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Azerbaijan Stalin and Post-Stalin Politics
During Stalin's dictatorship in the Soviet Union (1926-53),
Azerbaijan suffered, as did other Soviet republics, from forced
collectivization and far-reaching purges. Yet during the same
period, Azerbaijan also achieved significant gains in
industrialization and literacy levels that were impressive in
comparison with those of other Muslim states of the Middle East
at that time.
After Stalin Moscow's intrusions were less sweeping but
nonetheless authoritarian. In 1959 Nikita S. Khrushchev, first
secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),
moved to purge leaders of the Azerbaijani Communist Party (ACP)
because of corruption and nationalist tendencies. Leonid I.
Brezhnev, Khrushchev's successor, also removed ACP leaders for
nationalist leanings, naming Heydar Aliyev in 1969 as the new ACP
leader. In turn, Mikhail S. Gorbachev removed Aliyev in 1987,
ostensibly for health reasons, although later Aliyev was accused
of corruption.
Data as of March 1994
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