by the NKVD of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Azerbaijan in 1920-

1930’s as ‘people’s enemies’ were finally posthumously acquitted. The

positive image of these people of integrity was restored, and files of

their cases shelved in the archives long time ago. Yet, decades after,

their names popped up again in other archive records revealing the

truth about another tragic period in their lives, as well as in the history

of their nation, i.e. the Guba events of 1918.

***

Report on the Devastation of the Town of Guba and Villages of Guba

Uyezd

by Novatski, a member of the Ad Hoc Investigation Commission,

with the most important information regarding the events of April-May

1918 in Guba was first published in 1990. (214) In later period, both the

whole Report and various files of the case were subject of studies by

scholars and experts researching a broad spectrum of issues related

to the history of Azerbaijan, the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan,

the national liberation movement of 1917-1820, Azerbaijani-Armenian

relations, Armenian nationalism in the South Caucasus, etc. (215)

That being said, throughout all this period, the AHIC files have

never been published completely. In 2009, the first collection com-

piled by this author was published with the support of the Ministry of

National Security of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The collection com-

prised part of the AHIC files related to the March events of 1918 in

Baku and its environs. (216)

In 2010, the second collection of The

Ad Hoc Investigation Com-

mittee Files

series came into the world including all dossiers of the

Devastation of the Town of Guba and Villages of Guba Uyezd

Investi-

gation Case. (217)

In 2011, while researching the foreign archives, the author suc-

ceeded in discovering 102 photographs made by the AHIC experts

and dispatched to France in 1919 to the disposal of the Azerbaijani

Delegation to the Paris Peace Conference led by Alimardanbey Top-

chubashov. All these photos together with other AHIC files suppor-

ting the fact of their being made by the Commission were published

in 2012 in the Russian, English and Turkish languages. This new illus-

trated edition also included reports by the AHIC members describing

tragic events in Azerbaijan’s countryside areas. (218)

The Collections’ publication was caused by an extremely high

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

of Azerbaijan’s Muslim Population