29
town elders were willing to get better familiar with the ‘Soviet doc-
trine’ even before they faced the ultimatum. Aware of Ghelovani’s
armed unit with dominant Armenian personnel and a handful of
Russian and Jewish officers approximating Guba, the local residents
formed a mixed delegation comprising representatives of the Muslim,
Russian and Jewish population that was supposed to meet with the
Bolsheviks at Khachmaz station where the troops were deployed. Lo-
cal envoys were willing to know the goals of the troops and asked to
be allowed to travel down to Baku to meet with the Bolshevik leaders
there “with a view to better understanding their program and figuring
out its admissibility”.
A staunched Menshevik (i.e. Social Democrat), Ghelovani was
quite responsive to Guba envoys’ request and advised them to meet
“the Bolshevik ring leaders” in Baku for further clarification. (53) Ho-
wever, not waiting for ‘the voluntary compliance“ with the Soviet rule
by the Guba elders, he occupied the town in two days’ time with a
187-strong unit, so that the local residents had no other choice than
facing the fact.
In the meantime, aware of non-violent attitude of local Muslim
population, Ghelovani decided “to present general concepts of Bol-
shevism to the Guba community leaders”. With this goal in mind, an
assembly (majlis) with Guba’s recognized figures and leading clerics
was convoked at the local mosque involving Mullah Hajjibaba Akhund-
zadeh and Abdurrahman Efendi Imam, the heads of local Shiite and Sunni
congregations. Later, the former one claimed that both clerics were
convoyed to the meeting under duress and forced to comply with the
Soviet regime. This totally contradicts Ghelovani’s claims that spiritual
leaders of Guba, after being briefed on the fundamentals of Bolshe-
vism, found no contradiction to Shariah. (54)
Meanwhile, based on Ghelovani’s testimonies, quite trustworthy
in this particular case, the discussion of ‘the fundamentals of Bolshe-
vism’ with Guba leaders was far from being smooth. When one of
the majlis participants, town investigator Orujev asked: “What if we
start expropriating land from rich landlords, would that be acceptable
from the standpoint of Shariah?”, Abdurrahman Efendi, after a deep
thought, responded in the following manner: “Shariah admits no vio-
lence, however should this happen in a peaceful manner, it would be
even desirable because those owning large plots of land use forced
Events of 1918 in Guba in the Context of Plans for Mass Extermination
of Azerbaijan’s Muslim Population