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GERMANS IN AZERBAIJAN: A RETROSPECTIVE ANALYSIS
Sudaba ZEYNALOVA
Researcher at the Bakikhanov Institute of History, National Academy of Sciences (Baku, Azerbaijan)
Azerbaijan, which is located between the West and East, became the home of representatives of many different nationalities at certain times throughout history. This ethnic diversity, which is still retained today, and the peaceful coexistence in our state of members of different nationalities, cultures, and confessions show the tolerance and respect the
Azeris have for these people. Germans are also some of the representatives of the European culture who have lived for a long time in Azerbaijan. Looking at their lives and vital activity in this country is of special interest and presents a graphic example of the interrelationship between western and eastern cultures within a single society.
Migration Processes
Germans began migrating to Azerbaijan in the first decades of the 19th century for a number of reasons.1 The primary reason was the disastrous political and economic situation in Germany at this time as a consequence of the Napoleonic wars, which gave rise to mounting discontent among the masses and intensified the migration processes. The south of Germany, Wurttemberg, where dissident movements, including separatism, were becoming active, found itself in particularly dire straits. In search of salvation, some of its residents expressed the desire to move to the East, in particular to the Caucasus, since, in their opinion, it was located “not far from the cradle of the human race.”2 They made this request of Russian Emperor Alexander I, who, on his way back from the Vienna Congress in 1816, was traveling through Stuttgart.3
We will note that by this time, the Central Caucasus, including North Azerbaijan, had already been conquered by the Russian Empire, after which czarism was faced with the question of reinforcing its supremacy among the local population. For this purpose and further development of the region’s resources, the Russian autocrat had to create a reliable sociopolitical, economic, and ethnocultural fulcrum in the region. When carrying out these tasks, the czarist authorities engaged in targeted resettlement of Armenians and Russians, which led to serious ethno-confessional and demographic changes in the very region where a group of German colonists were resettled at that time. We will remind you that on 22 July, 1763, Catherine II issued a manifesto which blazed the trail for mass
1 See: E. Ismailov and Z. Kengerli, “O kategorii Kavkaz,” Reports of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, Vol. LVIII, No. 5-6, Elm, Baku, 2002, pp. 290-294.
2 S. Smirnov, “Nemetskie sektanty za Kavkazom,” Russkii vestnik, Vol. 57, Moscow, 1865, pp. 230-233.
3 See: P. Basikhin, “Nemetskie kolonii na Kavkaze. Etnograficheskii ocherk,” Kavkazskii vestnik, No. 1, 1900, p. 14.
emigration of Germans to Russia.4 So migration of Germans to the new lands of the Russian Empire, before they were fully assimilated, became traditional as early as the second half of the 18th century.
According to some data, between 1816 and 1818, 1,400 families (6-7,000 people) left Wurttemberg for the Central Caucasus.5 But as a result of the immense losses along the way, by the fall of 1818 only about 500 of them arrived in Tiflis.6 Initially, six German colonies were founded in Georgia. But there was not enough convenient public land for all the emigrants near Tiflis, so the authorities decided to send them to the Elizavetpol uezd. General Ermolov’ s letter missive noted: “There is a lot of public land in the Elizavetpol uezd and it is beneficial in many respects to settle the colonists there.”7 So in the spring of 1819, some families were sent to Azerbaijan, to the Elizavetpol area (now a suburb of Ganja), where two of their settlements were established. One of them (Helenendorf) was built on the territory of the destroyed Azerbaijani village of Khanlyklar (today Khanlar), seven versts from the town of Elizavetpol, and the second (Annenfeld) arose at the site of the ancient Azerbaijani town of Shamkir. Referring to several studies, we can maintain that 127 families settled in Helenendorf (approximately 600 people) and 67 families (300-400 people) in Annenfeld.8 By the beginning of the 20th century, there were as many as eight German settlements in Azerbaijan: Helenendorf, Annenfeld, Georgsfeld, Alexeevka, Grunfeld, Eigenfeld, Traubenfeld, and Elizavetinka. They were all built in the Khanlar, Shamkir, Kazakh, Tauz, and Akstafa districts (mainly on the sites of old Azerbaijani settlements).
