Sultan Majid Afandiyev ( az, Sultan Məcid Əfəndiyev; russian: Султан Меджид Эфендиев), also spelled Efendiyev (May 26, 1887 – April 21, 1938) was an Azerbaijani revolutionary and statesman, one of the founders of the

Communist Party of Azerbaijan 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 the ...

Life

Born at

Shemakha Shamakhi ( az, Şamaxı, ) is a city in Azerbaijan and the administrative centre of the Shamakhi District. The city's estimated population was 31,704. It is famous for its traditional dancers, the Shamakhi Dancers, and also for perhaps giving it ...

in what is modern day

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 th ...

as the son of a vendor, Afandiyev participated in the revolutionary movement of

—at that time a region 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. ...

—beginning in 1902. In 1904 he became a member of the

Russian Social Democratic Labour Party The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP; in , ''Rossiyskaya sotsial-demokraticheskaya rabochaya partiya (RSDRP)''), also known as the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party or the Russian Social Democratic Party, was a socialist pol ...

. Afandiyev was one of the organizers of Hummet party and took an active part in the 1905 Revolution. Following studies at the Medicine Department of

Kazan State University Kazan (Volga region) Federal University (russian: Казанский (Приволжский) федеральный университет, tt-Cyrl, Казан (Идел буе) федераль университеты) is a public research uni ...

, Afandiyev qualified as a

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

in 1915. After the February Revolution of 1917, he became a member of the

Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...

Council, the Hummet Committee, and the

(

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...

) Committee. During the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

he then took part in the defense of

Astrakhan Astrakhan ( rus, Астрахань, p=ˈastrəxənʲ) is the largest city and administrative centre of Astrakhan Oblast in Southern Russia. The city lies on two banks of the Volga, in the upper part of the Volga Delta, on eleven islands of the ...

. From 1918 to 1931 Afandiyev was appointed to many roles: Commissar on the Transcaucasian Muslims' affairs of the

People's Commissariat of Nationalities The People's Commissariat of Nationalities of the RSFSR (, ''Narodny komissariat po delam natsional'nostey RSFSR''), abbreviated NKNats () or Narkomnats (), an organisation functioning from 1917 to 1924 in the early Soviet period of Russian and So ...

RSFSR The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...

, deputy chairman of the Central Bureau of Communist Organization of Orient Peoples of the Central Committee of RKP(b) (Russian Communist Party of Bolsheviks), 1920–1921, member of the executive committee of Baku Council, Extraordinary Commissioner of the Central Committee of Azerbaijani KP(b), Commissar of Ganja Province ( he commanded the suppression of anti-Bolshevik rebellion in

Ganja Ganja (, ; ) is one of the oldest and most commonly used synonyms for marijuana. Its usage in English dates to before 1689. Etymology ''Ganja'' is borrowed from Hindi/Urdu ( hi, गांजा, links=no, ur, , links=no, IPA: �aːɲd� ...

), member of the Central Executive Committee, People's Commissar of Lands, People's Commissar of Revolutionary Commissariat of

Azerbaijan SSR Azerbaijan ( az, Азәрбајҹан, Azərbaycan, italics=no), officially the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic (Azerbaijan SSR; az, Азәрбајҹан Совет Сосиалист Республикасы, Azərbaycan Sovet Sosialist R ...

, member of Central Committee of VKP(b) (All-Union Communist Party of the Bolsheviks ), member of Transcaucasian Regional Committee of VKP(b) (All-Union Communist Party of the Bolsheviks), Bureau of the Central Committee of Azerbaijani KP(b), member of the Central Executive Committee of the

USSR 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 nationa ...

, deputy chairman and since 1931 the chairman of the Central Executive Committee of Azerbaijani SSR and one of the chairmen of the Central Executive Committee of the Transcaucasian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. He also wrote for '' Zhizn' Natsional'nostei''. During the

Great Purge The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Nikolay Yezhov, Yezhov'), was General ...

, Afandiyev was arrested, accused of plotting against the Soviet state, sentenced to death and executed at Baku on April 21, 1938. In 1956 he was exonerated posthumously.

References

Caucasian Knot : Persons : Efendiev, Sultan Medjid
at eng.kavkaz.memo.ru {{DEFAULTSORT:Afandiyev, Sultan Majid 1887 births 1938 deaths People from Shamakhi Azerbaijani revolutionaries People from Baku Governorate Russian Social Democratic Labour Party members Old Bolsheviks Azerbaijani communists Soviet Azerbaijani people Members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union executed by the Soviet Union Executed politicians Great Purge victims from Azerbaijan Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic People Soviet rehabilitations Azerbaijani atheists