In one of his articles, David Laitin, Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, describes an episode from his childhood memories. Laitin writes that Jewish child from the Flatbush neighborhood of New York, on their daily way to school, were subjected to insults and sometimes even attacks by Italian pupils from a neighboring district who attended St Brendan’s School. The headmaster of the Jewish school would frequently inform the headmaster of the school attended by the Italian children about these incidents and ask for measures to be taken, yet neither the Jewish nor the Italian headmaster considered it necessary to inform the police chief, who was Irish by nationality. Laitin’s account is an interesting example of how relations between two peoples, Jews and Italians, living under the authority of the United States were regulated. If certain differences are set aside, this example may offer us a lens for understanding how relations were established between Christian Germans who migrated from the Württemberg province of Germany to the South Caucasus in the early nineteenth century and the local Muslim Turks, hereafter referred to as Azerbaijanis[1]. The American experience is an example of Italians and Jews, despite being citizens of the country, resolving their everyday problems through popular diplomacy rather than appealing to state institutions. The Azerbaijani experience, by contrast, represents an attempt to resolve the social relations of Azerbaijanis and Germans, who were not subjects of the empire at the time, they only acquired subject status half a century later, through negotiation.
In this article, I will show how relations between migrant Germans and local Azerbaijanis were depicted from the mid nineteenth century to the early twentieth century in three different types of historical sources, written, oral and visual. This depiction will help to understand how political authority influenced both the attitudes of two communities with different cultures and values, yet sharing the same geographical space, towards their environment and towards one another, and how interethnic relations were regulated under a colonial regime.
The written sources include various statistical and descriptive documents and reports produced by the administrative apparatus of the Caucasus of the Russian Empire, the oral narratives comprise the memoirs of German migrants, Germans who travelled to, worked in and lived in the South Caucasus, and local Azerbaijanis, while the visual sources encompass the architecture and architectural monuments of Shamkhor, present-day Shamkir, and Khanlar, present-day Goygol.
The resettlement of Germans in the Russian Empire
The first arrival of German migrants in the South Caucasus took place in the nineteenth century, only five years after the end of the first Russo-Persian war (1804–1813). In 1818, Germans were settled in two governorates later established in the South Caucasus, the Tiflis and Yelizavetpol governorates.[2] In that same year, 194 German families migrated to the Yelizavetpol governorate, more precisely to the territory of what are now the Goygol and Shamkir regions. The Russian Empire, which had not yet fully consolidated its control over the newly conquered territories and had not clearly determined how to regulate relations with the local population, also transferred an alien community to the region. During the initial phase of resettlement, Russia was unable to ensure the security it had promised to the migrants, clashes occurred between the local population and the newcomers, and during the second Russo-Persian war (1826–1828) German migrants suffered attacks from both local inhabitants and Persians.
After the wars ended and stability was restored in the region, the Russian Empire focused its primary attention on the creation of colonial institutions and the colonization of the region. In the first stage, those subjected to colonization were not the resettled Germans but the local population. This is confirmed by the social policies of imperial institutions towards the resettled Germans and the local inhabitants. Imperial authorities granted tax privileges to Germans and recognized their right to self-government. This situation had a negative impact on relations between the local Azerbaijani population and migrant Germans.
Most academic studies on interethnic relations are devoted to conflicts and confrontations that occurred between peoples with different cultural and religious experiences, that is, to negative experience. Yet the history of many states demonstrates that in territories lacking strong political authority, interethnic cooperation has been more common than interethnic conflict, and it is conflict rather than cooperation that represents a deviation from the norm.[3] Rationalist theories that regard different ethnic groups as coalitions argue that cooperation between peoples is formed in order to obtain material gain or to preserve achievements already attained.[4] Psychological theories that analyze the factors conditioning the formation of ethnic groups explain this through internal needs of peoples, the need to belong to a particular ethnic group. When this psychological comfort is disrupted or threatened by another group, interethnic conflict emerges.[5]
In studies that analyze ethnic diversity from the perspective of peoples benefiting from one another, increasing economic productivity and development incentives through the exchange of knowledge, skills and experience, cultural and social differences are presented as positive factors.[6] Researchers argue that these differences do not generate conflict and confrontation but instead create a basis for cooperation, new opportunities and mutual benefit, thereby promoting and ensuring peace and stability. In the colonial administration of the former Russian Empire, both policies of mutual benefit and policies of provoking threats and conflicts were applied in the regulation of interethnic relations. Germans resettled in the South Caucasus in the early nineteenth century were intended to serve as an example of economic success that Russian colonial authorities could present to the local population. European Christian peasants were expected to teach local Muslims organization in economic life, diligence, and lawfulness. According to colonial officials, this example would allow supposedly backward Muslim communities to become acquainted with the achievements of Europe’s progressive social life and would facilitate the work of colonial institutions in integrating newly conquered territories into the empire.
The attitude of imperial authorities towards the local population changed approximately half a century after the end of the conquest, with the reforms initiated in connection with the integration of the South Caucasus into the empire. As a result of these reforms, local Azerbaijanis became legal subjects of the Russian Empire. From this period onwards, policies towards German migrants also changed. By the early twentieth century, Germans who had become firmly established in the new territories and achieved social success could no longer benefit from tax privileges. Germans owning prosperous farms paid higher taxes to the imperial treasury. Increased social activity and organization, together with growing economic power, led colonial authorities to restrict the rights of self-government that had been granted to Germans during the period of adaptation, and after the outbreak of the First World War the Russian government adopted decisions on the forced confiscation of German lands, the closure of German schools and newspapers, and the deprivation of Germans themselves of judicial protection.
German migrants in the South Caucasus: What do written sources say?
According to information provided by the official documents of the Russian Empire, the resettlement of German migrants to the territory of the present-day Republic of Azerbaijan began in 1819, and after living in these lands for 122 years the Germans were deported to Kazakhstan in 1941 by a special order of Joseph Stalin. Contemporaries remember well the sudden disappearance of their “blue-eyed, fair-haired German neighbors” living in Khanlar and Shamkir in that year: the “clatter of the wheels of the freight wagons carrying the Germans” echoed in the ears of Azerbaijanis for a long time, and the confused faces of the Germans were not erased from memory.[7]
Azerbaijani historiography accepts the narrative formulated by the Russian colonial authorities regarding German migrants and argues that the successful social story of German migrants in the territories to which they moved was the result of tsarist administrative policy. This success was made possible directly by the support shown by tsarist Russia to European migrants. Otherwise, Germans would not have been able to achieve economic success in the South Caucasus.[8] These views are reflected in the official written narratives prepared by Russian colonial institutions.[9]
Most written materials on the social life of German migrants are currently preserved in the collections of the Azerbaijan Republic State Historical Archive (ARDTA). These include materials from archival fonds comprising more than 2,000 storage units, including fonds 508, 963, 406, 905, 415, 416 and others. These materials provide information on how German colonies were administered, the tax system, and the cultural and everyday life of German migrants. The archival fonds are significant for analyzing key aspects of the migrants’ economic activity, including agrarian and industrial projects.
Analysis of official documents and other written sources shows that in the initial period, relations between German migrants and local Azerbaijanis were tense. The main reason for this was that the lands belonging to locals, primarily the wealthy strata, were initially confiscated by colonial authorities and later purchased or leased under special agreements and given to migrants, who were also granted special tax privileges and the right to self-government. The right of self-government for German migrants meant that decisions concerning their economic and cultural life were taken at their own assemblies. This autonomy was linked to their religious sectarianism. When migrating to the South Caucasus, the migrants had agreed with the Russian authorities on the right to leave these territories at any time.[10] During this period, the local population was crushed under a double tax burden, paying taxes both to the Russian colonial authorities and to local landowners. Agreements between local landowners and colonial institutions harmed the economic interests of the local population.
