Soviet Diaries

Firuze Restauran – Muzaffer Bey

The first evening, we chose to dine at Firuze Restaurant, where Muzaffer Bey, who worked as a waiter, took care of us. He is an Azerbaijani man under the age of 30. When we told him we were from Türkiye, he approached us warmly, like many others, and we chatted a bit. When he mentioned he wanted to be an actor, we talked about Azerbaijan’s television industry. He said that Azerbaijan doesn’t have many original productions, and that programs that are popular in Türkiye often start being filmed in Azerbaijan too. He said that Turkish series are generally watched for TV shows. He said that comedy isn’t done in the same way as in Türkiye.

Baku Old City – Nejat Bey

While wandering through the narrow streets of the Old City, which is Baku’s historic district and home to important structures such as the Maiden Tower and the Shirvanshahs’ Palace, we entered a shop filled with paintings. Inside, it was quiet and peaceful. As we quietly looked around, the shop owner asked us where we were from, and a conversation began. The shop owner was Nejat Bey, a sculpture and painting collector who also sold some of his pieces here. We talked with him about Azerbaijan’s current situation and its relations with Armenia, Israel, Russia, and Turkey. He was very talkative and had a lot to say. However, some of the things he said caught our attention. When I asked him why Russia had not been involved in the problems between Azerbaijan and Armenia, he replied: “Azerbaijan did not do what Ukraine did. It did not try to solve this problem with America or NATO; it went out and fought itself. But Russia allowed this war to a certain extent. We were going to take the Zangezur Pass too, we were very close (the Zangezur Pass is a mountain pass between Azerbaijan’s main territory and Nakhchivan, controlled by Armenia). However, several Russian ships in the Caspian Sea approached Baku at that moment. One night, a bomb exploded in Azerbaijan; nothing major happened, only a few people were injured, but these were signs. The Russians now wanted us to stop.” he said. Many people in Azerbaijan know Nuri Pasha, the Ottoman pasha, very well. We first learned this from Mr. Nejat. In 1918, Baku was facing an Armenian threat. Nuri Pasha, one of the commanders of the Caucasus Islamic Army, took control of Baku and its surroundings together with Azerbaijani militias. This event boosted the morale of Azerbaijani society and also contributed significantly to the beginning of friendship between Turks and Azerbaijani Turks. We made our trip to Azerbaijan a few months after the crash of Azerbaijan Airlines flight 8243 from Baku to Grozny. We discussed this issue with Mr. Nejat. He had different views. He said that Lavrov, who currently serves as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, has Armenian roots (his father was an Armenian born in Tbilisi) and that this is an obstacle to positive developments between Russia and Azerbaijan. When the plane was shot down, Azerbaijani President Aliyev was on his way to St. Petersburg, Russia, to attend the Informal Summit of the Heads of State of the Commonwealth of Independent States. When the plane was shot down, he canceled his visit. According to Mr. Nejat’s claim, important decisions in favor of Azerbaijan were to be made at this meeting, but this was prevented by the plane crash. Of course, these statements are unverified claims made with intense emotion. Nejat Bey is not the only person we spoke to about these issues. It must be acknowledged that Azerbaijani society is not detached from current events; on the contrary, it is very much involved in them.

20 Yanvar – Vasif Bey

When we went to examine the buildings constructed during the Soviet era in 20 Yanvar we stopped by the greengrocer to get information about the neighborhood. The greengrocer, Mr. Vasif, was a veteran of the Karabakh War. Given this, we talked more about his life story than about the houses in 20 Yanvar. He had been in Türkiye several times for long periods to receive military training, staying in Ankara and Istanbul. He now lives in the city of Sumgait, north of Baku, and commutes to Baku every day. He is the child of an Azerbaijani Turk family who lived in Armenia during the 1988 Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict. During this period, his family was forced to migrate and settled in Sumgait. His eyes filled with tears as he spoke about the war in which he was wounded, but his faith is strong. He says that one day Nakhchivan and Azerbaijan will be connected and there will be a continuous route from Türkiye to Azerbaijan. “They fear the Turks, they will do everything they can to keep us apart, but you will see, one day we will take Zangezur too,” says Vasif Bey.

Railway Museum – Nermin Hanım

We toured the Railway Museum in Azerbaijan with Nermin Hanım as our guide. Oil has always been, and continues to be, very important for Azerbaijan’s economy. In the Azerbaijani language, oil is called “neft,” and you see this word everywhere. For example, on Neftchilar Avenue, one of Baku’s main boulevards, and at Neftchilar Metro Station. The Neftchilar School in Baku trains personnel exclusively for the oil industry. Azerbaijan’s railway history is also intrinsically linked to oil. Azerbaijan met a large part of the USSR’s oil needs. During World War II, known in the USSR as the Great Patriotic War, oil from Azerbaijan was extracted and transported by train to the city of Poti on the Black Sea coast of Georgia, from where it was transported to other parts of the USSR. For this reason, the Azerbaijani people believe they made a significant contribution to the victory in the Great Patriotic War and take pride in this.

Azerbaijan Literature Museum – Guide Lady

While touring the Azerbaijan Literature Museum, we were again guided by a very knowledgeable lady. She gave us a detailed tour of the museum for about three hours. Naturally, we talked a lot and bonded while touring the museum. She was born, raised, and educated during the Soviet era. She is very knowledgeable about literature and history. She says that education was very good during the Soviet era, and that while studying literature, they received intensive education not only about the geography of the Soviet Union but also about world literature and history. “I know Gencevi by heart, just as I know the Ottoman ruler Kanuni by heart,” she says. She has both good and bad memories of the USSR. For example, she said she didn’t have many opportunities to travel. While traveling around Azerbaijan, we saw busts and signs written in the Cyrillic alphabet in many places. A large portion of the books in bookstores are in Russian. Many people in the city also speak Russian. We asked her about this, about compulsory language education in the country, and why so many people speak Russian. She said there are schools that provide education in both Russian and Azerbaijani. She also said that people tend to send their children to schools that provide more Russian-language education.