[6] On 13 October 1921, the Soviet republics of Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia signed an agreement with Turkey known as the Treaty of Kars.

The Union Council of TSFSR consisted of the representatives of the three republics – Nariman Narimanov (Azerbaijan), Polikarp Mdivani (Georgia), and Aleksandr Fyodorovich Miasnikyan (Armenia).

In order to help the Azerbaijani oil industry the Supreme Council of the National Economy decided in the same year to provide it with everything necessary out of turn.

In the first year of the Soviet-German War, Azerbaijan produced 23.5 million tons of oil—a record for the entire history of its oil industry.

A week after fighting began, the oil workers themselves took the initiative to extend their work to 12-hour shifts, with no days off, including holidays and vacations, until the end of the war.

In September 1942, Hitler's generals presented him with a large decorated cake depicting the Caspian Sea and Baku.

The German army reached the mountains of the Caucasus, but was at the same time decisively defeated at the Battle of Stalingrad and thus forced to retreat from the area, abandoning all hopes for a Reichskommissariat Kaukasien.

By the decree of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in February 1942, the commitment of more than 500 workers and employees of the oil industry of Azerbaijan was awarded orders and medals.

In November 1945, with Soviet backing, an autonomous "Azerbaijan People's Government" was set up at Tabriz under Jafar Pishevari, the leader of the Azerbaijani Democratic Party.

As it turned out, the issue of Iranian Azerbaijan became one of the first conflicts of the Cold War, and under the pressure from the Western powers, the Soviet army was withdrawn.

As a result, Azerbaijan had the lowest rate of growth in productivity and economic output among the Soviet republics, with the exception of Tajikistan.

In an attempt to end the growing structural crisis, the government in Moscow appointed Heydar Aliyev as the first secretary of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan in 1969.

He also consolidated the republic's ruling elite, which now consisted almost entirely of ethnic Azerbaijanis, thus reverting the previous trends of sblizheniye.

[citation needed] The late 1980s, during the Gorbachev era, were characterized by increasing unrest in the Caucasus, initially over the Nagorno-Karabakh issue.

The ethnic strife revealed the shortcomings of the Communist Party as a champion of national interests and, in the spirit of glasnost, independent publications and political organizations began to emerge.

On 28 April 1920, Temporary Revolutionary Committee took control over the country, and formed a government named Council of People's Commissars of Azerbaijan SSR.

The primary combat formation of Ground Forces in Azerbaijan was the 4th Army, which housed its headquarters and various support units in Baku.

Military conscription in the Azerbaijan SSR was introduced only after the establishment of Soviet control, with the number of people being called up for service being minimal at first.