Russia – Azerbaijan: The History of Relations

The collection is dedicated to the main stages of the history of relations between the peoples of Azerbaijan and Russia: these are documents from the modern period of development of diplomatic, trade and cultural ties, evidence and research into the ancient history of Azerbaijan, as well as documents from the 19th–20th centuries, when its territory was part of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. Features of the state structure are illustrated through legislative acts, texts of constitutions; the management system is represented by such official documents as the affairs of the Office of the Council of Ministers for Viceroyalty in the Caucasus and the Caucasus Committee, sessions of the Supreme Council, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Azerbaijan SSR and other archival sources.

Azerbaijan, together with Russia, participated in all the major events of the 20th century: the Revolution of 1917, the Civil and Great Patriotic Wars, as evidenced by the affairs of the Council of Ministers, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, statistical information, orders of the NKVD, memos, encrypted telegrams and other sources. The documents illustrate the time of entry into a single state: then in the Baku province and the Azerbaijan SSR as a whole, the irrigation system was improved, canals, water pipelines, railways were built (including the Indo-European transit route through Russia), electric lighting was installed, oil refineries were built and etc. Some materials in the collection illustrate the development of science and education, including statistics on population literacy, reviews of congresses of Baku oil industrialists on public education, the opening of gymnasiums, etc. Visual materials from the Prokudin-Gorsky collection, sets of pre-revolutionary and Soviet postcards are also available.