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The Battle for Baku
Since the establishment of Soviet order on April 25, 1918, Baku had been almost isolated. 13 Faced with a common menace, Dashnakists and Bolsheviks continued to collaborate. When the Baku Soviet castigated the Seim for having further divided the peoples of Transcaucasia by dissolving the Federation and establishing "independent" states, it took special care to differentiate between the Baku and Tiflis factions of Dashnaktsoutiun. 14 The prudence of the Soviet was, of course, conditioned by the fact that the Red Army of Baku was composed largely of adherents of the Armenian nationalist party. When the Ottoman 5th Caucasian Division passed over the Armenian Republic to Ganja, the threat to Baku increased. Prompted to an attack in defence of the city, Soviet troops at the beginning of June struck out in three columns. In three weeks they had advanced as far as Karamarian, Kurdamir, and Zubovka. 15 Ganja, Azerbaijan's temporary capital, was spared only by a combined Turkish Islamic Army counter-attack. Both sides suffered hundreds of casualties in savage battles during the first week of July, but the Moslem units pressed on. The Russian and Armenian troops were greatly encouraged by the arrival from North Persia of Colonel Lazar Bicherakhov's Cossack troops, who offered assistance to the Baku Sovnarkom. Bicherakov, named commander in chief of the Red Army, fought valiantly but could not withstand the Turkish infantry and artillery in the open field and ordered a withdrawal. By August 1, the forces stood along the Balajari-Aybat line, their original positions only a few kilometres from Baku. 16
Alarmed by the approach of Turkish regiments, the Soviet searched desperately for support. Throughout July, Shahoumian kept Lenin abreast of the critical situation, but the Communist leaders of Russia could offer little help. Nonetheless, they ordered Shahoumian to combat the Baku Soviet's unpardonable disposition to appeal for British aid. 17 Were Baku to fall, it would be better that the Ottomans, not the experienced English colonialists, become the temporary heirs to the invaluable city and its resources. Most of the Christian population, especially the terrified Armenians, did not share this view, however. They argued that, since no real assistance was forthcoming from Russia, they had no alternative but to accept the British offer to join in the defence.
A British expeditionary group, the Dunsterforce, had already been dispatched from Baghdad to organise the anti-Ottoman elements in North Persia and the Caucasus and to block Turkish drive toward Baku. Surmounting many difficulties, Major General Lionel C. Dunsterville, commander of the group, reached Enzeli on the south shore of the Caspian Sea in the summer of 1918. Conferring there with representatives from the Baku Soviet and the Baku Armenian Council, he promised a sizable British contingent to bolster the defence of the Apsheron Peninsula. 18 On July 25, as the Turkish troops neared Baku, the Soviet took the decisive step, defeated Shahoumian's motion to deny the British entry, and implored Dunsterville to hasten the arrival of his men. Social Revolutionaries, Mensheviks, and most Dashnakists joined to override the Baku Sovnarkom Chairman and Extraordinary Commissar for the Caucasus, who, smarting under the blow, declared that the Bolshevik ministers would relinquish their posts. Just after Shahoumian had concluded his denunciation of the Soviet, however, his comrade Prokopy (Alesha) Japaridze announced that the Bolsheviks would remain in the body and continue to battle the counterrevolutionaries. 19
The question of administrative jurisdiction was especially perplexing during the following week. The Bolsheviks had withdrawn from the Sovnarkom, yet they were still at their posts. On July 28, Shahoumian presided at the Communist conference that vowed the reins of government would not be surrendered without a struggle and ordered a Bolshevik mobilisation. Pleas for help were wired to the Russian Sovnarkom, but on July 29 Lenin responded, "We will take measures to send you forces, however, we cannot give a definitive promise." 20 Aid did not arrive and the determination of Baku's Bolsheviks dissolved into dejection. On July 31, the Baku Sovnarkom resigned officially and on the following day was replaced by the Centro-Caspian Dictatorship, a coalition dominated by Social Revolutionaries. 21 The Soviet government of Baku had fallen.
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13) Because the overland routes remained virtually sealed, the food shortage became very acute. Limited provisions arrived by sea from Astrakhan, in return for which Baku sent Soviet Russia nearly 1.5 million tons of petroleum products. Consult G. B. Gharibdjanian, "V. I. Lenine yev Andrkovkasi zhoghovourdneri azatagroume" [V. I. Lenin and the Liberation of the Peoples of Transcaucasia] (Yerevan, 1960), p. 72; and A. B. Kadishev, "Interventsiia I grazhdanskaia voina v Zakavkaz'e" (Moscow, 1960), p. 99.
14) "Bol'sheviki v bor'be za pobedu sotsialisticheskoi revoliutsii v Azerbaidzhane: Dokumenty i materialy 1917-1918 g.g.", ed. by Z. I. Ibragimov and M. S. Iskenderov (Baku, 1957), pp. 505-506.
