After the discovery of the 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.
In his book "Mamed Emin Rasulzade (1884-1955)" (Moscow, 2009), Aidyn Balayev examines the life of one of the brightest representatives of the political history of the XX century Azerbaijan. M. E. Rasulzade was the founder of the ideology of Azerbaijanism, which served as the theoretical basis for Azerbaijani statehood in May 1918. The author pays special attention to the activities of M. E. Rasulzade in 1917-1920. During these years, being one of the recognized leaders of the Azerbaijani people, he identified the strategic line of the national movement and virtually led the process of the conception and formation of the Azerbaijani Democratic Republic, the first democratic republic not only among the Turkic peoples, but also in the Muslim world. The book, entitled "Azerbaijan Democratic Republic" (Moscow, 2008), includes articles on the 90th anniversary of the first Azerbaijani republic. The publication pays great attention to the oil policy of the ADR.
Among the books on former Soviet countries, works by a member-correspondent of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor in History, Prof. Efim Iosifovich Brewer, have a special significance. He is a prominent expert in the field of the socio-economic history of Russia and former socialist countries, the founder of the Department of History of the near abroad within the History Department of Moscow State University and of the Department of Post-Soviet countries in the Russian State Humanitarian University. His monograph "Post-Soviet Space: an Alternative to Integration" (St. Petersburg, 2008) is devoted to one of the most interesting and pressing problems of the former Soviet Union - the integration of former Soviet republics which once belonged to a single state of the USSR. The author analyzes the conditions and processes of integration and disintegration, examines the areas of cooperation between Russia and the former Soviet countries and assesses the problems of integration processes. This monograph highlights the problems of modernization of post-Soviet economic space on three levels - national, regional and global. Globalization imposes new stringent economic requirements on the newly-formed independent countries. Modernization of economic systems in relation to these requirements becomes their main strategic goal.
The monograph by A. Kazantsev, "’Big’ Game with Unknown Rules: World Politics and Central Asia" (Moscow, 2008) analyzes the structure of international relations established in Central Asia in 1991-2008 and its impact on regional politics of the world's largest states. The studied problems are interesting for us due to the fact that most of the countries of Central Asia are part of the Caspian region. The author examines the impact of uncertainty in international relations in different regions of the world and analyzes peculiarities of the policies of all leading players of the region (Russia, the U. S., CIS countries, China, Turkey, Iran, India, Pakistan and other states) in 1991-2008. He also reveals the complex dynamics of clashes of interests or, alternatively, co-operation of external players in the region. Particular attention is given to energy policy.
The great interest in this aspect is presented by the book "Strengthening Capacities: The Caspian Five" (Moscow, 2009). In fact, this is the report of independent experts from Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan on topical issues of the Caspian region. The experts have developed an agreed position. In their view, the welfare of each of these five countries depends on the state of affairs in the region. For external players the Caspian Sea is a means to solve their problems, often unrelated to the interests of the peoples of this region. The authors believe that in the five-sided format of the Caspian Sea cooperation there is the possibility to find a solution that would be equally beneficial to all countries of the region and ensuring the conditions for the rational and efficient development of Caspian resources. Of particular importance is the creation of the Caspian Economic Cooperation Organization (OKES) - an intergovernmental structure capable of uniting Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan, which would have a very positive economic and political significance for the region.
Among the works devoted to the world oil market as a whole, a fundamental research by the world-renowned expert on petroleum issues, Daniel Yergin, "Extraction: World History of the Struggle for Oil, Money and Power "(Moscow, 1999) stands out. The author reveals the complex relations between the global oil industry and international politics. D. Yergin shows how oil has become one of the determining factors in the development of the world economy and how it will continue to play a key role in the future. The book is divided into five parts, each of which covers a certain stage of the process of conversion of oil from minor natural resource into the most powerful tool of the struggle for world domination. A large place is devoted to the role of the Soviet Union, which D. Yergin considers to have been destructive. At the same time, the author acknowledges that the policy of the Kremlin leadership in many ways defined the situation in the world oil market, because for a long time the Soviet Union was the largest oil-producing state and had great political prestige and influence in the world. The author predicts the possibility of ethnic conflict and other shocks in the country, which will inevitably affect both the country’s oil industry and the global oil market. The book examines the events that took place in the world oil market during the period from 1853 to the 1990s. Analyzing the oil industry of the 19th - early 20th century, the author focuses on the fields in the U.S., while the oil fields of Baku are clearly devoted little space. The Middle East countries have long been and remain the richest oil reserves in the world. A lot of works reflect the problems of the oil industry in these countries.
