HOW THE CAUCASIAN BUREAU OF THE C.C. R.C.P. (B.) DISCUSSED THE KARABAKH ISSUE IN 1920-1923

Abstract

The author presents the wide panorama of political intrigues around Nagorno-Karabakh which began in the early 1920s when the Bolsheviks occupied the Transcaucasus and slowed down when an autonomous republic was established in the mountainous part of the contested area. The Caucasian Bureau of the C.C. R.C.P. (B.) set up in April 1920 repeatedly returned to the Nagorno-Karabakh issue. A vast range of hitherto unpublished historical sources and the author's analysis of the course of events prove that under the Musavat government (1918-1920), the entire territory of Karabakh belonged to Azerbaijan. It was in April 1920, when the Bolsheviks came to power in the Transcaucasus, that it became a target of unjustified Armenian claims. Soviet Russia was actively involved in what was going on in Nagorno-Karabakh between 1920 and 1923 when the autonomous republic was set up.