welcome back to the deep dive today we are opening
a file on a man who i think for many of us in
the west history has kind of relegated to the
footnotes but if you were living in the soviet
union this man was an absolute titan i mean they
called him the caucasian lenin yeah cities were
named after him statues and town squares the
works but if you really dig into the archives
into the actual telegrams and memoirs from 1918,
you find a story that is so much darker. And
infinitely more complex. Infinitely. Way more
than the Soviet textbooks ever let on. We are
talking about Stepan Shamian. And honestly, before
we started researching this, I knew the name,
but that was about it. Right. But the more you
read, the more you realize his fingerprints are
just... all over the history of the 20th century.
We've got imperial spies, a lethal rivalry with
Joseph Stalin, and a revolution happening in
one of the most chaotic places on Earth. It really
is a story about the collision of empires. You
have the Russian, the Ottoman, the British, all
fighting over one specific thing. Baku oil. Baku
oil. And sitting right in the middle of that
powder keg is Stepan Shamian. So let's set the
mission for this deep dives. We're not just looking
at a biography here. We want to unpack how an
intellectual, a guy who quoted German philosophers,
ended up presiding over one of the grisliest
ethnic massacres of the Russian Civil War. And
how 90 years later, his grave became a, well,
a crime scene in a modern geopolitical conflict.
It is such a wild timeline. It is. But to understand
why Shamian matters, you have to get the setting.
The Caucasus in the early 20th century wasn't
just a frontier. It was the prize. It was like
the Wild West, but with, you know, oil derricks
and ancient blood feuds. OK, so let's start with
the man himself, because when I hear Bolshevik
revolutionary, my mind usually pictures a, you
know, a hardened street fighter, someone rough
around the edges. Yeah. Shaman doesn't fit that
mold at all. Not even close. He was born in 1878
in Tiflis, what we now call Tbilisi, into a family
of cloth merchants. So they were comfortable.
But his lineage. This is interesting. It actually
goes back to Armenian nobility. Nobility. The
Meleks of Meghri, yeah. So he had status, and
he had a serious education. He wasn't radicalized
in a factory. He was radicalized at university.
He went to the Riga Polytechnic Institute, right.
He did, until he got expelled for politics, as
you do in those circles. But then he went to
the Humboldt University of Berlin. He actually
graduated from the philosophy department in 1905.
So while other revolutionaries are robbing banks
for the party, Shamian is in German cafes debating
dialectics. Exactly. And he's mixing with the
absolute heavyweights of European Marxism. He
knew Lenin. He knew Martov. He was there in London
at the famous Second Party Congress. Oh, the
big one. The moment the party splits. The moment
it splits into Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. Yeah.
And Shamian, he picked his side immediately.
He was a Bolshevik through and through. An ideologue.
But, and this is so key, when he returns to the
Caucasus to organize, he isn't operating in a
vacuum. He runs headfirst into a young Georgian
revolutionary named Koba. Better known to history
as Joseph Stalin. Right. And reading about their
dynamic, it was not a buddy comedy. It seems
like they genuinely could not stand each other.
Didn't like each other. Yeah. Is putting it very
mildly. It was a shark tank. Shamian was the
theoretician, the writer, the guy leading the
intellectual charge. Stalin was the enforcer,
the organizer. But the tension just boiled over
in this one incident in 1909 that really tells
you everything. Oh, this stood out to me. So
Shamian gets arrested by the Tsarist police.
It's May Day, 1909. Correct. He was hiding in
a safe house. Eventually, his employer helps
get him released. But as soon as he's out, Shamian
points the finger directly at Stalin. openly
accused him of being a police agent. Which is
a death sentence in those circles. I mean, you
do not just throw that accusation around. It's
a suicide mission. So what was his logic? His
logic was brutal and honestly pretty sound. He
reasoned that Stalin was the only other person
who knew the address of that safe house. So if
the police found him. Koba must have tipped them
off. That is cold. It's cutthroat. Now, the accusation
was never proved. And, you know, officially,
Shamian accepted Stalin's denial. They kept working
together for years. But it just highlights the
atmosphere, the paranoia. And it tells you Shamian
wasn't afraid to confront the most dangerous
men in the room. OK, let's fast forward a bit.
World War I is raging. The Russian Empire is
collapsing. The Tsar is overthrown. Then the
Bolsheviks seize power. But Baku, Baku is a long,
long way from Petrograd. It is. And it's the
jewel in the crown because of the oil. So after
the October Revolution, Lenin needs a man to
hold it. And he appoints Shamian as the Commissar
Extraordinary for the Caucasus. Extraordinary.
Great title. It sounds impressive, but his actual
position was incredibly precarious. He ends up
leading what's called the Baku Commune. But unlike
in Moscow, where the Bolsheviks had this iron
grip, Baku was a mess. Shulman did not have a
majority. To govern, he had to form this very
fragile coalition. Right. He's working with left
socialist revolutionaries, Mensheviks, and then
there's this other group, the Dashneks. We really
need to unpack who they were. Yeah, the Dashnaks
are crucial to what happens next. They were the
Armenian Revolutionary Federation. Yeah. Nationalists.
Okay. Their whole goal was the defense and liberation
of the Armenian people, specifically from the
Ottoman Empire. So ideologically, they were totally
incompatible with Shomian. He's a Bolshevik internationalist.
He wants class war. And the Dashnaks are fighting
an ethnic struggle. Exactly. But Shomian, the
Bolshevik. Gets in bed with them. Why? Out of
pure desperation. He had no troops. The Bolsheviks
had maybe 6 ,000 reliable soldiers in a city
that was about to just explode. The Dashnets
had the manpower. And that desperation, that
leads us to the March days of 1918. This is the
turning point. And honestly, it's the darkest
part of this whole story. This is where the intellectual
meets a brutal reality. It all started with a
single spark. In March 1918, a ship called the
Evelina arrives in Baku. This wasn't a warship.
It was carrying Azerbaijani soldiers who were
coming to attend a funeral. A funeral. But the
Baku commune, Shamian's government, they decide
to disarm them. Yes. They demanded the soldiers
hand over their weapons, which, given the tension
in the city, was like lighting a match in a gas
station. So the Muslim population was furious.
Furious. They gathered at a mosque, demanding
the rifles back. Now, the sources say there was
an attempt to stop this from blowing up. Okay,
so someone tried to mediate. Right. The Azerbaijani
Bolshevik organization, called HUMMET, tried
to broker a deal. They said, let us take custody
of the weapons. And Shamian actually agreed.
He tried to de -escalate. So he didn't want a
war, not at first. No. But before the transfer
could happen, shooting started. It's unclear
who fired first. It almost always is. But the
Soviet commissar, Prokofy Japaridze, immediately
blamed the Musavat Party, the Azerbaijani nationalists.
He claimed they'd launched a political war. And
once the shooting starts, Shamian makes a choice
that changes everything. He knows his 6 ,000
Bolsheviks can't win, so he unleashes the Dashnaks.
He does. He invites about 4 ,000 Armenian nationalist
troops to join the fight under the Soviet banner.
He essentially deputized an ethnic militia to
fight a political battle. And the result was
predictable. Tragically so. The Dashnaks didn't
care about Soviet power. They saw an opportunity
to settle scores with the Azerbaijanis. So it
stopped being a battle and it just turned into
an ethnic massacre. Horrific. We are talking
about looting. burning, killing civilians. The
estimates of the dead range from 3 ,000 up to
12 ,000 Azerbaijanis and other Muslims. What
gets me is Shamian's reaction to this. He doesn't
deny it happened. We have a quote from him, and
he admits the participation of the national forces
gave the war, quote, the character of an ethnic
massacre. But then he says this line. We were
going for it deliberately. We were going for
it deliberately. It is a chilling, chilling line.
It's devastating. He justified it. He said the
Musavat intended to overthrow Soviet power and
that securing the government was worth the cost.