Economic and Cultural Life
The period between the founding of the first settlements in Azerbaijan (1819) and the mid-19th century can be called the stage of initial establishment, setting up, and adaptation of the colonists to the local living conditions. At that time, their economic activity was mainly of an in kind, consumer nature aimed at meeting their own needs. We will note that being peasants by origin and social class, they engaged in agriculture.
During the second half of the 19th century, the main area of their activity was winegrowing and winemaking, which successfully blended with the elements of capitalist relations that appeared in agriculture and with the emergence in Azerbaijan of certain industrial branches. By applying the skills brought from their historical homeland, making use of the local features of the developed winegrowing culture, exchanging experience with members of the indigenous population, and engaging in painstaking labor, the vineyards and wine of the German colonists acquired wide renown. The efforts exerted by the winemaking companies of the Vohrer Brothers and the Hummel Brothers made an immense contribution to the development of this sphere. By this time, these families owned many in-
4 See: Polnoe sobranie zakonov Rossiiskoi imperii s 1649 goda (Full Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire since 1649), Vol. XVI, 1830, pp. 313-316.
5 See: Schweinitz, Helenendorf. Eine deutsche Kolonie im Kaukasus, Berlin, 1908, p. 3; P. Basikhin, op. cit.
6 See: F. Zimmer, Koloniia Helenendorf, Elisavetopolskoi gubernii i uezda, SMOMK, Iss. 29, Tiflis, 1901, pp. 2-3.
7 Akty sobrannye Kavkazskoi arkheograficheskoi komissiei (AKAK) (Acts Gathered by the Caucasian Archeograph-ic Commission (ACAC), ed. by Adolf Berzhe, Vol. 6, Part 1, Tiflis, 1874, p. 331.
8 See: K. Stumpp, “Die Auswanderung aus Deutschland nach Rupland in den Yahren 1763 bis 1862,” Jahrbuch fur ostdeutsche Volkskunde, Band 22, Stuttgart, 1979, pp. 210-217; N.K. Nikiforov, “Ekonomicheskii byt nemetskikh kolon-istov v Zakavkazskom krae,” in: Documents for Studying the Economic Existence of State Peasants of the Transcaucasus Territory, Vol. 1, Tiflis, 1886, p. 104.
dustrial enterprises, trade outlets, land plots, and a large amount of capital. Even then they were the largest entrepreneurs among the German colonists not only in Azerbaijan, but also throughout the entire Central Caucasus.
At the end of the 19th-beginning of the 20th century, a large number of foreigners appeared, including Germans, in Azerbaijan, particularly in Baku. Among them were businessmen, industrialists, engineers, architects, doctors, scientists, teachers, and so on. In particular, we will note such well-known German industrialists as Siemens, who owned large copper-smelting production plants, and the owners of the Benkendorf Trade House Company, who also acquired oil plants. Incidentally, this flow of foreigners was generated by the oil boom in Azerbaijan which began at this time.
Of course, World War I, in which Russia and Germany found themselves in opposite camps, had a negative influence on the status of the Germans living in the Russian Empire. At the beginning of the war, the czarist government adopted several laws which restricted their rights to own real estate, teach in German, and so on. Only after the February Revolution did the Provisional Government annul these laws.
