History of the Baku Oil Industry. Part 22

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.

Faced with a great need to strengthen its military capabilities, the Azerbaijani government was able to negotiate with Italy on military supplies in exchange for oil and petroleum products. V. Mukhanov and M. Volkhonsky call the agreement with Italy "civilized", emphasizing the particular importance of it for Azerbaijan. At the end of August 1919, as a result of a number of objective and subjective reasons, the British began to leave Baku. During their stay in Baku, they exported 30 million tons of oil for almost nothing. However, the withdrawal of the British greatly weakened the stability of Azerbaijani statehood.

At the same time, the chances of Russia restoring its control over Azerbaijan dramatically increased. But in 1919, amidst a difficult war, the "whites" and "reds" did not burden themselves with the immediate task of restoring their authority in the province. As for the Western powers, they did not lose hope of maintaining control over the oil wealth in Azerbaijan.

This may explain the decision adopted by the Supreme Council of the Entente in January 1920 to recognize the independence of Azerbaijan. In connection with this event, modern Azerbaijani historiography and political literature often argues that Azerbaijan received the recognition of the international community as an independent state. Certainly, the decision of the Supreme Council of the Entente strengthened independent Azerbaijan.

In this regard, the Azerbaijani researcher Jamil Hasanli stresses the fact that the Azerbaijani government, represented at the Paris Peace Conference by A. Topchibashov, received the formal decision on the de facto recognition of the independence of Azerbaijan by the Supreme Council of the Entente on January 15th 1920. But it was stated that the act of recognition of independence had to be accompanied by recognition of separation of Azerbaijan from Russia.

The seemingly manifested, but at the same time half-hearted decision of the Western countries indicated that the Entente hesitated to recognize the independence of Azerbaijan. This circumstance should be borne in mind in the process of assessing the attitude of the international community towards the possibility of the existence of an independent Azerbaijan. From late 1919 to the early 1920s the Bolsheviks were able to basically defeat the forces of the White movement in the east and the south of Russia. At the same time, the economy of Russia could not come out of the crisis caused by the Civil War without oil. In November 1919 Vladimir Lenin wrote: "The fuel crisis is at the center of all other issues. We must overcome the fuel crisis whatever it takes us..." 1 The Bolsheviks saw the capture of Baku as the only way out of this situation. This was accomplished on April 28th 1920. When it came to the country's vital interests, the position of the Bolsheviks was unequivocal. The half-hearted position of the Western countries untied the hands of the Bolsheviks. After defeating Denikin's army in Dagestan in the spring of 1920, the Bolsheviks began to prepare for intervention in Azerbaijan.

The Azerbaijani government repeatedly proposed discussing the controversial issues to Soviet Russia, but the latter accused the Azerbaijani state of being unfriendly. Finally, on April 15th 1920 the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Khoyski sent a telegram to the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Chicherin: "The Azerbaijani government, not knowing the intentions of the Soviet government, immediately requests to notify about the reasons and objectives of the concentration of troops in the mentioned areas" (the telegram referred to the border regions of Dagestan and Azerbaijan. – I.A.). 2 Clearly, the telegram was left without reply. Back in March 1920 Lenin clearly stated in one of his letters: "There is a great necessity for us to seize Baku."

At that time the catastrophic shortage of fuel had become chronic. This may explain the fact that, despite the commencement of a very difficult Polish-Soviet war, Lenin decided to send the Red Army to Azerbaijan. On April 28th 1920 the troops of the Eleventh Red Army captured Baku, and shortly after – the whole of Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani Democratic Republic was eliminated. A new, Soviet period in the history of Azerbaijan and its oil industry began.

Let us draw several conclusions about the history of the oil industry on the Apsheron Peninsula from 1918-1920.

1. Baku remained the main region of oil wealth for the world. All the leading nations, using the political crisis in the former Russian empire, wanted to become its new owners.

2. The political representatives of Azerbaijan, represented by the deputies of the Constituent Assembly, and later of the Transcaucasian Sejm, were not separatists. On the contrary, they fought for a united democratic Russia, which would guarantee equal rights to all people. After the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, the Transcaucasian Sejm did not recognize the legitimate power of the Soviets, and formed its own government. Only after the collapse of this structure did the Azerbaijani members of the Sejm announce the formation of an independent state - the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR) - on May 28th 1918.

3. The young state of the ADR, due to objective reasons, did not have its own well-developed economy, army or navy. All of this was to be developed. Literally from the moment of its formation, the situation in the ADR was critical due to the ongoing World War, in which Azerbaijan in general, and Baku oil in particular, became an arena for the aggressive policies of the countries at war - Germany, Russia, Britain and Turkey. From 1918-1920 Baku oil was owned first by the Baku People's Commissars, then by "Centrocaspian Dictatorship" and later by Britain and Turkey.

4. From September 1918, the ADR, despite imposed limitations on its state independence, first by Turkey and then Britain, gradually began to develop an independent oil policy. The abolishment of the nationalization of industries and its return to former owners was an historic step in the restoration of the oil industry of the republic, which resulted in an increase in oil production and oil exports to Europe.

5. The coming of the Bolsheviks to power in Russia, and the Bolshevik conquest of Baku on April 28th 1920 by the Eleventh "Liberating" Army marked the end of the Azerbaijani oil business and opened a very different page in the history of Azerbaijani oil, marked by achievements as well as losses.