, founder of Musavat Musavat was founded in 1911 in
Baku as a secret organization by
Mahammad Amin Rasulzade, his cousin Mahammad Ali Rasulzade, Abbasgulu Kazimzade, and Taghi Nagioglu. Its initial name was the
Muslim Democratic Musavat Party. The first members were Veli Mikayiloghlu, Seyid Huseyn Sadig, Abdurrahim bey, Yusif Ziya bey and Seyid Musavi bey. Early Musavat members also included future Communist leader of
Azerbaijan SSR Nariman Narimanov. This initiative from Mahammad Amin Rasulzade came when he was living in
exile in
Istanbul. In its early years before, the First World War, Musavat was a relatively small, secret underground organization, much like its counterparts throughout the Middle East, working for the prosperity and political unity of the Muslim and
Turkic-speaking world. Although Musavat espoused pan-Islamic ideology and its founder was sympathetic to the pan-Turkic movement, the party supported the
tsarist regime during the
First World War. Russia's social democrats perceived the foundation of Musavat in what they considered "imperial, orientalist terms, governed by the long-standing ideological categories of Muslim backwardness, treachery and religious fanaticism", as a betrayal of historic proportions. Musavat's programme, which appealed to the Azerbaijani masses and assured the party of the sympathy of the Muslims abroad, announced the following aims: • The unity of all Muslim peoples without regard to nationality or sect. • Restoration of the independence of all Muslim nations. • Extension of material and moral aid to all Muslim nations which fight for their independence. • Help to all Muslim peoples and states in offense and in defence. • The destruction of the barriers which prevent the spread of the above-mentioned ideas. • The establishment of contact with parties striving for the progress of the Muslims. • The establishment, as need might arise, of contact and exchange of opinion with foreign parties which have the well being of humanity as their aim. • The intensification of the struggle for the existence of all Muslims and the development of their commerce, trade and economic life in general. Pan-Turkic element in Musavat's ideology was a reflection of the novel ideas of the
Young Turk revolution in
Ottoman Empire. The founders of this ideology were Azerbaijani intellectuals of the
Russian Empire,
Ali bey Huseynzade and
Ahmed-bey Agayev (known in Turkey as
Ahmet Ağaoğlu), whose literary works used the linguistic unity of Turkic-speaking peoples as a factor for the national awakening of various nationalities inhabiting the Russian Empire. The Menshevik and Social Revolutionary parties of Baku, both largely dependent upon the support of selected Georgian, Armenian and Jewish cadres, as well as upon the ethnic Russian workers, had long vilified the Muslims as "inert" and "unconscious". The Soviet historian A. L. Popov writes that the Musavat cannot be
a priori classified as a reactionary party of Khans and Beks, because in the early revolutionary period the Musavat stood on the positions of democracy and even socialism. "Until a certain time the Baku Committee of Muslim Social Organizations and the Musavat party successfully fulfilled the mission not only of representing the general national interests but also of guiding the Azerbaijani workers' democracy". On June 17, 1917, Musavat merged with the
Party of Turkic Federalists, another national-democratic right-wing organization founded by
Nasibbey Usubbekov and
Hasan bey Agayev, taking on a new name of Musavat Party of Turkic Federalists. • Russia has to become a federative democratic republic based on national and territorial autonomy. • Freedom of speech, conscience, stamp, unions, strikes have to be confirmed by the constitution and guaranteed by the state. • All citizens in spite of religion, nationality, gender, and political ideology are equal in front of the law. The passport system is to be annulled. Every citizen is given the right to move freely both inside the borders and outside the borders of the country. • For all workers and office workers the working day is limited with eight hours. • All state, crown, noble and private lands are distributed between peasant free. • Courts only obey the law and from now on no citizen is subject to punishment if not following the resolution of the competent authorities. • Universal free and compulsory elementary and high education. said: :
Article 1: The form of the state of Russia should be a federative democratic republic based on principles of national autonomy. :
Article 3: All ethnicities having territories of compact inhabiting any part of Russia should receive
national autonomy. Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkistan and Bashkortostan should receive
territorial autonomy, Turks living along the Volga and the Crimean Turks should receive a
cultural autonomy in the case of impossibility of territorial autonomy. The Party considers as its sacred duty to support any non-Turkic ethnicities' quests for autonomy and help them. :
Article 4: Ethnicities having no exact territory of compact inhabiting should receive national cultural autonomy. During the period from February until November 1917, Musavat shared the idea of federalism without separating from Russia. In accordance with the doctrine accepted by the Special Transcaucasian Committee (OZAKOM) the Georgian, Armenian, and Azerbaijani territories were authorised to rule independent domestic policy, leaving to the Provisional Russian government only foreign affairs, army and defense, and customs. However, Musavat as well as the other Muslim unions got quickly disappointed in cooperation with the Provisional Government, as it had no wish to delegate to the Muslim territories more independence. Having got the news about the October Revolution in Petrograd (Saint Petersburg) Transcaucasia did not accept the new Bolshevik power. In February 1918 Transcaucasian Council ("Sejm") started its work in Tbilisi. Musavat entered the Sejm as one of the ruling parties, having 30 deputies of 125. The other parties represented in the new institution were Georgian mensheviks (32 deputies) and Armenian "dashnaks" (27 deputies). At this stage, Musavat started propagating the pan-Islamist and pan-Turkish ideas and aimed at the creation of a United Muslim State under the protection of Turkey (Ottoman Empire). The majority of the Party's members were merchants, white-collars and partially peasantry. Musavat became the tenth largest party elected to the
Russian Constituent Assembly (1918).
Musavat in ADR Government After the disintegration of the Russian Empire and the Declaration of Independence, Musavat became the leading party of the newly established
Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, holding the majority of mandates in its parliaments, at first in
Azerbaijani National Council and then in
Parlaman ("parliament"), Rasulzade being its first
head of state (28 May 1918 7 December 1918). Under the Musavat's leadership, the name "Azerbaijan" was adopted; a name that prior to the proclamation of the ADR was solely used to refer to the
adjacent region of contemporary northwestern Iran. Azerbaijan became in 1918 the first
secular democracy in the Muslim world. A year later, in 1919, Azerbaijani women were granted the right to vote, before the U.S. and some European countries. The following Musavat members held positions in successive
ADR governments:
First cabinet (May 28, 1918 – June 17, 1918) •
Kh. Sultanov –
Minister of Defense •
Mammad Hassan Hajinski –
Minister of Foreign Affairs •
Nasib bey Yusifbeyli –
Minister of Finance and National Education •
M. Y. Jafarov –
Minister of Trade and Industry Second cabinet (June 17, 1918 – December 7, 1918) • Mammad Hassan Hajinski – Minister of Foreign Affairs • Nasib bey Yusifbeyli – Minister of National Education and Religious Affairs • Kh. Sultanov –
acting Minister of Defense; Envoy to
Karabakh and
Zangezur •
Musa bey Rafiyev –
Minister of Social Security and Religious Affairs • Khalil bey Khasmammedov –
State Minister of Internal Affairs Third cabinet (December 12, 1918 – March 14, 1919) • Kh. Khasmammedov – Minister of Interior • Nasib bey Yusifbeyli – Minister of Education and Religious Affairs • Kh. Sultanov – Minister of Agriculture
Fourth cabinet (March 14, 1919 – December 22, 1919) • Nasib bey Yusifbeyli – Chairman of the Council of Ministers (Prime Minister) • M. Y. Jafarov – Minister of Foreign Affairs •
N. Narimanbeyli – State Inspector • Kh. Khasmammedov – Minister of the Interior
Fifth cabinet (December 12, 1919 – April 1, 1920) • Nasib bey Yusifbeyli – Chair of the Council of Ministers (Prime Minister) • Mammad Hassan Hajinski – Minister of Interior • Kh. Khasmammedov – Minister of Justice •
M. Rafiyev – Minister of Social Welfare and Health After the fall of the First Republic in April 1920 as a result of the Bolshevik invasion, Musavat switched to secret activities again, by forming a secret committee, in which even famous Azeri playwright
Jafar Jabbarli participated. The committee's most famous action was the preparation of the Rasulzade's flight from the
Russian SFSR to
Finland. Overall, Musavat prepared and conducted several armed insurgency operations, e.g. the rebellions of Ganja, Karabakh, Zagatala, and Lankaran. But the Soviets also repressed Musavat by arresting at least 2,000 members of Musavat up to 1923. Most prominent Musavat members thus were killed, exiled, or escaped abroad and the party ceased all its activities within
Azerbaijan in 1923. for a while worked for the secret Musavat ==Musavat in exile==