placed the Trans-Caucasian Commissariat.

It was probably the summary of these facts that forced the Baku

Soviet of People’s Commissars

(Sovnarkom)

at first to try to gain con-

trol over the area in a peaceful manner, the tactics once employed by

the Imperial Russian administration. So, Guba residents were offered

to comply with the Bolshevik rule voluntarily.

A noteworthy detail is that the major negotiator from the Bol-

sheviks was someone David Ghelovani, a 30-year-old offspring of the

Georgian gentry, quite alien to Baku’s political elite, a Menshevik once

exiled for his political views to be set free after the October Coup of

1917. A former medical student in Moscow, Ghelovani traveled to the

Caucasus to meet his kin in early 1918. However, since he was unable

to return to Moscow due to ongoing events, he somehow ended up

in Baku at loose ends. One can make assumptions about the reason

why he was admitted to the local Bolshevik leadership and whether

his ethnic origin had something to do with that. This way or another,

the position of Inspector in charge for militia was offered to him by

A.Japaridze. (46)

According to Ghelovani’s own testimonies, he was given a total-

ly different mission in the immediate aftermath of the March events

in Baku. So it was reportedly a mere coincidence that he happened to

command a two thousand-strong troop train manned dominantly by

ethnic Armenians moving to unknown destination by the Khachmaz

railroad. Oddly enough, it was this troop train that instructed him as a

‘neutral person’ to present ultimatum on complying with the Bolshe-

vik power to Guba residents. (47)

Unlike Ghelovani, residents of areas along the railroad clearly un-

derstood the mission of the troop train. According to his recollections,

“the Muslim residents en route the train fled their residential areas once

they saw the approaching troops. I was trying to stop the Muslims and

persuade them to stay as there was no danger for them”. (48) Yet the

residents of Guba were aware of the atrocities against their fellow citi-

zens perpetrated by the Armenian soldiers in Baku and Shemakha. A

large number of Guba-born residents of Baku fled to the place of their

origin to avoid hostilities conveying a horrible message of what they

came across with.

Meanwhile, reciprocal actions by some Guba peasants trying to

avenge local Armenians for the massacre committed by their fellow

Events of 1918 in Guba in the Context of Plans for Mass Extermination

of Azerbaijan’s Muslim Population