Khudadat bey Agha bey oghlu Malik-Aslanov ( az, Xudadat bəy Məlik-Aslanov) (April 1879 – 23 July 1935) was an Azerbaijani engineer, politician and university professor.

Early life

Malik-Aslanov was born to a wealthy noble family in a village of

Taynaq Taynaq (also, Taynag and Taynakh) is a village and municipality in the Aghjabadi Rayon of Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a ...

Shusha Uyezd / hy, Շուշի , settlement_type = City , image_skyline = ShushaCollection2021.jpg , image_caption = Landmarks of Shusha, from top left:Ghazanchetsots Cathedral • Yukhari Govhar ...

of the

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 st ...

of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

(now in Azerbaijan's

Aghjabadi District Aghjabadi District ( az, Ağcabədi rayonu) is one of the 66 districts of Azerbaijan. It is located in the centre of the country and belongs to the Aran Economic Region. The district borders the districts of Khojavend, Agdam, Barda, Zardab, ...

). After graduation from the Shusha

Realschule ''Realschule'' () is a type of secondary school in Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It has also existed in Croatia (''realna gimnazija''), the Austrian Empire, the German Empire, Denmark and Norway (''realskole''), Sweden (''realskola''), ...

in 1899, he was sponsored by philanthropist

Zeynalabdin Taghiyev , image = Haji Zeynalabdin Taghiyev.jpg , image_size = 250px , caption = , birth_date = 25 January 1823 Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

–

Vologda Vologda ( rus, Вологда, p=ˈvoləɡdə) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Vologda Oblast, Russia, located on the river Vologda (river), Vologda within the watershed of the Northern Dvina. ...

railway. In 1905 Malik-Aslanov was assigned a position in the

Transcaucasian Railway The Transcaucus Railway (russian: Закавка́зская желе́зная доро́га) was the first railway in South Caucasus.Большая Советская Энциклопедия. Гл. ред. Б. А. Введенский, 2-е � ...

Department in

Tiflis Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million pe ...

, of which he soon became the chairman. He earned a Ph.D. degree after publishing more than 10 works on railway communications.The First Minister
by Rugiyya Aliyeva. ''Vyshka''. #6. February 6, 2003. Retrieved August 25, 2007

Career in the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan

After the

February Revolution The February Revolution ( rus, Февра́льская револю́ция, r=Fevral'skaya revolyutsiya, p=fʲɪvˈralʲskəjə rʲɪvɐˈlʲutsɨjə), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and somet ...

of 1917, the

Russian Provisional Government The Russian Provisional Government ( rus, Временное правительство России, Vremennoye pravitel'stvo Rossii) was a provisional government of the Russian Republic, announced two days before and established immediately ...

appointed Malik-Aslanov

Commissioner A commissioner (commonly abbreviated as Comm'r) is, in principle, a member of a commission or an individual who has been given a commission (official charge or authority to do something). In practice, the title of commissioner has evolved to in ...

for the Communications of

Transcaucasia The South Caucasus, also known as Transcaucasia or the Transcaucasus, is a geographical region on the border of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, straddling the southern Caucasus Mountains. The South Caucasus roughly corresponds to modern Arme ...

. In April 1918 he became Minister of Railway Communications of the newly established and short-lived

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

seated in Tiflis. After the dissolution of the federation in May 1918 Malik-Aslanov held the same post in the

Azerbaijan Democratic Republic The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic), or simply as Azerbaijan in Paris Peace Conference, 1919–1920,''Bulletin d'Information de l'Azerbaidjan'', No. I, September 1, 1919, pp. 6–7''125 H.C.Debs.'', 58., February 24, 1920, p. 1467. Caucasian Az ...

in four of the five cabinets. He was one of the members of the

Azerbaijani National Council Azerbaijani National Council ( az, Azərbaycan Xalq Cümhuriyyəti Milli Şurası) was the first delegated legislative body of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR) from 27 May 1918 to 17 June 1918 and again from 16 November 1918 to 3 December 1 ...

