MIGRATIONS OF THE POPULATION BETWEEN SOUTH AND NORTH OF AZERBAIJAN DURING THE TSARIST RUSSIAN COLONIAL RULE

Abstract

This article analyzes the historical demographic situation of Shahsevan clans who migrated between the Ardabil, Garadag and Mughan regions of Azerbaijan from the end of the sixteenth century to the beginning of the nineteenth century in connection with the farming of pastures (nomadic livestock) during the Russian colonial rule. The mechanical movement of the population is examined in the context of the khanate period before the Russian occupation. And the seasonal migrations of the Shahsevan tribes from the south to the north of Azerbaijan was studied in the time frame of 1828-1885 and 1885-1917, and their role in the moral integrity of Azerbaijan, divided between Tsarist Russia and Iran, also in the struggle against the colonial authorities was indicated. It is not a coincidence that exactly on December 27, 1885, after the Shahsevans were massacred by the Russian border troops while crossing the Araz River, and the migrations of the Shahsevans who migrated from the Ardabil-Savalan regions to the Mughan plain were stopped. Further the Russian Empire, which gained a wide field of action in Mughan, began to move the tens of thousands of Russian peasant to Mughan until 1917. In this sense the article introduces the directions and essence of the colonial policy of Tsarist Russia based on the works of the founders of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic.