The literature devoted to oil issues in Azerbaijan can be divided into two categories. The first group is constituted by Azerbaijani historical work in which various economic and political issues somehow connected with oil are studied. The second group of works is devoted to hydrocarbons themselves.
A work by Eldar Rafik ogly Ismailov, an outstanding researcher and once a student, postgraduate and doctoral candidate at the History Department of the University of Moscow, should be included in the first category. This work, named "The power and the people. Post-war Stalinism in Azerbaijan (1945-1953)" published in Baku in 2003, unfolds the history of the country of that period. For the first time in historiography an analysis has been presented of the republic's elite at the time. The author also portrays several leaders and depicts their political roles.
With the help of archival documents the author demonstrates how hard the lives of oil industry workers in Baku were?in those years. He also portrays the First Secretary of Azerbaijain, M. D. Bagirov, six times decorated with the order of Lenin. According to E. R. Ismailov, Bagirov was a common personality for his time. On the one hand he was an ardent patriot, who really believed in the cause of Lenin and Stalin. On the other, he was guilty of repressions that took place among the workers.
Research that the author conducted into the oil-industry management's history is very interesting. He shows that since the 1920s these issues were in the sphere of interest of the party organisation of Baku, while the Central Committee was a coordinating body. As a result all the party leaders of Azerbaijan were appointed by the Moscow party apparatus. And it was Bagirov who eventually became the sole leader of the republic.
In 2006 a new book by E. R. Ismailov was published. In this work, that is named «Azerbaijan 1953 1956. The first years of the Ottepel», the author for the first time in history present a picture of Azerbaijan during this period. The scholar managed to depict all the sides of the complicated processes of the time. Not only does Ismailov reveal the political process inside the elite but he also expose the development of the oil industry. The work is based on the archival documents of both Russia and Azerbaijan.
A real bestseller is another book written by Jamil Gosanly and named «The USSR — Iran. An Azerbaijani crisis and the beginning of the Cold War. 1941 — 1946». The monograph studies the unknown issues of the Soviet-Iranian relations and is based on the unique documents from Russian, Georgian, Azerbaijani and American archives. As a result an author come to a striking conclusion: the Cold War has began not in Europe, but in Azerbaijan. It was a Soviet-American contoversy over Azerbaijan and its oil that marked an insolvable contradiction between Soviet and American interests.
According to J. Gosanly Azerbaijani oil became a key issue in the relations between the East and the West. It was an issue that eventually rent a coalition of the allies asunder. The USSR was interested in oil extraction in the South Azerbaijan that was possible to undertake due to the Soviet contigent“s presence in Iran. However the USA forced the USSR to withdraw its troops since Trumen threatened to use a nuclear bomb.
(To be continued)
Ismail Agakishiev