But it just destroys that image of him as the
peaceful intellectual. It shows how the violence
of the civil war just completely consumed him.
When the chips were down, he chose terror to
stay in control. So the commune wins the battle,
but at a horrific cost. And now they're completely
isolated. And by mid -1918, they have a massive
new problem. The Ottoman Army of Islam is marching
on the city. This is the geopolitical squeeze.
Shamian is in Baku, surrounded. The Ottomans
want the oil and the commune is desperate. Yes.
This is where the British enter the chat. The
British Empire also eyeing the oil and they definitely
don't want the Ottomans to have it. Exactly.
So the Dashnaks and the Mensheviks and the commune
start saying, hey, we need help. Let's invite
the British forces under General Dunsterville
to help us defend the city. But Shamian had his
orders from Moscow. Strict orders from Lenin.
No imperialist aid. To a Bolshevik, the British
were just as bad as the Ottomans. He refused
to budge. And this leads to this incredible scene
at Shamian's house. He has a meeting with the
British vice consul, a man named Ronald McDonald.
It sounds like something from a spy novel. It
really is a clash of world views. McDonald goes
to Shamian's home to persuade him. He says, look,
General Dunsterville doesn't want to take over.
He just wants to help fight the Turks. He's trying
to be pragmatic. And Shamian isn't buying it
for a second. Not for a second. He asks McDonald,
is your general coming to turn us out? And then
he delivers this line. And you really believe
that a British general and a Bolshevik commissar
would make good partners? No. So why was he so
stubborn? Did he think help was coming from Russia?
He did. He was convinced Bolshevik reinforcements
were sailing down the Caspian. He'd been sending
telegrams promising they could hold out, but
warning they needed backup. The tragedy is, those
reinforcements weren't coming. It was a massive
miscalculation. So the clock runs out. July 26,
1918. The Baku Soviet holds a vote and the Bolsheviks
lose. They're outvoted 259 to 236. The majority
wants to bring in the British. Shamian realizes
it's over. His support has collapsed. So he announces
the Bolsheviks are withdrawing from the Soviet
and from the city. And his exit line is so dramatic.
Oh, it is. With pain in our hearts and curses
on our lips, we who had come here to die for
the Soviet regime are forced to leave. Curses
on our lips. You can just feel the bitterness.
A new government takes over, the Central Caspian
dictatorship, and the British move in. But it's
too little, too late. The Ottoman army breaks
the lines, and Shamian and his comrades, the
famous 26th Commissars, they try to flee. And
this is where the final tragic act begins. They
get on ships to sail to Astrakhan, which was
Bolshevik -held territory, but they don't make
it. No, they're intercepted on August 16th by
vessels from the new dictatorship in Baku. They're
dragged back to prison. Okay, but then things
get chaotic. The Ottoman army is entering the
city. The British are pulling out. And amidst
all this... Shamian gets a lucky break. He does.
And Astas Mikoyan, another famous Bolshevik,
manages to break into the prison and release
them. They scramble onto a ship, the Turkmen,
hoping to cross the Caspian to safety. But they
don't land in friendly territory. No. And this
is the final quest. The ship, either from lack
of fuel or maybe treachery, takes them to Krasnovodsk,
in modern -day Turkmenistan. The problem was...
Krasnovodsk was controlled by anti -Bolshevik
forces. Out of the frying pan, into the fire.
Exactly. They were arrested immediately. And
this is where the British controversy comes roaring
back because the British were also operating
in this area. Right. This is one of the most
debated points of the whole story. It is. The
British Major General, Wilford Mallison, he hears
about the arrest. He contacts his liaison officer,
Captain Reginald T. Jones, and Mallison suggests
they shouldn't shoot the commissars. Instead,
he wants to use them as hostages. A bargaining
chip. Exactly. Swap them for British citizens
being held by the Soviets elsewhere. It was a
pragmatic move. So what went wrong? Why did they
end up dead? Well, Teague Jones attends a meeting
with the local anti -Bolshevik government deciding
the prisoners' fate. But the message doesn't
seem to get through. Teague Jones later claimed
he left the meeting before a decision was made.
