The Baku ''uezd'' was a county (''

uezd An uezd (also spelled uyezd or uiezd; rus, уе́зд ( pre-1918: уѣздъ), p=ʊˈjest), or povit in a Ukrainian context () was a type of administrative subdivision of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, the Tsardom of Russia, the Russian Empire, the ...

'') within the

Baku Governorate The Baku Governorate, known before 1859 as the Shemakha Governorate, was a province (''guberniya'') of the Caucasus Viceroyalty (1801–1917), Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire, with its center in the booming metropolis and Caspian Sea p ...

of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

and then of

Azerbaijan Democratic Republic The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (), also known as the Azerbaijan People's Republic (; ), was the first secular democracy, democratic republic in the Turkic peoples, Turkic and Muslim worlds. *Tadeusz Swietochowski. ''Russia and Azerbaijan: ...

and

Azerbaijan SSR The Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, also referred to as the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic, Azerbaijan SSR, Azerbaijani SSR, AzSSR, Soviet Azerbaijan or simply Azerbaijan, was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union be ...

until its formal abolishment in 1929. The ''uezd'' was located in the eastern part of the Baku Governorate, bordering

Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, described as the List of lakes by area, world's largest lake and usually referred to as a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia: east of the Caucasus, ...

to the east, Shemakha uezd to the west, Kuba uezd to the north and Lenkoran uezd to the south. The administrative center of the ''uezd'' was the village Sarai (present-day

Saray A seraglio, serail, seray or saray (from , via Turkish, Italian and French) is a castle, palace or government building which was considered to have particular administrative importance in various parts of the former Ottoman Empire. "The S ...

History

After the capture of the

Baku Khanate The Baku Khanate (), was a khanate under Iranian suzerainty, which controlled the city of Baku and its surroundings from 1747 to 1806. Background The city of Baku, located in the South Caucasus, was originally part of the Shirvan province of ...

by the Russian Empire in 1806, during the

Caucasus Campaign The Caucasus campaign comprised armed conflicts between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire, later including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, the Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus, the German Empire, the Central Caspian Dict ...

, the khanate was removed and was made a province of the Russian Empire. The ''uezd'' was created in 1840 and was initially made part of the

Caspian Oblast Caspian can refer to: *The Caspian Sea *The Caspian Depression, surrounding the northern part of the Caspian Sea *The Caspians, the ancient people living near the Caspian Sea *The Caspian languages spoken in northern Iran and southeastern Azerbaija ...

and later part of the Shemakha Governorate in 1846. As a result of the devastating earthquake in Shamakhi in 1859, the administrative center of the Shamakhi Governorate was transferred to

Baku Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...

, resulting in the subsequent renaming of the governorate to the

. After the collapse of the Russian Empire in 1917, the area of modern-day Azerbaijan became part of

Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic The Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic (TDFR; 22 April – 28 May 1918) was a short-lived sovereign state, state in the Caucasus that included most of the territory of the present-day Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia (coun ...

, during which the city of Baku and its peripheries were under the control of the Baku Commune which perpetrated the March Days Massacre against the Azerbaijani population of

. Shortly after the dissolution of Transcaucasia and the establishment of 3 independent republics including the

, Baku again became the site of massacre in the revengeful September Days Massacre against the Armenian population, following the Battle of Baku and the city's capture by Ottoman-Azerbaijani forces. Baku subsequently became the new capital of the nascent Azerbaijani republic, the government relocating there from its original western capital in

Ganja ''Ganja'' (, ; ) is one of the oldest and most commonly used synonyms for cannabis flower, specifically marijuana or hashish. Its usage in English dates to before 1689. Etymology ''Ganja'' is borrowed from Hindi (, IPA: �aːɲd͡ʒa� ...

, which was also the capital of the neighboring

Elisabethpol Governorate The Elizavetpol Governorate, also known after 1918 as the Ganja Governorate, was a province ('' guberniya'') of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire, with its capital in Yelisavetpol (present-day Ganja). The area of the governorate s ...

. In 1920, after the decisive establishment of Soviet power in Azerbaijan, the Baku ''uezd'' was retained as an administrative unit within the

until its formal abolishment in 1929 during a territorial-administrative reorganisation of the nation.

Administrative divisions

The prefectures () of the Baku ''uezd'' in 1917 were as follows:

Demographics

Russian Empire Census

According to the Russian Empire Census, the Baku ''uezd'' had a population of 182,897 on , including 108,448 men and 74,449 women. The majority of the population indicated Tatar to be their mother tongue, with significant

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

, Tat, and

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...

speaking minorities.

''Kavkazskiy kalendar''

According to the 1917 publication of ''

Kavkazskiy kalendar ''Kavkazskiy kalendar'' (, ) was an annual almanac published in Tiflis (present-day Tbilisi) in the Russian Empire by the office of the Viceroy of the Caucasus from 1846 to 1917. History ''Kavkazskiy kalendar'' contained a large number of ethno ...

'', the Baku ''uezd'' had a population of 16,268 on , including 8,759 men and 7,509 women, 15,746 of whom were the permanent population, and 522 were temporary residents:

Soviet census (1926)

The population of the ''uezd'' rose significantly to 527,220 people by 1926 as a result of the significant expansion of the Baku Oil Fields.

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * * * * {{Subdivisions of the Russian Empire Historical geography of Azerbaijan States and territories established in 1840 1840 establishments in the Russian Empire 1929 disestablishments in the Soviet Union Uezds of Baku Governorate Uezds of the Soviet Union States and territories disestablished in 1929