In 1866, the growth of the German population created a need for new land, and to meet this need an agreement was reached between local feudal lords and the colonial authorities on the division of the Seyfali orchards in the Shamkir region. Officials decided to relocate the Azerbaijanis living in that area to the village of Maytar in order to allocate land to German migrants.[11] The government envisaged allocating 22,5 acres, or 11,25 hectares, of land to each German family. Prior to this agreement, the lands in the Seyfali area had been leased by landowners to local peasants. Rice was cultivated on part of the land, while the remaining part was used as pasture. One of the areas forcibly abandoned by Azerbaijani peasants was the Morul valley in the Shamkir region. From the mid nineteenth century onwards, Germans began to establish vineyards and develop wine-making farms. In order to acquire new lands, local Azerbaijanis were instructed to use the Chardakhli summer pastures in the Shamkir region, while the Morul valley they had used was given to German migrants. In addition to this relocation, colonial authorities allocated 1.500 trees and 6.000 roubles to help Germans consolidate themselves in the new territories.[12]
For Azerbaijani peasants, who had historically suffered from a shortage of arable land, the loss of land further aggravated an already difficult social life. Another cause of tension between Germans and Azerbaijanis was the lack of representation of Azerbaijani peasants. Local landowners sought in an organized manner to defend their rights, they negotiated with colonial authorities and brought land claims to the courts. For example, Hasan bey and Rustam bey, landowners from Shamkhor, filed a court claim over 1.750 desyatinas[13] of land allocated to migrants from the Seyfali orchards.[14] However, there was no institution representing Azerbaijani peasants. As a result, conflict arose between newcomers and locals in areas where confiscated lands were given to German migrants. Landowning elites seized irrigation canals used by German migrants and created obstacles to their economic activities.[15] To resolve these problems, special agreements were concluded between Muslim landowners and representatives of German migrants. Compliance with these agreements was supervised by an imperial institution, the Special Irrigation Council.[16] Despite this, both local landowners and peasants who had previously leased these lands created problems for German migrants, blocked roads leading to German vineyards, destroyed vineyards, and caused various obstructions for the Germans.[17]
In Azerbaijani historiography, the resettlement of Germans to the newly conquered South Caucasus is explained by two reasons. The first is described as an attempt by the colonial authorities to create a social support base among Europeans to whom they felt closer in the newly occupied territories. The second reason is the attempt of the Russian colonial apparatus, which offered more favorable conditions to German migrants, to sow discord between locals and newcomers in order to facilitate governance and maintain better control over the occupied territories. In general, written sources indicate the existence of a conflictual situation between local Azerbaijanis and migrant Germans in the nineteenth century as a result of land and water issues and the social policies of colonial authorities. It should be borne in mind that written sources were official and prepared by representatives of the authorities, and therefore reflected the official policy of the regime.[18] How, then, were interethnic relations remembered in the collective memory of both communities?
How do neighbors remember one another?
The Azerbaijani–German relations that appear complex in written sources are also contradictory in oral sources, in the memories and memoirs of German migrants and local Azerbaijanis. In order to understand how these relations developed, I have analyzed the writings of representatives of four different generations. The reason I do not analyze memoirs and recollections from the same period is the scarcity of sources. Chronologically, one of the earliest sources belongs to the renowned German scholar, industrialist, and political figure Werner von Siemens.[19]
Siemens travelled to the South Caucasus twice in the nineteenth century, visited German colonies in the Yelizavetpol governorate and in his memoirs described the way of life and relations of German migrants and their Azerbaijani neighbors. Siemens referred to German migrants as Swabians and to their neighbors as Tatars.[20] While praising the beauty of the environment and nature, as well as the industriousness and reliability of the local population, Siemens also noted that Tatars were inclined towards banditry. Comparing contemporary Tatars with medieval German knights, Siemens wrote that the “limited nature of their demands distances them from modern cultural tendencies.” He also described the traditional social norms of the Swabians, who spoke in a dialect unfamiliar to him, although Siemens’s wife was Swabian and therefore the Swabian dialect should not have been alien to him. Siemens wrote that the dialect spoken by the migrants dated back to the early nineteenth century and was unfamiliar to modern Germany. He considered Helenendorf, present-day Goygol, to be the most successful of the German colonies in the South Caucasus and linked this to its favorable geographical position and climate. In Siemens’s memoirs, the German colonies and the settlements of the Tatars appear as two different worlds that did not come into contact with one another and between which there were serious differences. Although Siemens’s short visit to the South Caucasus and his position as an external observer undermine the objectivity of his comparison, this description does not contradict the information found in written sources.
In 2012, Vladimir Baytinger, a Russian surgeon of German origin, published a memoir entitled Tale, based on the recollections of his grandparents, about the life of the Germans of Annenfeld, present-day Shamkir, the difficulties they faced and their social achievements.[21] In the memories passed down from generation to generation by the first German migrants, events that took place in the early nineteenth century are also reflected. The author writes that during the Russo-Persian war of 1826 the German colony of Annenfeld was destroyed by Persians, after which local Muslims also plundered the migrants.[22] On the basis of information transmitted by his ancestors, Baytinger notes that throughout the nineteenth century there was no serious contact between the German community and the local Muslim community, and that Germans lived a fairly closed life. The isolated living of Germans and Azerbaijanis is also confirmed by the number of mixed marriages. Marriages between representatives of the two communities were rare. Official documents indicate that over a period of 90 years, from 1819 to 1909, only nine marriages between Germans and local Muslims were officially registered.
In memoirs and recollections dating to the early twentieth century, it is possible to argue that relations between German migrants and local Azerbaijanis moved to a new level. One of the authors of these memoirs is Nagi Sheykhzamanli, originally from Ganja, one of the founders of the Azerbaijan Republic. He served as head of the Republic’s special services and was among the statesmen who emigrated to Turkey after the communist coup in Azerbaijan in April 1920. In 1964 his work Memories of the Struggle for Azerbaijani Independence was published in Istanbul. In his memoirs, Sheykhzamanli discusses the order issued by the Russian authorities during the First World War for the purchase of the property of Russian subjects of German origin for negligible sums and for their deportation to Siberia. On the eve of and during the First World War, Germanophobia was widespread in Russia, and various rumours about German treachery circulated in the Russian media and political circles, while accusations of treason were directed against Germans holding high positions in the army and state administration.[23] Sheykhzamanli writes that “this injustice deeply distressed the people of Ganja.” A prominent politician of the period and a member of the Ganja city duma, Alakbar Rafibeyli, wrote in his memoirs that during a meeting with the Yelizavetpol governor Georgiy Kovalyov he warned that Azerbaijanis would rebel if the Germans were deported. Rafibeyli notes that after this meeting the tsarist order was not implemented.[24] Sheykhzamanli also notes that the decision of the tsarist administration to confiscate German property for negligible compensation and to deport the Germans seriously alarmed Muslims and strengthened the fear that such a decision might later be applied to them as well. The harsh reaction of Muslim landowners to the tsar’s decision was probably linked to this fear.
During the Soviet period, relations between Germans and Azerbaijanis became closer. Historian Kamal Aliyev, who was of mixed German origin, wrote two books on the basis of his memories about the life of German migrants in the South Caucasus, especially in Azerbaijan.[25] Aliyev describes how representatives of the two communities, which had been isolated by cultural differences in the nineteenth century, overcame these barriers in the Soviet period. Germans and Azerbaijanis who shared the same spaces in education and social life formed family ties, different cultures came into close contact with one another, and differences ceased to be a cause of isolation and instead became an opportunity for mutual benefit. Continuous communication and respect for the social and moral values of the other side play an important role in intercultural relations.
