Aliheydar Garayev

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Aliheydar Garayev (Azerbaijani: Əliheydər Ağakərim oğlu Qarayev) (June 20, 1896 – April 24, 1938) was an Azerbaijani revolutionary and Soviet official. He began as a Menshevik and later joined the Bolsheviks. Born in Shamakhi, he studied there, taught in Baku, and attended the Novocherkassk Polytechnic Institute, where he joined student revolutionary activities. In 1917 he chaired the Shamakhi Workers and Soldiers Council, and from 1918 to 1920 he led the Hummet faction, representing social democrats who aligned with Bolshevism.

After the Red Army occupied Azerbaijan in 1920, Garayev held several key Soviet posts. He was a member of the Interim Azerbaijan Revolutionary Committee and the Baku Revolutionary Committee, served as People’s Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs of the Azerbaijan SSR (1920–1923), and briefly headed the Baku City Executive Committee. He helped bring the Red Army to Azerbaijan and played a major role in overthrowing the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. Together with Chingiz Ildyrym, he delivered an ultimatum to the Azerbaijani Parliament to surrender. He argued that establishing Soviet power would help defeat Armenian rebels in Karabakh, and under Soviet rule Nagorno-Karabakh and Nakhchivan stayed with Azerbaijan, while Zangezur joined Armenia.

From 1929 to 1930 he served as the Second Secretary of the Transcaucasian Regional Committee of the Communist Party. Between 1921 and 1931 Garayev held various government posts, edited newspapers such as Khalq Qazeti and Kommunist, and wrote Bolshevik propaganda pieces like “Who needs mourning?” aimed at reducing religious practices. As People’s Commissar of Justice, he oversaw the imprisonment of some Azerbaijani intellectuals. Nariman Narimanov criticized him as hot-blooded and given to political intrigues. A women’s club in Baku bore his name in the 1920s, and a street named after him was later changed to Ahmad Javad street.

In the 1930s, on the recommendation of Lavrentiy Beria to Stalin, Garayev was arrested on charges of espionage and counter-revolutionary activity. He was executed by firing squad on April 24, 1938, by order of Stalin. He had been awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour for his service to the Bolshevik movement and is buried in Yasamal cemetery in Baku.