On 28 May, 1918, Azerbaijan was the first independent democratic republic to appear in the East, which existed until April 1920. The resolution on declaring Azerbaijan an independent state adopted on 28 May, 1918, announced: “The Azerbaijani Democratic Republic guarantees civil and political rights to all citizens within its borders, regardless of nationality, confession, social status, and gender. The Azerbaijani Democratic Republic grants broad maneuver for free development to all the nationalities residing on its territory.”9
The sociopolitical, economic, and cultural reforms which took place in Azerbaijan in 19181920 also affected the Germans in the republic. For example, their deputy, Lorenz Yakovlevich Kuhn, was represented in its parliament.10 A vibrant event in the life of the German colonies at that time was the celebration of Helenendorf’s anniversary, that is, the 100th anniversary of the Germans’ emigration to Azerbaijan. This celebration, which was held on 9 June, 1919 with the permission of the governor of Ganja, took place in an atmosphere of great festivity.
In April 1920, as a result of the republic’s occupation by the Red Army, Soviet power was established in North Azerbaijan. All of the changes which took place during the subsequent years had an enormous impact on the life of its population and, naturally, on the status of the Germans living here.
During the first years of the Soviet era, instability and an economic slump were observed in their settlements due to the so-called “war communism” policy. After ratification of the first Soviet decrees, including on land and on nationalization of private industrial enterprises, throughout Azerbaijan (and throughout the Soviet expanse as a whole), expropriation of land endowments began, which were redistributed in keeping with the egalitarian principle. What is more, a large number of beasts of burden and other property were confiscated from the German peasants, mainly for the needs of the Red Army contingents.11 The colonists’ winemaking enterprises, including the well-known large companies of Vohrer and Hummel, were nationalized, which led to their collapse.12
Between 1921 and 1922, due to the country’s transfer to the new economic policy (NEP), certain improvements were designated in the socioeconomic conditions of the German settlements. For
9 Azerbaidzhanskaia Demokraticheskaia Respublika (1918-1920). Vneshniaia politika, Azerbaijan, Baku, 1998,
p. 10.
10 State Archives of the Azerbaijani Republic (SAAR), rec. gr. 894, inv. 10, f. 53, sheet 5.
11 State Historical Archives of the Azerbaijan Republic (SHAAR), rec. gr. 508, inv. 1, f. 459, sheets 24, 35, 51; f. 468, sheet 1.
12 See: Ekonomicheskii vestnik Azerbaidzhana, No. 23 (30), 1922, p. 27.
example, in 1922, the Concordia Production Cooperative of Viniculturists and Winemaking of the Ganja Region was created, to which 90% of the German vineyards belonged. By 1926, this enterprise had as many as 9 still-houses and alcohol-rectification factories, 5 cognac houses, 11 wine and cognac cellars, as well as subsidiary enterprises and workshops distributed around all the colonies, which promoted the development of each of them.13 Concordia opened its representative offices and branches in many Soviet cities. What is more, we should take special note of the activity of Concordia’s Berlin representative office, which was engaged not only in the export of the cooperative’s products, but also purchased equipment for it, as well as medication for its employees.14 As a result of the expansion in the cooperative ’ s sphere of activity, its revenue also grew. For example, it emerged at the end of the 1924/25 fiscal year with a positive balance of more than 8 million rubles,15 and throughout most of the 1920s, this enterprise was one of the best winemaking cooperatives in the republic.
