Guba, April-May 1918. Documented Pogroms of the Muslims
134
by Russians, Jews and Armenians, the latter ones overwhelmingly
dominant. The unit was led by an Armenian, lieutenant Aghajanyanz
who was also heading the machinegunners. As for Ghelovani, he pro-
claimed himself the Guba Uyezd Commissar. The residents of Guba
complied with them and recognized the Soviet rule.
Soon the Lezghins from adjacent villages came to rescue the
town from the Bolsheviks. They opened gunfire to push them out of
town. The Bolsheviks returned fire from machineguns. Exchange of
fire lasted for three days. The Bolsheviks of Armenian descent were
unwilling to give up. As we got to know later, they were expecting
reinforcement. 70 civilians were killed in crossfire. The Lezghins lost
200 men. Three days later, another unit of 40 soldiers with cannon
arrived from Khachmaz and started bombarding the town. Ultimately
on the sixth day the Bolsheviks started retreating. All Russian officials,
except for investigators Manuylov and Esman 35, all pharmacists and
all Armenians left with them.
While retreating, the squad of Aghajanyantz burned down the
whole of Bulvarnaya street, murdered 16 persons in Bazarnaya street,
7 persons at Komensantskaya street and 35 more near the prison.
One Armenian from the unit threw a burning kerosene-soaked piece
of rag at the gate of the Juma Mosque, however the attempted ar-
son was spotted and prevented by a Muslim. While retreating, the
squad was returning fire to the Lezghins. The Armenians and Russians
evacuated from the town were moving ahead of the unit. The death
toll among them included M.Kasparov, an Armenian priest, a Russian
priest, pharmacist Golubchin, excise officer Polokhny, doctor Mikhels,
forestry officer Abrasimov, and Armenians Alexander Bogdanov and
Dukhan Pogosov. Some of the dead bodies were collected by the Bol-
sheviks whereas others were left unattended. It was never established
whether they were killed by the Bolsheviks of Lezghins.
Two weeks after these events we were notified of another Bol-
shevik detachment arriving from Baku arriving at Nizovaya was on its
way to Guba. By late April, the unit reached Khachmaz village. Local
residents tried to prevent the unit’s further advance. After two days
of exchanging fire, the Muslims were no longer capable to withstand
the troops that had broken through their way to Guba. The squad
manned exclusively with Armenians was headed by a notorious acti-
vist of Dashnak party Amazasp with Nikolai as his aide. The unit also