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extermination of the Muslim population and appropriation of assets.
There is one more important issue not to be overseen. The in-
vestigation did not confine with victims and witness testimonies. In
each given episode, what the investigators were trying to identify was
not only the culprits’ personalities but their ethnic origin. Inquiries
among Guba residents regarding involvement of ethnic Russians and
Jews in the massacre and looting in both the town of Guba and ad-
jacent villages of Guba Uyezd clearly indicate that pogroms of the
area’s Muslim population were masterminded and executed by armed
forces manned exclusively with ethnic Armenians.
E.g. testimonies provided by Guba residents mention Russians
dominantly as members of Ghelovani’s unit involved in a three-day
“war” with the Lezghins. Indirect references to ethnic Russians in
Amazasp’s units are found in only two files, with no evidence of their
direct involvement in pogroms whatsoever. On the contrary, the files
read the following:
“We saw no Bolsheviks, however those who came across them
state that they were exclusively of Armenian origin. There was a hand-
ful of Russians who never got involved neither in arson, not in murder,
instead, they were trying to hold back the Armenians from violent ac-
tions towards the Muslims”.
“We did not see the Bolsheviks, but those who did say they were
only Armenians with some Jews and a few Russians. Yet it were only
the Armenians setting fire on villages”. (139)
It was only the head of local municipality A.Alibeyov who men-
tioned Russians and Jews being involved in pogroms along with Ar-
menians, however he never clarified whether these were local Russians
or outsiders. (140) Only one name of a local Russian resident involved
in violence was mentioned by Guba residents. Someone Sasha Lukya-
nov was identified by a nephew of an interviewed witness. (141) Yet
this name is missing in the list of persons charged with devastation of
Guba and its environs in official files of inquiry.
As far as Guba’s Russian population is concerned, there is sufficient
bulk of testimonial evidence indicating that almost all local Russians had
left the town with retreating units of Ghelovani. And they did this against
their will. Excerpts of witness testimonies read the following:
“They took Russian officials and all Armenians. Some Russians
and Armenians were killed in exchange of fire”;
Events of 1918 in Guba in the Context of Plans for Mass Extermination
of Azerbaijan’s Muslim Population