Aliyev, whose childhood was spent among his Azerbaijani relatives, did not speak German. However, another resident of Annenfeld born into a mixed family, Yunis Hajiyev, spoke German fluently and sang German songs.[26] Unlike Aliyev, Hajiyev lost his father, originally from Tabriz, at an early age, and as a result his mother returned with her children to her paternal home, the house of Andreas Bech. Having spent his childhood among Germans, Hajiyev says that he remembers well the characteristics that distinguished Germans from Azerbaijanis and the behavior of Germans in everyday life. Yunis, having attended the Lutheran church with his mother, emphasized that even during the Soviet period contacts between Germans and Azerbaijanis remained minimal. He explained this by differences in worldview and social values between the two communities.
One of the authors of Soviet-era memoirs is Nazim Ibrahimov, an engineer originally from Ganja. In his recollections, Ibrahimov praises the high culture, honesty and interest in education of the German friends and acquaintances of Azerbaijanis from Annenfeld and Helenendorf and emphasizes the significant contribution of German migrants to the positive socio-economic changes that took place in the region.[27] Ibrahimov recalls as fine examples of German heritage in Azerbaijani architecture the residential buildings constructed by the German architect Ferdinand Lemkul in Ganja, Shamkir and Gadabay for the Forer brothers, the Siemens brothers and the Gummel brothers respectively, as well as the Singer shop in Ganja and the church in Shamkir.[28] In his memoirs, Ibrahimov mentions German scholars who contributed to the development of Azerbaijani science and education, including German Abich, and instructors who worked at the German language department of the Azerbaijan State Pedagogical Institute, such as Ioann Rakh, Pavel Kromm and Vilhelm Hannelfeld. Ibrahimov’s book also includes the recollections of Alasgar Mammadov, an Azerbaijani orientalist, specialist in German and Arabic, who worked as an interpreter at the Nuremberg Trials, about his German tinstructors. Mammadov shares memories of prominent representatives of the German intelligentsia who taught him during his studies at the institute. He recounts that, in order to improve his Russian, he asked Ioann Rakh, then dean of the Faculty of Foreign Languages and head of the German department, to transfer him from the Azerbaijani section to the Russian section. Rakh agreed but set one condition: If Mammadov failed the first examination session, he would be expelled from the institute. Mammadov recalls that the “threats” of Rakh, who could “read a person at a glance,” proved effective and he successfully completed the session. After the examinations, Rakh summoned Mammadov to the dean’s office and asked him to teach his son the Azerbaijani language.[29]
Cooperation between German migrants and local Azerbaijanis developed not only in the field of education and science but also in various spheres of social life. In the nineteenth century, serious obstacles to close relations between German migrants and local Azerbaijanis, who lived in isolation from one another, were linked to religious and cultural differences. However, social needs gradually brought the two different neighbors sharing the same geographical space closer together. In the nineteenth century, peasants living in the Shamkhor and Khanlar areas suffered not only from a shortage of land but also from water scarcity. The land problems of German migrants were resolved at the expense of local feudal lords and lands leased to peasants. Water resources, however, initially had to be used jointly by locals and newcomers. Gradually, the farms of German migrants expanded, the cultivated land increased and the demand for water grew. To meet this demand, Germans dug qanats and wells using modern technology ordered from Europe. Later, local Azerbaijanis also began to apply these technologies.
Another factor that brought the two neighboring peoples closer, who were compelled to communicate in order to resolve land and water shortages, was the need of German migrants for labor and the need of local Azerbaijanis for employment. As German migrants hired local residents and commissioned tools from local craftsmen, they were forced to learn the Azerbaijani language. For this reason, Azerbaijani was also taught in migrant schools. Azerbaijanis working on German farms, as they became familiar with their way of life, houses, and household management, adopted those habits and rules they considered appropriate. Wealthier locals sought to build their houses in the German style and to lay out wide avenues. Gradually, German architecture spread into local Azerbaijani neighborhoods, and Azerbaijanis’ attitudes towards their environment and nature changed. German buildings in Shamkhor became a model of urban development. Germans’ care for children and their encouragement of education changed local Azerbaijanis’ attitudes towards schooling.
