Communist party - the January plenum elected him the first secretary of the party.  On May 18, 1990, the Supreme Council of republic elected Mutallibov the first president of Azerbaijan. After the break-down of the USSR the new state was called the Azerbaijani republic. Changes gradually penetrated the state structure.  The new state chose the blue-green-red flag of the Azerbaijani Democratic Republic (that existed in 1918-1920) with a crescent and a star. In March 1991 the words "Soviet union" were removed from the official name of the republic.

Mutallibov was clearly a supporter of the union and did not mind Moscow having the leading role in decision-making. He understood, however, that in these new conditions the policy of Gorabchov leads to the dissolution and that Moscow acts recklessly and can harm the country. Mutallibov was particularly concerned by the anti-Azerbaijani policy of Gorbachov in the resolution  of the Karabakh crisis.