The 1920 Ganja revolt () was a popular uprising against the Soviet occupation that took place in Ganja on 26 to 31 May 1920. The goal of the uprising was to overthrow the Soviet government in Azerbaijan. This was the largest rebellion against Soviet rule in Azerbaijan in the 20th century, and caused the most losses. The organizers and leading force of the uprising were officers of the army of the former Azerbaijan Democratic Republic.
The 1st Infantry Division of the Azerbaijan Army, the units of the 3rd Ganja Regiment in the city, the training team of the 3rd Sheki Cavalry Regiment, an artillery battery, and the personnel of the commandant's unit subordinated to the divisional headquarters were mainly involved in the organisation of the uprising. Qachaq Gambar, Sari Alakbar, Qachaq Gasim Kolakhani, Qachaq Mikayil and others also participated in the Ganja uprising with their armed men. The armies of the surrounding villages joined the rebellion army. Their number was more than 10 thousand people.On the eve of the uprising, units of the 20th infantry division of the 11th Red Army took up positions in and around the city. The 178th and 180th infantry regiments of the division were in the Armenian neighbourhood of the city, and the communications battalion and commandant unit of the 3rd brigade were in the Azerbaijani part of the city. The 40th Cavalry Brigade was stationed around the village of Zurnabad. On 25 May, the II regiment of the Taman Cavalry Brigade was also brought to Ganja.
During the uprising that started on the night of 25–26 May, the rebels quickly took control of the important facilities of the city, the Red Army units in the Azerbaijani part. The military warehouse, the city prison, the railway station, the building of the emergency commissariat was also captured. On 28 May, the leaders of the Ganja uprising and the city community gathered at the district court building to celebrate the second anniversary of the declaration of Azerbaijan's independence.
On 29 May, the Bolshevik attack on the rebels ended in failure. The Bolshevik forces were unable to fulfill their task in the attack carried out from several directions. On the contrary, the counterattacks by the rebels put the Bolshevik forces in a difficult position. Later, the XI Red Army command brought additional forces to Ganja. Before the start of the next battles on 30 May, the 11th Red Army had 5 infantry regiments, 6 cavalry regiments, 7 separate units and detachments, 57 cannons and 2 armoured vehicles in Ganja. Most of these forces were deployed to the north of the city, and from there the main attack began on 31 May. Rebels who could not leave the city, as well as civilians, were surrounded and shot en masse. After the suppression of the rebellion, 12 generals, 27 colonels and lieutenant colonels, 46 captains, staff captains, 12 generals, 27 colonels and lieutenant colonels, 46 captains, staff captains of the Azerbaijani army, along with prominent figures such as Major-General Muhammad Mirza Qajar, Qachaq Gambar, lawyer Ismayil Khan Ziyadkhanov, writer Firidun Bey Kocherli, engineer Abuzar Bey Rzayev and teacher Mirza Abbas Abbaszadeh, lieutenants and second lieutenants, 146 ensigns and sub-ensigns, and 267 other military personnel were shot by the Bolsheviks.
The situation before the uprising April Invasion
On 21 and 23 April 1920, the Revolutionary Military Council of the Caucasian Front, under the leadership of S.G.Ordzhonikidze, ordered the XI Red Army to cross the border of Azerbaijan on 27 April and occupy the entire territory. On 26 April, the XI Red Army headquarters moved to Derbend to lead the offensive. The attack of the XI Army began at 12 o'clock on the night of 26–27 April. 70,000 XI Red Army, the "III International" in front, 3 more armoured trains and 300 infantrymen, crossed the bridge over the Samur River. Among the leaders of this troop were Anastas Mikoyan and Gazanfar Musabeyov.
On the same day, the ACP Ganja District Committee formed the Revolutionary Committee of Gubernia after hearing about the events in Baku. In the evening of the next day, Governor Khudadat Bey Rafibeyli signed the act on the transfer of power to the Revolutionary Committee in the entire Ganja Governorate. Ganja Revolutionary Committee consisted of chairman Ibrahim Aliyev, deputy Farhad Aliyev, Vakilov, Sultanov and Eminbeyov.
During the change of government in Ganja governorate, armoured trains started moving from Baku to Ganja. As they approached the city, they engaged in a major battle with bands of Musavatists who tried to block their path. On 1 May, Soviet armored trains and landing companies of the 28th Infantry Division captured the Ganja station and the railway district of the city. The next day, the regiments of the II Cavalry Corps and the Taman Cavalry Division arrived Ganja and occupied the city as well as its subordinate districts.
After the telegram sent by Lenin to the leadership of Soviet Azerbaijan on 5 May, which was regarded as the recognition of Soviet Azerbaijan as a new state, a telegram signed by Ibrahim Aliyev, the chairman of the Revolutionary Committee of Gubernia, arrived from the Ganja Revolutionary Committee on 8 May. In this telegram, the recognition of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic by the RSFSR was welcomed by Ganja governorate and the telegram expressed readiness to fight mercilessly against those who exploit the working class of the whole world. At the same time, during the Ganja uprising, many villagers did not even know about the sovietization of the country.