who signed the Declaration of Independence of 28 May 1918 proclaiming Azerbaijan's sovereignty, and became one of Members of Parliament of the newly founded state. In 1919 Malik-Aslanov was also selected to be member of the State Committee of Defense and the special committee for

Romanization Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and ...

of the

Azeri alphabet The Azerbaijani alphabet ( az, Azərbaycan əlifbası, , ) has three versions which includes the Perso-Arabic, Latin, and Cyrillic alphabets. North Azerbaijani, the official language of Republic of Azerbaijan, is written in a modified Latin al ...

. He initiated the establishment of a bilingual Azeri-Russian institution of

higher education Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree. Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after completi ...

to train specialists in the field of railway communications (later reorganized into the Baku College of Railway Transportation). He did not join any party throughout his pre-Soviet political career.

Career in Soviet Azerbaijan

From 1921 to 1930 Khudadat bey Malik-Aslanov served as Dean of the Faculty of Building Engineering at the

Azerbaijan Polytechnic Institute Azerbaijan Technical University (AzTU; az, Azərbaycan Texniki Universiteti) is a public university, specialized in Institute of technology, engineering, located in Baku, Azerbaijan. The University has 9 schools and 54 departments, 884 faculty mem ...

. He was also Head of the Department of Railway Communications of Azerbaijan's Supreme Soviet of the National Economy. Malik-Aslanov assisted in the building of a railway from Baku to Julfa and in the introduction of the first ''

elektrichka Elektrichka (russian: электри́чка, p=əlʲɪˈktrʲitɕkə; uk, електри́чка, elektrychka) is a Soviet and Eastern bloc commuter (regional) mostly suburban electrical multiple unit passenger train. Elektrichkas are widespr ...

'' in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

, which took place in Azerbaijan. In 1929, he proposed establishing

metro system Rapid transit or mass rapid transit (MRT), also known as heavy rail or metro, is a type of high-capacity public transport generally found in urban areas. A rapid transit system that primarily or traditionally runs below the surface may be c ...

in Baku (the project was fulfilled in 1967).

Family

In 1906 Khudadat bey Malik-Aslanov married Maria Alexandrova, the daughter of his landlord in Saint Petersburg. They did not have children of their own and adopted the sons of Malik-Aslanov's sister Khurshid.

Arrest and death

Similar to many of those involved in the political affairs of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic in 1918–1920, Malik-Aslanov was subject to Stalinist persecutions. He was arrested for the first time in 1930 but was released upon

Mir Jafar Baghirov Mir Jafar Abbas oghlu Baghirov ( az, Мирҹәфәр Аббас оғлу Бағыров, italic=no, Mircəfər Abbas oğlu Bağırov, russian: Мир Джафар Аббасович Багиров; 17 September 1896 – 7 May 1956) was the comm ...

's request in 1933. In August 1934 Malik-Aslanov was arrested again on the grounds of not having served his 5-year sentence.Ministers during the Years of the Republic
. ''Azerbaijan News'' In 1935 he died in the Bailov prison. According to the official version, Malik-Aslanov died of natural causes. His family believed he was done away with by someone named Gerasimov. Malik-Aslanov's body was never shown to his family and was buried in a mass grave in the

Chemberekend Cemetery Chemberekend Cemetery ( az, Çəmbərəkənd qəbiristanlığı) was a multi-confessional cemetery in Baku used until July 1883. The cemetery was located in the southwestern part of the Old City (Baku), Baku fortress, to the east of the Chembereke ...

. He was officially exonerated in 1959.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Malik-Aslanov, Khudadat Azerbaijan Democratic Republic politicians Azerbaijani engineers Azerbaijani professors Academic staff of Azerbaijan Technical University Azerbaijani nobility 1879 births 1935 deaths Politicians from Shusha People from Elizavetpol Governorate Members of the National Assembly of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic Engineers from the Russian Empire