page_title: Dissolution of the Soviet Union
section_title: Caucasus
hierarchical_section_title: Dissolution of the Soviet Union / Timeline / 1990 / Caucasus
caption_attribution_description: English: The tragedy of January 20
context_page_description: The dissolution of the Soviet Union was the process of internal disintegration within the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which began in the late 1980s with growing unrest in the various constituent republics, and ended on December 26, 1991, when the Supreme Soviet voted the USSR itself out of existence.
  The failure of the 1991 August Coup, when Soviet government and military elites tried to overthrow President Mikhail Gorbachev and stop the so-called "parade of sovereignties", led to the central government in Moscow losing most of its influence, and the individual Soviet republics proclaiming independence in the following days and months. The secession of the Baltic states was recognized by the Soviet government in September 1991. The Belovezha Accords were signed by the republics of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus on December 8, recognising each other's independence and creating the Commonwealth of Independent States. The remaining republics, with the exception of Georgia, joined the CIS on December 21, signing the Alma-Ata Protocol.
context_section_description: During the first week of January 1990, in the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan, the Popular Front led crowds in the storming and destruction of the frontier fences and watchtowers along the border with Iran, and thousands of Soviet Azerbaijanis crossed the border to meet their ethnic cousins in Iranian Azerbaijan. It was the first time the Soviet Union had lost control of an external border.
  Ethnic tensions had escalated between the Armenians and Azerbaijanis in spring and summer 1988. On January 9, 1990, after the Armenian parliament voted to include Nagorno-Karabakh within its budget, renewed fighting broke out, hostages were taken, and four Soviet soldiers were killed. On January 11, Popular Front radicals stormed party buildings and effectively overthrew the communist powers in the southern town of Lenkoran. Gorbachev resolved to regain control of Azerbaijan; the events that ensued are known as "Black January". Late on January 19, 1990, after blowing up the central television station and cutting the phone and radio lines, 26,000 Soviet troops entered the Azerbaijani capital Baku, smashing barricades, attacking protesters, and firing into crowds. On that night and during subsequent confrontations (which lasted until February), more than 130 people died. Most of these were civilians. More than 700 civilians were wounded, hundreds were detained, but only a few were actually tried for alleged criminal offenses.
  Civil liberties suffered. Soviet Defence Minister Dmitry Yazov stated that the use of force in Baku was intended to prevent the de facto takeover of the Azerbaijani government by the non-communist opposition, to prevent their victory in upcoming free elections (scheduled for March 1990), to destroy them as a political force, and to ensure that the Communist government remained in power.
  The army had gained control of Baku, but by January 20 it had essentially lost Azerbaijan. Nearly the entire population of Baku turned out for the mass funerals of "martyrs" buried in the Alley of Martyrs. Thousands of Communist Party members publicly burned their party cards. First Secretary Vezirov decamped to Moscow and Ayaz Mutalibov was appointed his successor in a free vote of party officials. The ethnic Russian Viktor Polyanichko remained second secretary. In reaction to the Soviet actions in Baku and their backing of Armenia in the conflict, Sakina Aliyeva, Chair of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic called a special session where it was debated whether or not Nakhchivan could secede from the USSR under Article 81 of the Soviet Constitution. Deciding that it was legal, deputies prepared a declaration of independence, which Aliyeva signed and presented on January 20 on national television. It was the first declaration of secession by a recognized region in the USSR. Aliyeva and the Nakhchivan Soviet's actions were denounced by government officials who forced her to resign and the attempt at independence was aborted.
  Following the hardliners' takeover, the September 30, 1990 elections (runoffs on October 14) were characterized by intimidation; several Popular Front candidates were jailed, two were murdered, and unabashed ballot stuffing took place, even in the presence of Western observers. The election results reflected the threatening environment; out of the 350 members, 280 were Communists, with only 45 opposition candidates from the Popular Front and other non-communist groups, who together formed a Democratic Bloc ("Dembloc"). In May 1990 Mutalibov was elected chairman of the Supreme Soviet unopposed.
caption: Azerbaijani stamp with photos of Black January
exif: {"Image ExifOffset": "26"}