In 1923, Khankendi was renamed Stepanakert (meaning "the city of Stepan" in Armenian) by the Soviet government to honor Stepan Shaumian, leader of the 26 Baku Commissars. Since the Shusha pogrom had resulted in major destruction and mass killing of its Armenian population by Azerbaijani forces, the former regional capital, Stepanakert, was made the capital of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO).