Guba, April-May 1918. Documented Pogroms of the Muslims
78
tion”. (206) The sentence was enforced on August 3, 1929, immedi-
ately after the motion by security agencies of the Soviet Socialist Re-
public of Azerbaijan on non-applying the Amnesty Act due to the 10th
anniversary of the October Revolution to this case was upheld. (207)
That being said, the petition lodged by the Kilvar Armenians
ready to be held responsible for the “consequences” of their motion
in such a ruthless time was extremely valuable indeed. It demonstra-
ted not only the high integrity and rewarding nature of those signing
it but served an irrefutable evidence to the fact that even during the
bloody and tragic events of 1918 in Guba Uyezd, the local Muslim
community leaders made a clear distinction between the Armenian
armed gangs massacring innocent civilians, the ones they were des-
perately fighting with on the one hand, and the local Armenian popu-
lation, which they not only never attacked but protected to the best
they could from some of their own fellow citizens.
It should be inter alia mentioned that Alibey Zizikski and Ham-
dulla Efendi were not the only recognized Azerbaijani public figures
executed by the Soviet regime. A number of highly esteemed repre-
sentatives of Guba community fell the victims of Stalin’s administra-
tion in several years’ time. Their major ‘guilt’ from the Soviet point of
view was that they were properly serving their nation, but under dif-
ferent administrations, i.e. the Czarist and the Mussavat times. Among
the victims, there were survivors of the tragic events of 1918, as well
as those actively involved in combating the Bolshevik and Armenian
units. Two out of hundreds of Guba residents arrested by the NKVD
were actively cooperating with the Ad Hoc Investigation Commission
back in 1918 either by providing testimonies or assisting the investi-
gation in other ways.
Aliabbasbey Alibeyov, the former Chief of the Guba Municipa-
lity, was arrested by the Guba District NKVD Department on August 6,
1937 at the age of 67. The 1920’s were a period of quite an unrest for
A.Alibeyov. Holding position of the mayor until the Soviet takeover of
Azerbaijan in April 1920, Alibeyov never left the town in the face of ad-
vancing Soviet troops, like it was the case in the troublesome 1918. He
prevented panics among the population and entered into negotiations
with Bolsheviks like he did it with Amazasp earlier, notwithstanding the
obvious danger involved. Realizing the situation, Aliabbasbey Alibeyov
never allowed a handful of the Azerbaijani Army officers deployed in