Guba, April-May 1918. Documented Pogroms of the Muslims
54
“The town’s population was only Muslim since all Armenians
and Russians had left before”;
“He (Ghelovani) was walking home by home gathering all Rus-
sians and Armenians to take them away”;
“…They gathered all Armenians and Russians they could find in
town and together with them they left for Khachmaz”;
“The Bolsheviks…while retreating…evacuated all Christians from
the town…”. (142)
The fact of “all Guba’s Christian population, dominantly Armenians”,
had left the town with his unit while retreating under the Lezghins’ on-
slaught was supported by Chelovani himself, however as he also admitted,
“it was lieutenant Aghajanyan who collected them”. (143) Testimonies con-
cerning forced exodus of civilian Christian population of Guba, Russians
among them, “threatened by the town’s bombardment and arsons” were
provided by O.O.Gank, the chief veterinarian of Guba Uyezd. (144)
There is no evidence whatsoever of the local Russian popula-
tion’s involvement in the pogroms of the Muslims. It is also clear that
none of the Uyezd’s Russian villages became subject to violence com-
mitted by Armenian militants.
The situation with local Jewish population was slightly different,
and way more complex.
***
The issue of involvement of the ethnic Jews, both outsiders and
the local ones in tragic events of April-May 1918 in Guba, as well as
the fate of the Jewish population of Guba Uyezd is of a very high im-
portance in the overall understanding of the events in question and
finding out the historic truth. As one may conclude from the files of
investigation, residents of Guba made a difference between the Jews
and the alliance between the Bolsheviks and the Armenians. Yet there
were some Jews in the first Bolshevik units deployed at Khachmaz
railway station. Two out of them were involved in negotiations with
representatives of the town community, along with D.Ghelovani and
M.Baghirov. (145)
Meanwhile, even before the outsider Jews arrived in Guba, as it
was mentioned earlier, residents of Guba had already seconded a de-
legation to Khachmaz Station to figure out the Bolsheviks’ intents in the
area. The delegation in question included investigator Manuylov, a lo-
cal Jewish resident Nuvah Aghababayev and Shukur Babayev. (146) This