But as early as the second half of the 1920s, the situation began to deteriorate, which was primarily caused by the change in political and economic course carried out by the Soviet authorities. Prosperity, economic independence, ties abroad, insulation, and other features characteristic of the cooperatives’ activity in the German settlements were not in keeping with the precepts of the U.S.S.R. leadership, which led to their initiatives being clamped down on and then to their elimination. For example, in 1925-1926, an investigation was run on the Concordia cooperative.16 As a result, on the basis of Central Executive Committee and the U.S.S.R. Council of People’s Commissars resolutions of 18 September, 1929 on the reorganization of agricultural cooperatives, the corresponding authorities of the Azerbaijani S.S.R. adopted a decision on transforming the Concordia cooperative into the Regional Association of Settlement Companies of Winegrowing and Winemaking Cooperatives.17 In
1935, a trial was held to review the Concordia cooperative case. After deeming its economic activity not only detrimental, but also subversive, the court adopted a decision to eliminate the cooperative once and for all.18
In 1930-1932, during the collectivization that went on throughout the entire country, collective farms were created in the German settlements too: in Helenendorf, the Telman collective farm, in Annenfeld, the Clara Zetkin collective farm, in Georgsfeld it was called Borba (Struggle), in Trauben-feld—Sovetstern, in Marksovo (Elizavetinka), the International, in Grunfeld—Rote-Fane, and in Alexeevka, the Lenin collective farm. They all specialized in winegrowing, they were given the property confiscated from the German holdings of kulaks and even middle peasants. What is more, in the middle and second half of the 1930s, intensified measures were carried out against the kulaks. For example, a report of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs stated that in 1935, 381 Germans were repressed in Azerbaijan, most of whom were either dispossessed or arrested under the Concordia case.19 As a consequence of the dispossession and collectivization measures, conflicts became aggravated in the German settlements and the discontent of their residents grew. For example, on 18 March, 1930, a protest demonstration was organized in Helenendorf against the collective farms and the incorporation of the colonists into them.20 But by the end of the 1930s, most of their households had to
13 SAAR, rec. gr. 2384, inv. 1, f. 2, sheet 214; rec. gr. 816, inv. 6, f. 56, sheets 7-8.
14 SAAR, rec. gr. 2384, inv. 1, f. 17, sheet 100-101; State Archives of Political Parties and Public Movements of the Azerbaijan Republic (SAPPPMAR), rec. gr. 1, inv. 85, f. 613, sheet 65.
15 SAPPPMAR, rec. gr. 1, inv. 235, f. 303, sheet 141.
16 See: M. Jafarli, Nemtsy v Azerbaidzhane, Baku, 1998, p. 21; SAPPPMAR, rec. gr. 1, inv. 235, f. 102, sheet 657.
17 SAAR, rec. gr. 2384, inv. 1, f. 10, sheets 85-86; rec. gr. 379, inv. 7, f. 87, sheet 9.
18 See: Concordia, Astroprint, Odessa, 2001, pp. 17-18.
19 See: M. Jafarli, Politicheskii terror i sudby azerbaidzhanskikh nemtsev, Baku, 1998, p. 71.
20 See: E. Ohngemach, “Memoire eines Unbekannten,” in: Heimatliche Weiten, M., 1989, S. 112.
be incorporated into collective farms. Of course, this had a negative effect on the socioeconomic conditions in the German settlements.
It is interesting to take a look at the cultural life of the first German emigrants, who paid a great deal of attention to teaching their children, at first at home, and then in schools. For example, the first school was built in 1842 in Helenendorf.21 Until the 1890s, these schools were ecclesiastical-parochial in nature and were under the care of the local pastors. In 1890, after the Russian government issued a decree on the re-subordination of Protestant and Lutheran schools to the Ministry of National Education, the school in Helenendorf was turned into a two-year academy, and in 1917, a mixed non-classical secondary school opened there in which Germans from all over the Central Caucasus studied.22 In 1924-1926, in all the German settlements of Azerbaijan, there were eight German primary schools with an average of 1,090 students in each and one secondary school in Helenendorf, in which there were 213 pupils. A total of 69 teachers worked in these learning establishments.23 What is more, as corresponding documents noted, “due to the existing need for local staff in technology and agriculture,” at the end of the 1920s, a Machine-Building Polytechnic was opened in Helenendorf. In the 1930s, there was a Viniculture and Winemaking Polytechnic in Helenendorf, in which the students were to assimilate a great deal of specialized knowledge. In March 1938, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and the U.S.S.R. Council of People’s Commissars adopted a joint resolution on the mandatory study of the Russian language in non-Russian schools. Later, a similar decision was adopted by the Azerbaijan leadership, as a result of which reorganization of German schools and transfer of all classes to the Russian language began in the republic.24
Soviet power paid much attention to ideological work among the Germans of Azerbaijan in order to involve them in the sociopolitical processes going on in the country, which was one of the areas of the Bolsheviks’ national policy. In order to carry out the tasks in this sphere, as early as 1921, a German faction was created under the Central Committee of the Azerbaijan Communist Party (Bolsheviks) in Baku. Its report for 1926 stated that at that moment 136 Germans in the republic were members and candidates for members of the Azerbaijan Communist Party (Bolsheviks).25 In the 1920s-1930s, two German newspapers came out in Baku: Bauer undArbeiter (Peasant and Worker), published in 1924 and distributed among the Germans living in Azerbaijan and Georgia,26 and the Lenins Weg (Lenin’s Way) newspaper, which was published in Helenendorf since 1932 and in Baku since
1936. It was considered the republic-level newspaper for the German population of the Azerbaijan S.S.R.27 Both of these newspapers were to make a significant contribution to organizing ideological work among the German national minority.