One of the sources confirming cooperation between German migrants and local Azerbaijanis is architecture and urban planning. Reports dating to the late nineteenth century state that in less than half a century German migrants transformed the areas in which they lived into small European towns with well-developed infrastructure. These included well-built wide avenues lined on both sides with poplar and willow trees, neat one- and two-storey houses with tiled roofs, basements and attics, churches with fine architecture, and stone pavements. Colonial authorities wrote that German quarters differed sharply from Azerbaijani houses with flat earthen roofs located on crooked, narrow streets.[30] Reports of the imperial Expedition of State Property, which inspected German colonies, show that until the 1850s the houses inhabited by German migrants and the streets on which they were located did not differ in any way from those of local Azerbaijanis. The report states that radical changes in German settlements were the result of the activities of Andrey Fadeyev, a secret adviser[31] to the Expedition. Fadeyev frequently visited German colonies, encouraged migrants to lay out wide avenues and build European-style houses, and even rewarded those who completed such work quickly and tastefully. However, there was no one among the local population who encouraged similar initiatives. Russian authorities believed that the success story of German migrants in the South Caucasus was not the result of their diligence and inclination towards orderly living, but rather of the care shown by the government.
Today, in Shamkir, formerly Annenfeld, four streets and a church bearing German heritage remain. The region has tiled-roof houses with basements resembling German homes and parks for leisure. The first such park was established in Annenfeld by German migrants. Local Azerbaijanis gradually built houses similar to German buildings, planned streets and adorned them with greenery. Architectural and urban monuments are a source of information demonstrating that mutual respect and understanding prevailed between German migrants who moved to Azerbaijan and local Azerbaijanis, and that differences were transformed into benefit. These sources also make it possible to state that the intention of the Russian Empire to Europeanize the Caucasus, which it regarded as Asia, through German migrants was partially realized.
Conclusion
Over the past century, the Caucasus has largely been remembered as a region marked by persistent conflicts, confrontations, and tensions, primarily along ethnic lines. The causes of this situation can be explained by a number of factors, such as the diversity of the region’s social communities, the intersection of geographical boundaries, and the growing interest of external powers in the region. Nevertheless, even in the most difficult periods, the Caucasus has demonstrated the interconnection and interdependence of the diverse components that constitute it. Cultural and spiritual tendencies as well as religious values in this region have consistently benefited from sustained contact and mutual interaction. This is also evidenced by the more than century-long relations between Muslim Azerbaijanis and Christian Germans—communities with entirely different civilizations that nevertheless shared the same geographical space.
When viewed through the prism of cultural, social, or institutional relations, the interaction between local Azerbaijanis and German migrants corresponds to the rational and psychological theories of interethnic relations. Despite differences in language and cultural norms, the patronage of the colonial government, and the significant isolation of social life from the surrounding environment, relations between Azerbaijanis and Germans—except for the initial period—generally developed in a peaceful and amicable atmosphere. These neighborly relations were likely made possible by economic opportunism that benefited from ethnic diversity. This diversity, manifested in complementary skills and knowledge, stimulated cooperation between the two communities and encouraged people to avoid violence and to benefit from one another’s abilities and capacities.
During periods when colonial authority was sufficiently strong, contradictions in these relations intensified, and these tensions were reflected in both written and oral narratives. In contrast, when colonial power and state control weakened, relations entered a phase of stability and mutual benefit. These latter periods were more often reflected in narratives of a personal nature and in visual sources.
[1] In the written documents of this period, the term Azerbaijani was not used; in the sources, the Turkic Muslim population was referred to as Tatar.
[2] Евгений, Вейденбаум. Путеводитель по Кавказу, составленный по поручению командующего войсками округа. Тифлисъ, Типографія Канцелярии Главноначальствующаго гражданской частью на Кавказѣ.1888 г., 127.
[3] James, Faeron and David, Laitin. “Explaining Interethnic Cooperation”, The American Political Science Review, Vol. 90, No. 4, December 1996, 715.
