The political situation in Azerbaijan in the early twentieth century -- The domestic and international position of Azerbaijan after the Bolshevik occupation -- The eastern policy of Soviet Russia and Iran -- The sovietization of Armenia : Moscow's secret plans for Karabagh -- Collaboration after occupation : drawing South Caucasus borders after sovietization -- The Russian-Turkish conference in Moscow and Azerbaijan -- From Moscow to Kars -- The struggle for Baku oil and the formation of the Soviet Union

The early Soviet Union’s nationalities policy involved the formation of many national republics, within which "nation building" and "modernization" were undertaken for the benefit of "backward" peoples. This book, in considering how such policies were implemented in Azerbaijan, argues that the Soviet policies were in fact a form of imperialism, with "nation building" and "modernization" imposed firmly along Soviet lines. The book demonstrates that in Azerbaijan, and more widely among western Turkic peoples, the Volga and Crimean Tatars, there were before the onset of Soviet rule, well developed, forward looking, secular, national movements, which were not at all "backward" and were different from the Soviets. The book shows how in the period 1920 to 1940 the two different visions competed with each other, with eventually the pre-Soviet vision of Azerbaijani culture losing out, and the Soviet version dominating in a new Soviet Azerbaijani culture. The book examines the details of this Sovietization of culture: in language policy and the change of the alphabet, in education, higher education and in literature. The book concludes by exploring how pre-Soviet Azerbaijani culture survived to a degree underground, and how it was partially rehabilitated after the death of Stalin and more fully in the late Soviet period.

The first comprehensive account of Azerbaijan's rich and tumultuous history up to the present time.

In From the Kur to the Aras George A. Bournoutian presents, for the first time, the military history of the First Russo-Iranian War using both Russian and Iranian primary sources of the period.

As perceived icons of indifferent marginality, disorder, indolence, and parasitism, “Gypsies” threatened the Bolsheviks’ ideal of New Soviet Men and Women. The early Soviet state feared that its Romani population suffered from an extraordinary and potentially insurmountable cultural “backwardness,” and sought to sovietize Roma through a range of nation-building projects. Yet as Brigid O’Keeffe shows in this book, Roma actively engaged with Bolshevik nationality policies, thereby assimilating Soviet culture, social customs, and economic relations. Roma proved the primary agents in the refashioning of so-called “backwards Gypsies” into conscious Soviet citizens. New Soviet Gypsies provides a unique history of Roma, an overwhelmingly understudied and misunderstood diasporic people, by focusing on their social and political lives in the early Soviet Union. O’Keeffe illustrates how Roma mobilized and performed “Gypsiness” as a means of advancing themselves socially, culturally, and economically as Soviet citizens. Exploring the intersection between nationality, performance, and self-fashioning, O’Keeffe shows that Roma not only defy easy typecasting, but also deserve study as agents of history.

The Right to Self-Determination in the South Caucasus: Nagorno Karabakh in Context, by Bahruz Balayev, explores the relationship in international law between the concept of self-determination and territorial integrity in the context of the Caucasus region. This study brings together the various self-determination movements of the Caucasus (Nagorno Karabakh, South Ossetia, Adjara, Abkhazia, and Chechnya) and provides a comparative analysis. The August 2008 war in Georgia and the proclamation of independence of Kosovo renewed the discussion over the right to self-determination in international law: Has the right to self-determination evolved since the solutions to the conflicts over self-determination are now determined in a new manner, or should it? Will the question of self-determination in different regions of the world be a spark for a new cold war? Unilateral declarations and the recognition of independence of South Ossetia, Abkhazia, and Kosovo could be the first spark. These are the pressing questions because there are many self-determination and secession movements all over the world. The Right to Self-Determination in the South Caucasus is a unique tool for scholars, researchers, and the public in understanding South Caucasus regional conflicts from the New Haven School perspective.

Azerbaijan, a small post-Soviet republic located on the western shore of the Caspian Sea, has outsized importance becaus of its strategic location at the corssroads of Europe and Asia, its oil resources, and

The early Soviet Union’s nationalities policy involved the formation of many national republics, within which "nation building" and "modernization" were undertaken for the benefit of "backward" peoples. This book, in considering how such policies were implemented in Azerbaijan, argues that the Soviet policies were in fact a form of imperialism, with "nation building" and "modernization" imposed firmly along Soviet lines. The book demonstrates that in Azerbaijan, and more widely among western Turkic peoples, the Volga and Crimean Tatars, there were before the onset of Soviet rule, well developed, forward looking, secular, national movements, which were not at all "backward" and were different from the Soviets. The book shows how in the period 1920 to 1940 the two different visions competed with each other, with eventually the pre-Soviet vision of Azerbaijani culture losing out, and the Soviet version dominating in a new Soviet Azerbaijani culture. The book examines the details of this Sovietization of culture: in language policy and the change of the alphabet, in education, higher education and in literature. The book concludes by exploring how pre-Soviet Azerbaijani culture survived to a degree underground, and how it was partially rehabilitated after the death of Stalin and more fully in the late Soviet period.

The majority of the existing work on nationalism has centered on its role in the creation of new states. After Independence breaks new ground by examining the changes to nationalism after independence in seven new states. This innovative volume challenges scholars and specialists to rethink conventional views of ethnic and civic nationalism and the division between primordial and constructivist understandings of national identity. "Where do nationalists go once they get what they want? We know rather little about how nationalist movements transform themselves into the governments of new states, or how they can become opponents of new regimes that, in their view, have not taken the self-determination drive far enough. This stellar collection contributes not only to comparative theorizing on nationalist movements, but also deepens our understanding of the contentious politics of nationalism's ultimate product--new countries." --Charles King, Chair of the Faculty and Ion Ratiu Associate Professor, Georgetown University School of Foreign Service "This well-integrated volume analyzes two important variants of nationalism-postcolonial and postcommunist-in a sober, lucid way and will benefit students and scholars alike." --Zvi Gitelman, University of Michigan Lowell W. Barrington is Associate Professor of Political Science, Marquette University.

Ronald Grigor Suny examines the Revolution in Baku, important provincial capital and oil center of the Russian empire. His study of Baku's national and class conflicts, Bolshevism as it developed in the city, and the failure of the Commune in 1918 amends our picture of the Revolution as the work of a highly conspiratorial party, seizing power by force and imposing its will on a reluctant population by terror. Originally published in 1972. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.