Azerbaijani Independence Was "Birth of Freedom"

I can hardly believe that 20 years have passed since Azerbaijan became independent. It’s as if those events are still taking place before my eyes. 

I was happy then, when I was part of it all, and I’m glad now that it happened. It might sound pathetic, but I witnessed the birth of freedom, the birth of a people able to take decisions for themselves, the birth of true citizens, and the birth of civic morality.

And all this happened before my very eyes. It was as if it came from nowhere. Stalin destroyed the roots of freedom, but it was born again like Venus rising from the waves.

The collapse of the USSR and the freeing of our people from the yoke of the communist system can be compared in terms of its significance with the abolition of slavery in the 19th century, or the destruction of colonialism in the 20th century.

These changes allowed people to act for themselves and to live in accordance with their own conscience. And that was something only a few individuals managed to do in Soviet times.

Such a fundamental transformation affects the lives of everyone, of every family. Along with the new freedoms, each individual came up against almost insurmountable problems – tragedies even.

At the start of this process, after 70 years of stagnation, everyone wanted change – even the top communists. But different sections of the population had differing aims. Some wanted Soviet socialism with a human face. Some wanted the freedom to start their own businesses. Some people wanted the total destruction of the prison that we called the USSR.

Others just wanted something different. As Washington Irving once said, “There is certain relief in change, even though it be from bad to worse! As I have often found in travelling in a stagecoach, that it is often a comfort to shift one’s position, and be bruised in a new place.”

So what did we supporters of democracy, independence and the free market want at the end of the 1980s? In a spiritual sense, we wanted the restoration of our national identity, which had been repressed by the communists, civil rights and British-style democracy. In a material sense, everyone wanted American-style salaries and a Swedish-style system of social support.

But it all turned out a bit different. Most of the republics that were born of the old Soviet Union got authoritarian governments, corruption, xenophobia, economic collapse, falling living standards of living, unemployment, and labour migration.

We also got the Armenia-Azerbaijan war and a new strategic vulnerability from our location between Russia and Iran.

But spiritually, we have undoubtedly made gains compared with how things were under the Soviet system.

This is true even of Azerbaijan, a country rated as “not free” by Freedom House. Our borders are open. We used to be part of the USSR, and now we are part of the world. We can make contact with people anywhere we like, we can travel abroad or leave the country altogether.

The government has lost its control of communication, and that means it has lost its control over people’s spiritual lives. A degree of freedom of speech has appeared, and with it the chance for self-expression, on the internet, for example.

Opportunities for private enterprise have arisen. These new conditions allow many of us to live in harmony with our consciences. That was something that only a few individuals achieved in Soviet times.

Last but not least, there is our independence, the greatest national achievement of all. Our national identity – our history, culture, language and religion – was repressed in the USSR, but is being revived. When you watch TV and see your own national flag flown at international events, alongside those of other nations, that means a lot.

Because of that, people are prepared to forgive a great deal. Now at least our oil belongs to us, and not to “them”.

Look at the difference between how people Russia and Azerbaijan view the demise of the Soviet Union. Many people in Russia see the collapse of communism as the loss of their identity as a great power. For many in Azerbaijan, however, it meant a step forward for their status as a nation; we became an independent country.

As many sociologists have said, Russia is a country of communism influenced by the culture of the Orthodox Church. In a country like, the principal values are equality and solidarity; competition is viewed as the rat race; trade is theft and speculative dealing; the division between winners as and losers is something unnatural; and poverty is seen as a saintly attributes. Opinion polls show that 15 per cent of the Russian population see the Soviet collapse as a catastrophe. Judging by the enduring popularity of the Communist Party, these aren’t just supporters of the Soviet Union, they are supporters of Stalin’s Soviet Union.

In Azerbaijan, however, the popular perception of communism is negative, perhaps because Islam welcomes capitalism and trade. Social inequalities are not viewed as a tragedy. In sum, the consequences of independence and the free market are accepted with greater understanding in Azerbaijan than in Russia.

Of course there are people in Azerbaijan who suffered from the changes, and who conclude that things were better back then. They include senior figures from the Communist Party – although many of those regained their privileges pretty rapidly – but also the many who failed to find a place in the market economy, those who suffered in ethnic conflict, and some who don’t accept the new Azerbaijani identity and who still see themselves as part of the Soviet nation.

Finally, there are people who would trade their freedom for temporary security. The same was true when slaves and serfs were freed – some rejected liberation.

All of them are our fellow-citizens, and we must regret the decline in their standard of living. But there is no way back.

The Soviet Union was a Kafkaesque creation with children’s holiday camps on the Black Sea and prison camps on the Pacific Ocean. It will not return. The proof of that is evident all over the world. Outside Cuba and North Korea, all systems of this kind have collapsed.

I therefore see the changes we have lived through as positive. I am glad I saw the great global processes of the liberation of humanity in the 1960s, and then in the 1980s. And I hope to see the end of the story - Francis Fukuyama’s “End of History” – before my time is up.

People have won their freedom, and if we cannot enjoy it, then that is our own fault. I believe the transition from Stalinism to democracy is still going on in our country. We still have a long way to go before we get to democracy.

Hikmet Hadjy-zadeh is an analyst with the Far Centre, a think-tank in Baku, Azerbaijan.