The ethnic structure of Soviet Azerbaijan (based on the materials of agricultural census of 1921)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the investigation of the ethnic structure of Soviet Azerbaijan based on the materials of the agricultural census, which conducted in summer of 1921. The data of the census published in the pages of “Izvestiya” of Az․ CSD from 1921 to 1924 and in publications dedicated to each uezd (administrative unit). The articles published in these magazine and books deal with different issues of Azerbaijan’s society: branches of agriculture, cargo transportation, trade, education and schools, but we are interested in that information, which introduce the ethnicity of the republic. The importance of these materials is essentially high. It shows how many ethnic and subethnic groups had been living in the current territory of Azerbaijan, what language they spoke, what kind of ethno consolidation processes had been fixed, thus, how they expressed their ethnic identification and what kind of theoretical and practical problems arose during the identification process.

Keywords

• ethnic differentiation ; soviet azerbaijan ; agricultural census ; family list ; administrative units ; ethnic minorities