107
Note on the reverse side: URGENT
To: the Ad Hoc Investigation Commission
Please find enclosed the log of villages set afire and looted in
Mushkur Precinct with indication of each place’s distance from the
town of Guba.
December 19, 1918
Signed by: the Senior Assistant on behalf of the Uyezd Chief,
The Secretary
Reference: SARA, f.1061, op.1, d.97, ll. 70-70 (verso), 72-72
(verso)
File No.37
Report by a Member of the Ad Hoc Investigation Commission to
H.E. the Chairman of the Said Commission Regarding the Devas-
tation of the Town of Guba and Villages of Guba Uyezd and the
Violence Committed towards the Residents of the Aforemen-
tioned Town and Villages.
In April 1918, while the city of Baku and Baku Province were
controlled by the Bolsheviks, David Ghelovani14 with a unit of 187
armed soldiers arrived as a representative of the Bolshevik admi-
nistration and proclaimed himself the Uyezd Commissar offering the
local population to accept the Soviet rule immediately. Residents of
Guba complied with this demand. Ghelovani started enforcing the
Bolshevik administration in town. Faced with the peaceful attitude of
the Guba Muslim population, he set free about two hundred local
Armenian internees realizing there was no danger to them from the
Muslims.
Several days passed quietly unless, unexpectedly for Guba resi-
dents themselves, the Lezghins from adjacent villages approached the
town offering Ghelovani either to withdraw or surrender with the whole
squad. Ghelovani denied the offer, so the Lezghins opened the fire re-
sulting in hostilities for several days. Even though Ghelovani was sup-
ported by another army detachment with cannon and machine-guns,
he was ultimately forced to retreat. While withdrawing from the town,
he forcedly removed all local Christian population, mainly Armenians.
Correspondence of the Ad Hoc Investigation Commission. Records of the Investigation and
Judiciary Agencies of the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan and
the Soviet Socialist Republic of Azerbaijan