That sounds convenient. Oh, I just stepped out
for a minute and they decided to execute everyone.
It does. It reeks of plausible deniability. And
for decades, the Soviets claimed the British
ordered the execution. The sources suggest it
was probably more a mix of negligence and the
fact that the local anti -Bolsheviks just really,
really wanted these guys dead. So on the night
of September 20, 1918, Shamian and the others
are taken out. They were put on a train, taken
to a remote location in the desert. They were
ordered off the train and executed by firing
squad. Stepan Shamian was 39 years old. And that
should be the end of the story. He becomes a
martyr. The Soviets build the statues. They rename
the cities. Stepanakert and Nagorno -Karabakh
is named after him. Right. And Anastas Mikoyan,
who survived, he treated Shamian's children like
his own. He kept that memory alive. Shamian,
the perfect revolutionary hero, the Caucasian
Lenin. But history doesn't stay buried. Let's
jump forward 90 years to 2009. The Soviet Union
is gone. Azerbaijan and Armenia have fought a
brutal war. And the legacy of Shamian, an Armenian
who ruled Baku, is suddenly very complicated
in Azerbaijan. Complicated is putting it mildly.
In January 2009, the Azerbaijani authorities
decided to demolish the memorial to the 26 commissars
in Baku. And during the demolition work, the
Azerbaijani press drops an absolute bombshell.
They reported that forensic experts had examined
the remains and only found 21 bodies in the grave,
not 26. Wait, five were missing? And the implication
was? The implication was clear. Yeah. They suggested
Shamian and four other Armenian commissars hadn't
been executed at all, that they had escaped.
So the theory was that the Caucasian Lenin secretly
fled and lived out his life somewhere. That was
the narrative being pushed. It fed right into
the intense distrust between the two nations.
The idea that the Armenian leaders had tricked
their comrades and left them to die while they
escaped to India or America was a conspiracy
theory basically weaponized for a modern conflict.
But the family fought back on this. Oh, yeah.
Shamian's granddaughter, Tatyana, who's a historian
in Moscow, she completely rejected it. She pointed
out that there's actual film footage in the archives
of the 26 bodies being buried. Her grandmother
attended the reburial. She called the escape
theory impossible. And psychologically, it just
doesn't fit the man we've been talking about.
Exactly. This is a man who refused to compromise
with the British to save his government. The
idea that he would cut a secret deal to run away
while his comrades were shot. It just contradicts
everything we know about his character. It's
just fascinating how a man who died in 1918 can
still be a pawn in a conflict in 2009. That's
the nature of symbols in this region. Shamian
represents completely different things to different
people. To the Soviets, a hero. To modern Azerbaijan,
he's often seen as a villain because of the march
days. To Armenians, he's a prominent historical
figure, though his Bolshevik politics are...
It really all circles back to that quote, doesn't
it? We were going for it deliberately. He was
a man of high education, a philosopher. But when
push came to shove in the chaos of 1918, he oversaw
a massacre to hold on to power. And that really
is the tragedy of the Russian Revolution in the
borderlands. It wasn't just class struggle. It
was empire ethnicity survival. Shamian tried
to walk this tightrope between his ideals and
the brutal reality of the Caucasus. And in the
end, he fell. And took the Baku commune down
with him. We often think of these historical
figures as inevitable, but his story is so full
of what ifs. What if he had accepted British
aid? What if Teague Jones had stayed at that
meeting? It makes you wonder. It absolutely does.
We're going to wrap it up there. A story of a
man caught between empires, between ideologies,
and ultimately between life and death in the
desert. I believe you with a final thought. This
one from the historian Ronald Grigor Suny. He
noted that Shamian wanted to win power democratically
and non -violently if a leader with those specific
intentions could oversee something like the march
days what does that tell us about the volatility
of revelations can high ideals ever really survive
the reality of a civil war that is the question
think about that thanks for listening to this
deep dive we'll see you next time