Spiritual life was of great importance in the lives of the emigrants and their descendents. Religion and the church were a uniting link, a symbol of their national culture and uniqueness, which were zealously preserved far from their historical homeland. In 1854, the first stone of St. John’s church
21 SHAAR, rec. gr. 508, inv. 1, f. 436, sheet 26; N.A. Ibragimov, Nemetskie stranitsy istorii Azerbaidzhana, Azerbaijan Publishers, Baku, 1995, pp. 165-166.
22 SHAAR, rec. gr. 830, inv. 1, f. 7, sheet 8; SAAR, rec. gr. 2602, inv. 1, f. 18, sheets 36, 47.
23 See: Narodnoe obrazovanie v Azerbaidzhane 1920-1927, Publication of the ASSR People’s Commissariat of Education, Baku, 1928, p. 143; Izvestia AzTsSU (Bulletin of the Azerbaijan Central Statistics Board), No. 1 (8), 1924, pp. 28-29; SAPPPMAR, rec. gr. 1, inv. 235, f. 303, sheet 141.
24 See: T.A. Musaeva, Revoliutsiia i narodnoe obrazovanie v Azerbaidzhane, Elm, Baku, 1979, p. 147; I.I. Kasumova, Kulturnoe stroitelstvo v Azerbaijane v 1920-1930-e gody (na primere natsionalnykh menshinstv i malochislennykh narodov): Dissertation... Ph.D. (Hist.), Baku, 1996, p. 103.
