Imam Dashdemir oglu Mustafayev ( az, Ымам Дашдәмир оғлу Мустафајев, italic=no, Imam Daşdəmir oğlu Mustafayev; 25 February 1910 – 10 March 1997) was an Azerbaijani politician and First Secretary of the

Azerbaijan Communist Party The Azerbaijan Communist Party ( az, Azərbaycan Kommunist Partiyası; russian: Коммунистическая партия Азербайджана) was the ruling political party in the Azerbaijan SSR, making it effectively a branch of th ...

of the Azerbaijan SSR. Son of a poor

peasant A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasant ...

, he was born in a village of the Qakh region in

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of t ...

. In 1928 he graduated from the Zaqatala Agricultural Technical School and in 1932 - the Institute of Agriculture of Azerbaijan (now Azerbaijan State Economic University). Since then he has conducted scientific research works. Mustafayev has been awarded with the

Order of the Red Banner of Labour The Order of the Red Banner of Labour (russian: Орден Трудового Красного Знамени, translit=Orden Trudovogo Krasnogo Znameni) was an order of the Soviet Union established to honour great deeds and services to th ...

and the

Order of the Badge of Honor The Order of the Badge of Honour (russian: орден «Знак Почёта», orden "Znak Pochyota") was a civilian award of the Soviet Union. It was established on 25 November 1935, and was conferred on citizens of the USSR for outstanding ...

Political career

In 1940, he joined the

and received many important encharges. In 1954, he was elected the First Secretary of

. In 1956 together with the then chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Azerbaijan SSR,

Mirza Ibrahimov Mirza Ibrahimov (Azerbaijani: Mirzə İbrahimov) (15 October 1911, Eyvaq, Sarab – 17 December 1993, Baku) was a Soviet and Azerbaijani writer, playwright, state and public figure. Mirza Ibrahimov was born in the village of Eyvaq in northwester ...

, he was able to introduce a new paragraph to the constitution of the Azerbaijan SSR that for the first time since the Soviet invasion declared Azerbaijani language the official language of the Azerbaijan SSR. As a result of this step which was not agreed upon with Moscow (out of fears of it getting refused) Azerbaijani acquired increasingly an important status in the entire country. This was the main reason behind his premature removal from power. Mustafayev was implicitly accused of nationalism, and on 12 June 1959 he was fired for "not being able to cope with his work" and was expelled from membership of the bureau of the Azerbaijan Communist Party Central Committee. After being removed from that office, he worked as the Director of

Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS) ( az, Azərbaycan Milli Elmlər Akademiyası (AMEA)), located in Baku, is the main state research organization and the primary body that conducts research and coordinates activities in the fields of ...

References

1910 births 1997 deaths Azerbaijani atheists First secretaries of the Azerbaijan Communist Party Soviet Azerbaijani people People from Qakh People from Tiflis Governorate Azerbaijan State Agricultural Academy alumni Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union members Third convocation members of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union Fourth convocation members of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union Fifth convocation members of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union Recipients of the Order of Friendship of Peoples {{Azerbaijan-bio-stub