Policy towards the ADP Army On 28 April, according to the decree of the Azerbaijan Revolutionary Committee, the People's Commissariat for Military and Naval Affairs was established and Chingiz Yildirim was appointed as its first commissioner. The next day, the Azerbaijan Revolutionary Committee appealed to the soldiers of the Azerbaijani army, urging them to help the Red Army in the fight for the Soviet government. On the same day, a decision was made to immediately subordinate the Azerbaijani army to the XI Red Army and re-form it on the basis of the Workers-Peasants' Red Army while keeping the name of Azerbaijan for the appropriate number and units of army. The newly formed army was initially (in May) the successor of the former ADR army in terms of its personnel and equipment, only its name was changed and it was called the Red Army. Soldiers and officers were already serving in the army under the new government. On the 30th of the month, Chingiz Yıldırım appointed the former Deputy Minister of Defense Aliaga Shikhlinski as his temporary assistant.
They began to appoint members of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan to the former army units in order to concentrate the political leadership in their hands. According to the recommendation of the Azerbaijan Revolutionary Committee (ARC) and by order of the People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs of the Azerbaijan Soviet Republic, Ahmad Rzayev was appointed as the commissar of the military units located in Ganja on 4 May. On 7 May, the ARC made a decision to subordinate the renamed army and navy to the 11th Red Army and the Volga-Caspian military fleet "in terms of operational, administrative, organizational and all types of supplies". Subordinating parts of the former ADR army to the XI Red Army was not only a political activity. It was important to increase the personnel of the XI Red Army, which entered the Caucasus.
In order to implement this, according to the decision made on 11 May by the commander of the XI Red Army, Mikhail Levandovsky, member of the Revolutionary Military Council, Konstantin Mekhonoshi, and chief of staff, Alexander Remezov, the Azerbaijani units located in the Ganja district should be subordinated to the commander of the 32nd division, The inspectors of the 11th Red Army were instructed to re-form the Azerbaijani units, as well as to draw up a plan to create the 1 st United Azerbaijan worker-peasant red Soviet rifle division. On that day, Chingiz Yıldırım wrote:
During the reformations, units of the former Azerbaijani army were reorganised. According to the decision by the Military and Naval Commissar of the Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan dated 16 May, the name of the 3rd Ganja Infantry Regiment was changed to the 3rd Azerbaijan Workers and Peasants' Red Rifle Regiment, and the 1 st Infantry Division (which later revolted) was merged with the 2nd Infantry Division and the name was changed to the 1 st Workers and Peasants' Red Rifle Brigade. The 1 st Workers' and Peasants' Red Rifle Brigade became a part of the 1 st Azerbaijan Workers' and Peasants' Red Division. (The headquarters of the 1 st infantry division took the name of the Azerbaijan Workers and Peasants' United Division). Almost at the same time, by the decision of the Military-Naval Commissioner of the Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan, the name of the Military School of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was changed to the Workers-Peasants' Red Command Courses. The task of reshaping the training units was assigned to General Aliagha Shikhlinski, a former army officer who at that time was the assistant to the Naval Commissar of the Azerbaijan Soviet Republic: "The reshaping of the training units should be carried out according to the instructions of my deputy Aliagha Shikhlinsky".
Military and political situation On 10 May, the Bolshevik uprising began and was suppressed by the Armenian government. Suppression was also helped by England and the Dashnaks were offered weapons worth 1 million pounds sterling, which they accepted on 19 May. Although the uprising was suppressed, an armed struggle against the government broke out in a number of regions of Armenia. On 18 May, the government of Soviet Azerbaijan even sent 17 wagons of food and 5 million rubles to the rebelling Shamshadin region. Nevertheless, after long battles, the Armenian insurgents, numbering 1600 people, crossed the Azerbaijani border. In Soviet Azerbaijan, the Armenian Red Insurgent Regiment (1 st Kazakh Insurgent Regiment) was formed from them.
The May uprising of the Bolsheviks in Armenia coincided with the period when the 32nd Rifle Division of the XI Red Army crossed the border of the Kazakh province with Armenia. Armenian detachments withdrew from Karabakh under the pressure of the Red Army. Armenian units were also retreating from Karabakh under the pressure of the Red Army. On 18 May, the commander of the 32nd infantry division, Steiger, received an order from the XI Red Army that "all parts of the division should be concentrated around Shusha by May 25 and strong detachments should be sent in the direction of Nakhchivan - Julfa - Ordubad." The goal here was to capture those territories. According to the order, on 20 May, the first brigade of the XX division was sent from Ganja to Shusha along the Yelenendorf-Chaykend-Tartar-Khankendi route. At the same time, the division's second brigade and headquarters remained in Ganja. On 20 May, rebels and people's militia units, with the help of Azerbaijan SSR, captured Caravanserai, which was the border region of Armenia with Azerbaijan. The next day, Red Army units also entered here. However, the Ganja and Zagatala uprisings, as well as the conflicts in Zangezur and Karabakh, diverted the forces of the XI Red Army from some targets.
Status of the Parties
Former Azerbaijani army