25 SAPPPMAR, rec. gr. 1, inv. 235, f. 303, sheets 140-141.
26 SAPPPMAR, rec. gr. 12, inv. 2, f. 108, sheets 155, 158; rec. gr. 1, inv. 235, f. 160, sheet 148.
27 SAPPPMAR, rec. gr. 1, inv. 74, f. 807, sheets 8-9; f. 425, sheet 18.
was laid in Helenendorf, and on 10 March, 1857, it was solemnly consecrated.28 In 1897, a German Lutheran church was built in Baku (architect A.W. Eichler), and in 1909, a church was opened in Annenfeld (architect F.A. Lemkul). During the Soviet period, there was an ambiguous attitude toward religion. As early as the beginning of the 1920s, an Evangelist-Lutheran community officially functioned which united the Germans of the Central Caucasus, including Azerbaijan.29 But at the beginning of the 1930s, a wave of arrests of German pastors swept many regions of the U.S.S.R., who were accused of anti-Soviet activity, of liaisons with Germany, and of receiving corresponding assistance from this country. According to the archives of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs, at the beginning of 1936, there were 7 Lutheran pastors in our republic who were arrested in 19361938 for espionage.30 In this connection and for several other reasons, the Lutheran churches were also closed. Incidentally, by 1937, not only the German churches, but also most of the mosques and cult buildings of other confessions at one time built in Azerbaijan ceased their activity once and for all and were turned into something different, for example, St. John’s church in Helenendorf became a sports hall.31
One of the interesting events in the cultural life of the German settlements during the Soviet period was the creation in 1928 of a regional studies museum in Helenendorf (the town of Khanlar). It was organized by local resident Yakov Ivanovich Hummel, who made a significant contribution with his scientific studies (including archeological digs) to Azerbaijan’s archeological and ethnographical sciences.32
Deportation
The last and rather tragic page in the history of the Germans of our republic, which put an end to their existence, development, and vital activity in Azerbaijan, was deportation. At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945), it was organized in all the Soviet republics, whereby this process affected not only Soviet Germans, but also the members of several other nationalities of the Soviet Union, whom the country’s leadership considered the “fifth column.” Here it is worth noting that according to the results of the last prewar census of 1939, 23,133 Germans lived in Azerbaijan (0.7% of the total size of its population).33
Deportation was carried out as follows. On 8 October, 1941, the State Defense Committee adopted a resolution (No. 744 ss) On the Resettlement of Germans from the Georgian, Azerbaijan, and Armenian S.S.R., which envisaged: “To resettle the German population from the Georgian S.S.R.— 23,580 people, from the Azerbaijan S.S.R.—22,741 people, and from the Armenian S.S.R.— 212 people.” All the measures for their forced resettlement in the Kazakh S.S.R. entrusted to the bodies of the U.S.S.R. People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs were to be carried out in a short time, between 15 and 30 October, 1941.34 According to the available data, Azerbaijan’s Germans were placed
28 SHAAR, rec. gr. 508, inv. 1, f. 436, sheet 26.
29 SAAR, rec. gr. 27, inv. 1, f. 377, sheets 5-6.
30 See: M. Jafarli, Politicheskii terror i sudby azerbaidzhanskikh nemtsev, p. 45.
31 See: T.F. Gumbatova, “Dukhovnaia zhizn nemtsev v Baku,” in: Rossiiskie nemtsy. Problemy istorii, yazyka i sovre-mennogo polozheniia, Documents from the International Scientific Conference, Gotika, Moscow, 1996, p. 345; Heimatbuch der Deutschen aus Rupland, Stuttgard, 1961, S. 115.
32 See: Ya.I. Hummel, Kraevedcheskii muzei Khanlarskogo raiona, Baku, 1939, pp. 3-19.
33 See: Vsesoiuznaia perepis naseleniia 1939 g. Main Results (All-Union Population Census for 1939), ed. by Yu.A. Poliakov, Nauka Publishers, Moscow, 1992, p. 71.
34 See: “To mobilize Germans into working colonies... (I. Stalin), ” Collected Documents, ed. by N.F. Bugai, Goti-ka, Moscow, 1998, p. 37-38.
Size of the German Part of the Population of the Central Caucasus
Location
8-
1897** 1926*** 1 1939**** 1989'
19*
Azerbaijan
In the
Russian
Empire
194
fami-
lies
(approx.
1,000
people)
6,834 —
Georgia
292
fami-
lies
(approx.
1,500
people)
405
In the
Soviet
era
Azerbaijan
Georgia
Armenia
— 13,149
— 12,074
— 104
23,133
20,527
748
1,546
265
See: N.K. Nikiforov, op. cit., p. 104. The source indicates the number of German families who moved to Georgia and Azerbaijan based on which the approximate number of people was estimated.
See: Pervaia vseobshchaia perepis naseleniia Rossiiskoi imperii 1897 g.
(First National Population Census of the Russian Empire of 1897), Vol. LXIII, Elizavetpol Gubernia, 1904, p. 3; Vol. LXI, Baku Gubernia, 1905, p. 52; Vol. LXXI, Erivan Gubernia, 1905, p. 53; Vol. LXIX, Tiflis Gubernia, 1905, pp. 76-77; Vol. LXVI, Kutaisi Gubernia, 1905, pp. 2-3. In the data of the Pervaia vseobshchaia perepis naseleniia Rossiiskoi imperii 1897 g., the country's national composition was defined according to native language, based on which the number of Germans was indicated as the number of people who declared German as their native language.
See: Naselenie Zakavkazia. Vsesoiuznaia perepis naseleniia 1926 g. (Population of the Transcaucasus. All-Union Population Census of 1926), Publication of the Transcaucasus Central Statistics Board, Tiflis, 1928, p. 8.
See: Vsesoiuznaia perepis naseleniia 1939 g., pp. 71-72.
See: “Rasselenie narodov SSSR po soiuznym respublikam po perepisi 1989 g.,” Soiuz newspaper, No. 32, August 1990.
(in groups) in special settlements created in the Akmolinsk, Karaganda, Kustanai, Pavlodar, and North Kazakhstan regions of the Kazakh S.S.R.,35 where they were mobilized into a working army, were
35 See: Iz istorii nemtsevKazakhstana (1921-1975), Collected Documents, Gotika, Almaty-Moscow, 1997, pp. 105106; P.B. Rempel, “Deportatsiia nemtsev iz evropeiskoi chasti SSSR i trudarmiia po ‘sovershenno sekretnym’ do-
*
****
*****
registered with the bodies of the People ’ s Commissariat of Internal Affairs, and were deprived of many rights, primarily to free movement.
Only many years after the end of the war, on the basis of decrees of the Presidium of the U.S.S.R. Supreme Soviet of 13 December, 1955, 29 August, 1964, and 3 November, 1972 were they given the opportunity to leave these special settlements. But they were ultimately rehabilitated on the basis of the U.S.S.R. Supreme Soviet Declaration On Recognizing Repressive Acts Against Peoples Subjected to Forced Resettlement as Illegal and Criminal, and On Guarantee of Their Rights signed on 14 November, 1989.36 At the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, most Soviet Germans emigrated to the FGR. Only a few of their families returned to the places of their former residence, in particular to Azerbaijan (see table), mainly to Baku. In this way, deportation put an end to the history of the German population which lived for almost two centuries in Azerbaijan.
The Situation Today
As we have already noted, the representatives of many nationalities, including Germans, live in Azerbaijan today. They all enjoy the equal rights and freedoms guaranteed by the republic’s Constitution and preserve and develop their own culture, language, customs, and traditions.37 In our country, several societies and organizations have been created which hold functions to acquaint people with the German culture, spiritual life, and history of these people, including evenings devoted to the memory of well-known German figures of literature, art, and science.38 Among such organizations we can note the Azerbaijan National Cultural German Society, Vozro-zhdenie (Revival), the German-Azerbaijani Cultural Society, Kapellhaus, the German-Azerbai-jan Society, and the Evangelist-Lutheran Society in Baku. So the members of this nationality now living in the republic have the opportunity to celebrate national holidays, go to church, and remember the history of their ancestors, the life and destinies of whom were linked with Azerbaijan for almost two centuries.
kumentam NKVD SSSR 1941-1944 gg.,” Rossiiskie nemtsy. Problemy istorii, yazyka i sovremennogo polozheniia, p. 73.
36 See: Istoria rossiiskikh nemtsev v dokumentakh (1763-1992), Collected Documents, ed. by V.A. Auman and V.G. Chebotareva, Vol. 1, Moscow, 1993, pp. 177-179, 266-267.
37 See: G. Orudzhev, “Azerbaijan’s National Minorities Today,” Central Asia and the Caucasus, No. 4 (22), 2003, pp. 139-141.
38 See: T.F. Gumbatova, “Vozrozhdenie nemetskoi kul’tury i religii v Azerbaidzhane,” Nemetskoe naselenie v post-stalinskom SSSR, v stranakh SNG i Baltii (1956-2003), Documents of the International Scientific Conference, Moscow, 2003, pp. 333-347; Ch. Abdullaev, B. Gulieva, Nemtsy v Azerbaidzhane, Baku, 1992, pp. 26-28.
