Red Kurdistan: Political Autonomy and Kurdish Cultural Revival in the Former Soviet Union

Introduction

Kurdistan uezd, colloquially known as Red Kurdistan (Kurdistana Sor) was organized as an ''uezd'' meaning an autonomous administration, established by the Soviet Union in Azerbaijan from 1923 to 1929. Its capital and administrative center was Lachin; it included the towns of Kalbajar, Kubatli, and Zangelan and the administrative subdivisions of Karakushlak, Koturli, Murad Khanli, and Kurd-haji. Kurdistan uezd comprised an area about half the size of Lebanon (McDowall: 492). The administration was home to an almost entirely Kurdish population, according to Amoev and Mosaki, the majority of Kurds in Azerbaijan, who formed the vast majority of Kurds in the USSR, lived on Kurdistan uzed territory in 1926. Education, broadcasting, and publishing were conducted in Kurdish.

Kurdistana Sor: Kurdish Autonomy in the Soviet Caucasus

Kurdistan uezd, the zenith of the Kurdish experience in the soviet Caucasus, came about in the greater context of the Soviet nation-building program, one of the operations of which was the Leninist policy of indigenization or nativization (Korenizatsiia), announced in 1923. Korenizatsiia aimed to reduce hostilities and the splintering of national minorities by integrating them into burgeoning Soviet structures. Yuri Slezkine, a Russo-American Sovietologist has described the policy as "the most extravagant celebration of ethnic diversity that any state had ever witnessed." Kurds formed one of over 100 recognized nationalities in the Soviet polity. Professor J. Otto Pohl describes Korenizatsiia concisely:

 “Korenizatsiia officially started in 1923 and sought to promote the Sovietization of non-Russian nationalities by supporting their national development within a socialist framework. This included support for educational and cultural institutions in their native languages as well as policies to increase their membership in Soviet state and party organs and among industrial workers (Pohl, 2017: 32). 

In practice, Korenizatsiia meant the central promotion of native languages in education, official and cultural institutions, and the designation of national territories for minorities. Members of minority groups were also trained and placed into cadres, industries, and Soviet-state party organs. These institutions could be a medium of national expression, but within a socialist framework. The formula was nationalist in form, and socialist in content.  The granting of national rights, permitting minorities to preserve their identity and language was underpinned by Lenin's belief that there existed a ''good'' nationalism among oppressed nations who simply longed for freedom, in contrast with the ''bad nationalism'' of imperialist nations. The Bolshevik revolutionaries inherited the Tsarist empire, which according to Lenin was ''the prison-house of nations''. To prevent the rise of Russian chauvinism which could push minorities to seek independence, Lenin’s policies turned away from Russification and leaned into Sovietization. As a result, briefly, Kurds were granted autonomy. This indigenization policy served to 'contain' the threat of nations attempting to break away from the Soviet Union. Kurdistan uezd existed until 1929, the year that the sixth Azerbaijani Congress of Soviets reformed administrative structures. Consequently, all uezds were absorbed into okrugs which were bigger administrative units. However, an even bigger administration bearing the name of Kurdistan came about. In May 1930, ''Kurdistan Okrug'' was carved out of the Nagorno-Karabakh Okrug, again its center was Lachin, and the territory extended to the Soviet-Iranian border. Kurdistan Okrug was abolished in July 1930. A region entitled Kurdistan was not created again, and the circumstances of Kurds in the Soviet Union evolved differently in  Azerbaijan and Armenia. 

After the dissolution of the Kurdistan Okrug, Kurdish classes and publications resumed from 1931 to 1936 in Azerbaijan. The efforts were however insufficient, according to Yilmaz (2014), by 1938 only 808 students had received some Kurdish language education in 12 schools. The demography of Kurds was changed as well, the 1926 census listed 41,193 Kurds in Azerbaijan while the 1939 census listed only 6,005 (Amoev and Mosaki, 18, 32). This decrease in the official numbers occurred primarily due to the identification of people previously listed as Kurds in 1926 as Azeris in 1939. Thus, it is unverifiable how many Kurds were incorporated into the Bolshevik Republics but 200,000 to 300,000 is the general estimate. (McDowall:491). In Azerbaijan, many Kurds assimilated into the Azeri culture, due to the passage of time, political chauvinism, or the similarities in cultures and beliefs. Still, even during the existence of Kurdistan uezd, only 17% of the estimated 41,000 Kurds in Azerbaijan considered Kurdish to be their mother tongue (Ibid). According to Yilmaz, in Kurdistan Uezd , ''only 3,123 of them spoke Kurdish'' (Yilmaz, 2014: 813) while the majority spoke Azeri.