15) General G. Korganoff, "La participation des Arméniens à la guerre mondiale sur le front du Caucase, 1914-1918" (Paris, 1927), pp. 184-188; W. E. D. Allen and Paul Muratoff, "Caucasian Battlefields: A History of the War on the Turco-Caucasian Border, 1828-1921" (Cambridge, 1953), pp. 486-488; A. B. Kadishev, "Interventsiia I grazhdanskaia voina v Zakavkaz'e" (Moscow, 1960), pp. 109-112.
16) E. A. Tokarzhevskii, "Iz istorii inostrannoi interventsii I grazhdanskoi voiny v Azerbaidzhane" (Baku, 1957), pp. 118-123; General G. Korganoff, "La participation des Arméniens à la guerre mondiale sur le front du Caucase, 1914-1918" (Paris, 1927), pp. 190-196; W. E. D. Allen and Paul Muratoff, "Caucasian Battlefields: A History of the Wars on the Turco-Caucasian Border, 1828-1921" (Cambridge, 1953), pp. 488-489; A. B. Kadishev, "Interventsiia I grazhdanskaia voina v Zakavkaz'e" (Moscow, 1960), pp. 117-120.
17) Ministerstvo Inostrannykh Del SSSR, "Dokumenty vneshnei politiki SSSR, I, 7 noiabria 1917 g.-31 dekabria 1918 g." (Moscow, 1957), I, 401-402; B. H. Lalabekian, "V. I. Lenine yev sovetakan kargeri hastatoumn ou amrapndoumn Andrkovkasoum" [V. I. Lenin and the Establishment and Strengthening of Soviet Order in Transcaucasia] (Yerevan, 1961), pp. 112-114; L. A. Khurshudian, "Stepan Shahoumian: Petakan yev partiakan gortzenoutyoune 1917-1918 tvakannerin" [Stepan Shahoumian: Governmental and Party Activity, 1917-1918] (Yerevan, 1959), pp. 322-325.
18) Ds. Aghayan, Hoktemberian revoliutsian yev hai zhoghovourdi azatagroume" [The October Revolution and the Liberation of the Armenian People] (Yerevan, 1957), p. 183.
19) V. L. Avakian, "Edjer Andrkovkasoum otaryerkria interventsiayi patmoutyounits (1918 t.)" [Pages from the History of Foreign Intervention in Transcaucasia (1918)] (Yerevan, 1957), pp. 100-101; L. A. Khurshudian, "Stepan Shahoumian: Petakan yev partiakan gortzenoutyoune 1917-1918 tvakannerin" [Stepan Shahoumian: Governmental and Party Activity, 1917-1918] (Yerevan, 1959), p. 326; G. M. Mneyan, "Stepan Shahoumiani partiakan yev petakan gortzouneoutyoune (1900-1918)" [Stepan Shahoumian's Party and Governmental Activity (1900-1918)] (Yerevan, 1963), p. 205.
20) Bol'sheviki v bor'be za pobedu sotsialisticheskoi revoliutsii v Azerbaidzhane: Dokumenty I materialy 1917-1918 g.g.", ed. By Z. I. Ibragimov and M. S. Iskenderov (Baku, 1957), p. 598; Ministerstvo Inostrannykh Del SSSR, "Dokumenty vneshnei politiki SSSR, I, 7 noiabria 1917 g.-31 dekabria 1918 g." (Moscow, 1957), I, 411-412; L. A. Khurshudian, "Stepan Shahoumian: Petakan yev partiakan gortzenoutyoune 1917-1918 tvakannerin" [Stepan Shahoumian: Governmental and Party Activity, 1917-1918] (Yerevan, 1959), pp. 327-329; B. H. Lalabekian, "V. I. Lenine yev sovetakan kargeri hastatoumn ou amrapndoumn Andrkovkasoum" [V. I. Lenin and the Establishment and Strengthening of Soviet Order in Transcaucasia] (Yerevan, 1961), pp. 123-127; Institute of Marxism-Leninism, "V. I. Lenin ob Azerbaidzhane" (Baku, 1959), p. 91.
21) V. L. Avakian, "Edjer Andrkovkasoum otaryerkria interventsiayi patmoutyounits (1918 t.)" [Pages from the History of Foreign Intervention in Transcaucasia (1918)] (Yerevan, 1957), p. 109; A. M. Elchibekian, "Velikaia Oktiabr'skaia sotsialisticheskaia revoliutsiia I pobeda sovetskoi vlasti v Armenii" (Yerevan, 1957), p. 81; Institute of Party History and Azerbaijani Filial of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism, "Istoriia Kommunisticheskoi partii Azerbaidzhana", I (Baku, 1958), 309-311.
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