[4] Bates, Robert. “Modernization, Ethnic Competition, and the Rationality of Politics in Contemporary Africa”, In State Versus Ethnic Claims: African Policy Dilemmas, ed. Donald Rothchild and Victor A. Olorunsola. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1983; Gellner, Ernest. “Trust. Cohesion. and the Social Order.” In Trust: Making and Breaking Cooperative Relations. ed. Diego Gambetta. Blackwell, 1988; Olzak, Susan. The Dynamics of Ethnic Competition and Conflict. Stanford University Press, 1992.
[5] Horowitz. Donald. Ethnic Groups in Conflict. University of California Press, 1985; Tajfel. Henri, ed. Social Identity and İntergroup Relations. Cambridge University Press, 1982.
[6] Ashraf, Quamrul and Oded Galor. 2013. The “Out of Africa” Hypothesis, Human Genetic Diversity, and Comparative Economic Development.” American Economic Review 103(1):1-46; Hong, Lu and Scott E. Page. 2004. “Groups of Diverse Problem Solvers Can Outperform Groups of High-Ability Problem Solvers.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2004. 101(46):16385-16389.
[7] Назим Ибрагимов. Немецкие страницы истории Азербайджана. Азербайджан: 1995. 5
[8] Туран. Ахундова. Немцы-колонисты Азербайджана 19-го-начала 20-го века. Шуша: 1999.
[9] For official written sources, see: Известия Кавказского отдела Императорского Русского географического общества, Свод статистических данных о населении Закавказского края, извлеченных из посемейных списков, Акты, собранные Кавказской археографической комиссией, Материалы для изучения экономического быта государственных крестьян Закавказского края.
[10] Общие просьбы колонистов. Акты Кавказской Археографической Комиссии. Типография Наместника Каспийского, 1874, Т.7, №184, с. 237–38.
[11] Известия Кавказского отдела Императорского русского географического общества (ИКОИРГО), T.XVI11. 1905–1906. Тифлис, 1906, 23.
[12] Материалы для изучения экономического быта государственных крестьян Закавказского края. Т. 1, Тифлис: тип. А. А. Михельсона, 1885–1887, 1885. XXV, 102.
[13] During the period of the Russian Empire, the unit of measurement used for land area was the desyatina. One desyatina was approximately equal to 1.09 hectares of land.
[14] Ibid., 113.
[15] Ibid., 108-10.
[16] Ibid., 111.
[17] Ibid., 113.
[18] Свод статистических данных о населении Закавказскаго края, извлеченных из посемейных списков 1886 г. Тифлис: Тип. И. Мартиросиянца, 1893, 223–27.
[19] Вернер фонъ Сименс. Мои воспоминанıя. Пвреводъ съ нѣмѳцкаго подъ редакцıею М. Б. Паппе Петровские Линıи: 1893.
[20] 20 Сименс, 204.
[21] Владимир Байтингер. Судьба. Дельтаплан 2012.
[22] Ibid., 14.
[23] 23 Məmmədova, Şəlalə. “Dreyfus, Myasoyedov, Əbilov, Səmədov və yaxud dövlətə ‘xəyanət’ etmək.” Bakı Araşdırmalar İnstitutu, 8 Dekabr, 2025.
[24] Nağı Şeyxzamanlı. Azərbaycan istiqlal mücadiləsi xatirələri. Azərbaycan: 1997, 31-32.
[25] Камал Алиев. Немцы на Южном Кавказе или моя жизнь в Анненфельде. Росток: 2002, Швабы и Азербайджан. Çönk, 2003.
[26] See Yunis Haciyev’s interview: Annenfeldli. The last German of Shamkir. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlFig-P90vA, Retrieved on November 1st, 2025.
[27] Назим Ибрагимов. Немецкие страницы истории Азербайджана. Verlag, 1995.
[28] Ибрагимов, 148.
[29] Ибрагимов,175-76.
[30] Материалы, 123.
[31] A Privy Councilor was a state rank in the Russian Empire, equivalent to the rank of lieutenant general in the army.
