Azerbaijanis in Russia
Azeris started settling in Russia (with the exception of Dagestan) around the late nineteenth century, but their migration intensified after World War II, and especially after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
According to the 2010 All-Russian Population Census, there are 603,070 Azeris residing in Russia, however the actual numbers may be much higher due to the arrival of guest workers in the post-Soviet era.
Today most provinces of Russia have more or less significant Azeri communities, the biggest ones, according to official numbers, residing in Dagestan, Moscow, Khanty–Mansi, Krasnoyarsk, Rostov-on-the-Don, Saratov, Sverdlovsk, Samara, Stavropol, etc.
[6] As of 2010, 130,919 Azeris lived in the Dagestan Republic, which makes them the region's sixth-largest ethnic group and 4.5% of its total population.
[9] Historically Azeris of Dagestan were engaged in carpet weaving, currying, jewellery- and copper utensils making.
[21][22] American political analyst Paul A. Goble characterised these events as "the boiling point" in the interethnic relations in Derbent and did not exclude the possibility of them leading to an ethnic conflict that would threaten to extend across the Russian–Azerbaijani border.
This factor, as well as the influence of the Seljuq Empire, ensured the spread of an Oghuz Turkic idiom in Derbent already in the eleventh century.
[24] The ethnic make-up of Derbent remained unchanged until the city became part of the Safavid Empire in the early sixteenth century.
The Safavid rule was characterised with active resettlement policies, aimed at securing Shia Muslim dominance in the conquered lands.
[27] At the time of Peter the Great's conquest of the Caspian coastline in 1722, the city of Derbent was predominantly inhabited by Azeris.
[11][page needed] The northern part of the Derbent Rayon was historically populated by the Tarakama, a Turkic-speaking people akin to the Karapapak, who were sometimes classified as a separate ethnic group until the twentieth century.
The Tarakama originated in various parts of Shirvan and were resettled by Khan Muhammad of Kaitag to the north of the city of Derbent around 1600.
From then on, the area inhabited by them has been referred to as the Tarakama mahal (district) and constituted an administrative unit until the early twentieth century.
In 1736, around 300 Tarakama families from Kaitag advanced further across the Sulak River and settled on the Terek Valley in three villages, where they later mixed with the Kumyks.
[11] Today, 16 out of 40 settlements in Derbent are majority-Azeri populated, and in nine more, Azeris constitute either a relative majority or a significant minority: Berikei, Delichoban, Velikent, Verkhny Chalgan, Nizhny Chalgan, Sabnova, Dzhemikent, Zidyan, Zidyan-Kazmalyar, Mitagi, Mitagi-Kazmalyar, Kala, Mugarty, Muzaim, Padar, Kommuna, Rukel, Tatlyar, Karadagly, Bilgadi, Belidzhi, Arablinsky, Arablyar, Gedzhukh, Chinar, Nyugdi, Rubas, Salik, Ullu Terekeme, Khazar, the town of Mamedkala.
Derbent was still a predominantly Azeri (called Transcaucasian Tatars in older Russian sources) town in 1897, with 9,767 persons constituting 66.7% of its population.
[32] Decades later, even though their numbers continued to grow, due to heavy immigration in the town, as of 2010, Azeris constituted just 32.3% of its total population with 38,523 persons.
[35] Currently ethnic Azeris constitute majority in the villages of Maraga, Hili-Pendzhik (including the settlement of Yekrag), Tsanak, Arak, Yersi, Darvag, and Zil.
According to Dagestani anthropologist Magomedkhan Magomedkhanov, through the Azeri language, the people of this region "achieved material benefits, satisfaction of cultural needs, as well as creative and spiritual inspiration.
[46] Azeri music and singing traditions played a major role in the cultural integration of the peoples of Southern Dagestan.
[11] As for the Lezgian, Rutul, Tsakhur and other Nakh-Dagestani-speaking population, the Azeri language affected their cultural sphere[11] and was a primary source for many loanwords,[48][49] leaving their everyday speech behaviour mostly intact.
[11] The Tabasaran language is considered the most influenced by Azeri,[50] which has contributed many nouns, adjectives, adverbs, verb forms and even auxiliary words and morphemes.
According to Alibek Takho-Godi, Dagestani People's Commissar (minister) of Justice in the 1920s (himself of Dargwa origin), local Nakh-Dagestani languages were "not taken seriously as a means of nation-building due to their excessive number.
[58] Diplomatic missions and merchants from Shirvan and the Safavid Empire first appeared in Russia in the fourteenth and fifteenth century.
[64] Similarly to all Muslims of the Caucasus and Central Asia, Azeris were exempt from compulsory military service in the Russian Imperial army, but were required to pay a special tax.
[67] In 1905, Azeri political figures were among those who established the first Islamic party of Russia, Ittifaq al-Muslimin, in the city of Nizhny Novgorod.
Azerbaijani geologist Farman Salmanov, who later established himself in Moscow, discovered rich oil reserves in Siberia which had previously been considered as an unlikely oil-bearing region.
They have been described as the strongest adherents to their traditions and marriages within their own ethnic community compared to local Armenians, Georgians, Ukrainians, and Tatars.
