ASERBAIGIAN. – The largest (85,500 sq. km.), though not the most populous, of the three Soviet federated Republics of the Transcaucasian sector. Having entered the Transcaucasian Federation in 1922, it was admitted, in December 1936, among the major units of the U. S. S. R.
The Aserbaigian S. S. R. embraces the southeastern extremity of the Transcaucasian region belonging to the U. S. S. R., as far as the frontier with Persia, beyond which, within that State, extends the province of the same name (Persian A.), which has had and continues to have close relations with the countries that long ago came under Russian rule. The territory of the Aserbaigian S. S. R. consists essentially of the basin of the middle and lower Kura, a region that is largely flat, and of the two mountain systems delimiting it to the N. and S.; of these, the southern one, which continues into the neighboring Iranian region, is only slightly lower (Mt. Kapudjikh, 3,918 m.) and less inaccessible than the high Caucasian barrier (Mt. Bazar Dyuza, 4,489 m.). The depressed sector corresponds to an arid territory (less than 200 mm. of annual rainfall, on average), in which artificial irrigation may nevertheless open up broad agricultural possibilities (cereals, cotton, tobacco, fruit); the two mountain belts present a much more varied landscape and, in addition, abound in mineral resources (iron, coal, aluminum, silver, lead, etc.), among which the considerable oil deposits accompanying the Caucasian divide on both sides are particularly important, especially where it projects into the Caspian (Apscheron Peninsula).
The economy of A., although still based on agriculture and pastoralism, is gradually giving a larger place to industrial activity, in which, alongside the extraction and processing of fuel, there are now electric-power stations, extensive textile plants, and a great variety of enterprises devoted to food production. Handicrafts are also flourishing, continuing ancient traditions (carpets, silks, ceramics, copper and silver work). Communications have received considerable impetus over the last twenty years; nevertheless, A. is oriented more toward the S. (Persia) than toward the neighboring Soviet territories.
The population grew from 2.3 to 3.2 million inhabitants between 1926 and 1939; the urban population rose from 28 to 36% during the same period. It consists of more than 3/5 Turco-Tatar elements (Turkmen, Kirghiz, Nogai, Kumyk, Karachai, etc.), nomadic and sedentary, and of approximately 1/10 Armenians and an equal proportion of Russians. The capital, Baku, which numbered barely 13,000 inhabitants eighty years ago, is today, with its 800,000 inhabitants, the third-largest city in the entire U. S. S. R. (after the destruction suffered by Kiev and Kharkov). Its old Asian nucleus has by now been submerged in a large complex of modern, predominantly working-class districts; at the same time, however, the city has become an active intellectual center, by far the most notable in the entire Caucasian region.
Administratively dependent on A. are the small territory (4,160 sq. km. with 150,000 inhabitants) of Mountainous Karabakh (Nagorno K.), inhabited chiefly by Armenians (89% and less than 1% Russians) and characteristically agricultural (capital Stepanakert, with approximately 6,000 inhabitants), and the autonomous Republic of Nakhicevan (5,480 sq. km. with 117,000 inhabitants, of whom 9/10 are Turks and barely 2% Russians; the capital is Nakhicevan, with approximately 12,000 inhabitants), enclosed within the borders of the neighboring Armenian federative Republic.
For ecclesiastical history V. GEORGIA.