[2] The territories of Shusha uezd once formed part of the Karabakh Khanate until the latter's dissolution in 1813, when the area was ceded by Qajar Iran to the Russian Empire in accordance with the Treaty of Gulistan.

Since the collapse of Russian authority in the Transcaucasus, the mountainous portion of the county which was overwhelmingly Armenian and included the administrative center of Shusha was governed by the de facto Karabakh Council which vehemently rejected Ottoman and Azerbaijani attempts to subordinate the region.

Cattlebreeding which played an important role in the regional economy accounted 38,888 of cattle, 10,918 buffalos, 133,648 sheep, 3,052 goats, 8,016 horses, 4,052 donkeys, 1,052 mules, 340 camels, 4,052 pigs.

The majority of the population indicated Armenian to be their mother tongue, with significant Tatar[b] and Russian speaking minorities.

The statistics indicated Armenians to be the majority of the population of both the city Shusha and in the rest of the uezd, with a significant Shia Muslim minority:[10]