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Garabagh literature of Soviet period

  


The Bolshevik Russia could not remain indifferent to the appearance of the independent Azerbaijani state on the scene of history near the red empire’s southern borders with immediate Muslim neighbours of Iran and Turkey. Consequently, unable to withstand strikes of the occupying XI red army, the first Azerbaijani democratic government fell down. The Soviet government was established in the country. The repression of the 1930s stemmed from the first months of the Soviet regime.
The regime’s first intellectual victim was  Firudin bey Kocharli (1863-1920), from Karabagh, the principal of the Qazakh Teachers’ Seminary, renowned scientist and literary critic, the author of the first many-volumed book of history of the Azerbaijani literature, who was gunned down by the Armenian Dashnaks at the Ganja prison. As a whole, the repression constitutes the bloody black pages of the Soviet period Azerbaijani literature. At that time, a lot of innocent workers and peasants were also subjected to persecution.
In connection with the global events of the first decades in the XX century and the regional social shocks, in particular, after the collapse of the DRA and the repression of the 1930s, Azerbaijan’s creative intelligentsia time and again came under persecution and finally went into exile as a last resort to survive and continue their literary activities. Those, held hostage in the war against the German fascism and banned from returning home or those who abandoned their fatherland due to persecution of the Shah regime, and their sons and daughters now live in Asia, Africa, Europe and even in Australia

United around a single airm our intelelctuals in emigration have always tirelessly protected, represented with dignity and promoted Azerbaijan’s national, literary, cultural mentality and ideals of Azerbaijanism wherever they live and worked hard to keep in focus of the ruling circles and the public the grief and sorrow of Azerbaijan. Some of those Azerbaijani emigrants, who still continue their creative activities, possess wide-ranging, influential, literary, scientific-philological and publicistic heritage. Jeyhun Hajibeyli is also amongst those authors.
Great services of Yusif Vazir Chamanzaminli - the author of “Between two fires” (“In blood”), “Spring of girls” should be underlined. One of the main pecularities of the Soviet-era Azerbaijani literature was that it was constantly guided and controlled by the ideological bodies through directives.
The major of them were the resolution of the Russian Communist (bolsheviks) Party Central Committee “On the party’s policy in the sphere of belles-lettres”; the decision of the All-Union Communist (bolsheviks) Party Central Committee “On the re-organization of the literary and artistic bodies” (1932); “On ‘Zwezda’ and ‘Leningrad’ magazines” (1948); the decision of the Central Committee of the Azerbaijani Communist Party “On the state of the Azerbaijani Soviet literature and measures to improve it” (1948); the decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union “On literary-artistic criticism” (1972) and a number of other political directives. In particular, the literary method of socialist realism, defined by the 1934 first all-union congress of the Soviet writers, restricted authors in their creative activities and obliged them to write within certain limits. After the criticism of “Zvezda” and “Leningrad” magazines for the alleged distortion of the Soviet way of life and casting light on shortcomings in the public life along with literature of other Soviet peoples, literary patterns based on the “lack of conflict” emerged in the Azerbaijani literature.

The most important literary event of the 1960-90ss was the arrival of the generation of the “sixtieth” in literature. After this namely, the literature turned into a real opposition to the total military regime with own spirit and essence and played an active role in intellectual and moral preparation of the current national independence and democratic movement.
 The movement for the freedom of speech and thought, freedom of political reflection, pluralism, national independence, social justice in literature continued in 1970-90ss and finally, realized its perspective aims with the gaining of Azerbaijan’s political sovereignty and state independence.
If we add hundreds of Karabakh-born novelists, dramatists, poets, publicists, scientists and journalists, who have been writing since the second half of XX century (or more exactly), the creators of the new era literature) to this list, Karabakh’s contribution to the Azerbaijani literature will be obvious.
Great novelists like Suleyman Rahimov, Ali Veliyev, Ilyas Efendiyev, Bayram Bayramov, Sabir Ahmadov; masters of word, very talanted writers, poets and literary critics like Mehdi Mammadov, Akbar Agayev, Qulu Khalili, Masud Alioglu, Alfi Qasimov, Isi Malikzade, Majid Shamkhalov, Jamil Alibayov, Qasim Qasimzade, Famil Mehdi, Teymur Elchin, Jahangir Gozalov, Elchin, Chingiz Abdullayev, Yusif Kerimov, Shahmar Akbarzade, Vaqif Jabrayilzadr (Vaqif Bayatli Onar), Seyran Sakhavat, Aqil Abbas, Ali Amirov, Zakir Fakhri, Anvar Ahmad; philologists and linguists like Akbar Bayramov, Tofiq Hajiyev, Kamran Mammadov, Qazanfar Kazimov, Kamal Valiyev, Arif Hajiyev, Farida Vezirova, Rasim Tagiyev, Qadir Ismayilov, Arif Safiyev, Vilayat Quliyev, Ilham Rahimli and dozens of intellectuals became outstanding figures of the Azerbaijani literature, literary thought and the literary science and enriched and further developed the Azerbaijani literature with original, artistic-tasteful and scientific thinking. And this giant, ebullient and elated river of thoughts has been flowing.



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