Russian official propaganda is, frankly, a strange phenomenon. Strange above all in its, pardon the expression, crude primitiveness. Just recently, the Azerbaijani — and not only Azerbaijani — audience had another chance to be convinced of this.
Let us recall: the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, gave an interview to the Al-Arabiya TV channel, where, among other things, he reminded: “When the Russian Empire collapsed in 1917, Azerbaijan established the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. It was the first democratic republic in the Muslim world, established in May 1918. It existed until April 1920, when the Russian army invaded Azerbaijan and occupied it. The Bolsheviks, who made a revolution in 1917, lied to the people. Their slogans were “factories to workers, land to farmers, freedom to the peoples.” We established our own state, but the Bolsheviks took it from us.“
Strictly speaking, this is not a historical revelation. The fact that the XI Red Army occupied the independent Azerbaijan Democratic Republic is written today even in our school textbooks, including those in Russian, not to mention historical literature. But now, after the president’s interview, the pro-Kremlin media space has gone into sheer hysteria. Journalists and Z-bloggers are foaming at the mouth and running up the walls, trying to push old clichés like: “Azerbaijan as a state exists only thanks to the USSR,” “Lenin invented you,” and that historically there was no such state as Azerbaijan at all — supposedly only separate khanates.
Well then, to all those journalists, bloggers, vloggers, and YouTubers we can only advise… No, not just to read about the states of the Atabegs, the Shirvanshahs, or the Safavids. Their “imperial brains” simply won’t handle it. Instead, we advise them to turn to Russian historical archives. And also — to read history textbooks. Preferably not only those edited by Vladimir Medinsky, the “possessor of an extra chromosome.”
Peter I, in his decree of June 12, 1724, mentions “Karabakh, Ganja, Erivan, Nakhchivan, and other Ardibijan provinces.” Already in the 18th century, Russian officer and representative of the Russian Empire in Georgia S. D. Burnashev wrote of “…the Adrebizhan cities of Erivan and Ganja with their lands…” and further indicated: “As for the current situation of those lands, which are understood under the name Adrebizhan, from the north lies Georgia — that is, the kingdoms of Kakheti and Kartli (although earlier they too were considered part of the Adrebizhan lands); from the east the Caspian Sea and the province of Gilan; from the south the region of Arak; from the west Turkey.” Emperor Peter II in his decree of 1727 mentions “the entire expanse enclosed between the Kura and Aras, that is, all of Adirbijan.”
One can also cite an excerpt from the decree of Russian Emperor Paul I addressed to the State College of Foreign Affairs in 1799: “…in Aderbaijan, a region neighboring the Ottoman Porte… territories ruled by particular khans, such as the Ganja, Erivan, Khoy, Karabakh, Tabriz, and others…”
In simpler terms, when looking at the South Caucasus, Russian monarchs, military officers, and diplomats clearly distinguished not only separate khanates, but also Azerbaijan as a historical region! And yes, the territory of present-day Armenia was then regarded as part of Azerbaijan. “Armenia” was created there later, after the first Russian occupation, when ethnic Armenians from Persia and the Ottoman Empire began to be resettled on the lands of the Erivan and Karabakh khanates. But that is a separate, purely historical topic. For now, let’s just note and repeat: in the 18th century, Russia already saw not only individual khanates on the map, but also Azerbaijan.
Moreover, at that time such a state of affairs surprised no one. Many nations and countries passed through periods of “feudal fragmentation.” One need only recall Germany with its numerous electors, barons, etc., and read how Otto von Bismarck united that “patchwork quilt” with “iron and blood.” What’s more, today on the world map there is Germany — and also Austria, where German is also spoken. And so? By the logic of Kremlin chauvinists, with their rotten cliché “the statehood of all nations on the post-Soviet space exists only thanks to the USSR,” does that mean Germany isn’t a state? Or take the Arab countries, of which there are more than twenty. And so? Does that mean the Arabs have no statehood? There is Saudi Arabia, there is Qatar, there is Morocco, there is Tunisia, there is Egypt — and yet supposedly no statehood? Likewise, Italy also went through a period of “feudal fragmentation,” and only in the 19th century was united into a single state. Does that mean, by Kremlin propagandists’ logic, that Italy has no state status?
Finally, we can turn to the history of Russia itself. Whether one likes to admit it or not, Russian statehood begins with the dynasty of the Rurikids, that is, the Varangians. More precisely, Vikings. The word “Rus” in Old Norse dialects means “rowers in a boat” or “the prince’s retinue.” Precisely during the stage of feudal fragmentation, present-day Russia fell under the power of the Golden Horde. To what extent the last Russian ruling dynasty, the Romanovs, were “Russian by blood” is a very awkward question. The Romanovs descended from those same Viking Rurikids. And how diluted their blood became through dynastic marriages is another question. By many historians’ calculations, the last tsar, Nicholas Romanov, was no more than 1% Russian.
After the fall of the Russian imperial throne, the ethnic origins of leaders became even more “complicated.” It is not customary to dwell on Lenin’s ethnic origins, but there is no doubt he was not a pure-blooded ethnic Russian. For three decades the country was ruled by an ethnic Georgian, Iosif Dzhugashvili, better known as Stalin. Then came the Ukrainian Khrushchev, another ethnic Ukrainian, Brezhnev… It turns out that the first ethnic Russian to head the USSR was Mikhail Gorbachev — and it was precisely under him that the USSR ceased to exist.
There are also much more serious and inconvenient facts. On June 12, 1990, on the initiative of Boris Yeltsin, the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the RSFSR. Russia, in essence, withdrew from the Soviet Union. And how should this be understood? Does it mean that Russia appeared on the world map only in 1990?
Seriously, people who claim the role of political experts should learn some basic truths. Regardless of who appeared on the map when, who arose historically, and who was cobbled together as a strategic outpost, if a state is recognized by the UN and the world community, it must be treated accordingly. Without attempts to play the game of imperial arrogance and “elder” or “younger brothers.” And certainly, three decades after the collapse of the USSR, one should not behave as if it still exists on the map.
The saddest part is that in 1991, when the USSR ceased to exist, Moscow had a historic chance to renounce political responsibility for the 1920 occupation. But it simply lacked political wisdom. And so now we see Lavrov parading in a sweatshirt with “USSR” written on it, and Russian TV broadcasting yet another episode of Sergey Medvedev’s program Mysteries of the Century — about General Mikhail Yefremov and how “in 1920, 200 fighters under his command captured Baku, where the anti-Bolshevik bourgeois government of the Musavatists was located. In a few hours the military-political situation in the Caucasus completely changed. As a result of this one successful attack, Soviet Russia regained the territory of Azerbaijan and, most importantly, the Baku oil fields.” But, as it turned out, that occupation was long-lasting, but not forever.
And now Russian propagandists, whether they like it or not, will have to learn new geography and new history. And most importantly — to bury their imperial dreams deep down. Because in Italy, too, there once emerged a politician who promised to revive nothing less than the Roman Empire. That politician’s name was Benito Mussolini. In the end, this politician, along with his “lady love,” was hung upside down in a public square. Phantom imperial dreams cost far too much in history.
Nurani