Subsequent Policies and Their Aftermath 

By the late 1930s and early 1940s, policies of ethnic cleansing replaced indigenization. Kurds were no longer categorized as a small nation but as an enemy nation, subject to assimilation (Leezenberg, 2015: 756). The Kurds were represented as feudal, backward, illiterate, religious fanatics. Additionally, Sheikh Said was 'considered to be an agent of imperialism' (Yılmaz, 2014: 808, 810). In 1937, more than 1,000 Kurdish families were deported. In 1944, eve more Kurds were deported to Kazakhstan and Central Asia (Pohl, 2017: 32). Martin (2001,313) partially attributed the ethnic cleansing policies to Soviet xenophobia. After Stalin’s death in 1953, ‘korenizatsiia’ was revived in the USSR but Kurdish cultural activities or autonomous structures did not resume in Azerbaijan. In contrast, Kurds in Armenia were part of great literary and cultural developments (Leezenberg, 2015: 757).  Kurdish intellectuals and writers of the Former Soviet Union contributed greatly to the development of the Kurmanji dialect and literature. The Latin Kurdish alphabet organized by Miqdad Bedirkhan was improved upon by Aisor Margulov and Erebe Shemo in 1927. Textbooks, folklore and children's collections, and the newspaper "Riya Teza '' (New Path) were published in Yerevan. Publishing and education in the 1930s were led by Kurdish Yezidi intelligentsia, such as; Casimê Celîl, Qanatê Kurdo, Heciyê Cindî, and Emînê Evdal (Yüksel, 2011: 309–18). Additionally, the initial Kurdish novels originated from Armenia. The first Kurdish novel, ''Siwane Kurmanca'' was written by Erebe Shemo and published in Yerevan in 1935. Other Kurdish novels were written by Eliyê Evdirehman's (Xatê Xanîm, 1959) and Dê (Mother, 1965), Heciyê Cindî's Hewarî (Cry, 1967) and Gundê Mêrxasa (The Village of the Courageous, 1968), and Seîdê Îbo's Kurdên Rêwe in 1981. Also, Radio Yerevan, managed by Casime Celil, broadcasted and archived Kurdish plays and songs of dengbej while the Kurdish language was banned in Turkey and other nation-states; the radio allowed many Kurds to learn Kurdish. 

Kurdish theater also developed significantly in the USSR. In the 1920s, cultural actors in Armenia like Hakob Ghazaryan and Ahmedi Mirzai  staged Kurdish plays like Mîrazî's Zemanê Çûyî (The Time Passed) and Lazo's Gustîl (Ring) and Qelen (Dowry). This Kurdish theater group performed in Tbilisi and Armenian villages. By the 1930s, Kurdish plays were printed in Armenia. Those included Qutiya Dû-Dermanan (Medicine Box, 1934) by Hecîyê Cindî (1909–90), Zemanê Çûyî (1935) by Ahmedê Mîrazî and Reva Jinê (The Abduction of a Woman, 1935) by Wezîrê Nadirî (1911–47). In 1937, the first and only state-supported Kurdish theater in the world was created in Alagyaz, a village mainly populated by Yezidi Kurds in Armenia. 

Conclusion

In the 20th century, Kurdish intellectuals in the Armenian Soviet Republic created a Kurdish Cyrillic alphabet, collected folklore, compiled textbooks, promoted teaching in Kurdish, and significantly enriched Kurdish literature and arts. These achievements reveal the importance of literacy in the mother tongue in enriching one's national culture and preserving one's ethnic identity. 

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