In summer 1905, leaflets calling on the people of the Caucasus to secede from the Russian Empire were spread in the city of Yelisavetpol by an organisation which referred to itself as the Turkic Revolutionary Committee of Social Federalists.
The leaflets listed continuing Russian occupation of the Caucasus and heavy taxes imposed by the Czarist government as main arguments for secession.
In the same year, members of the Committee announced the formation of the Geyrat party of social federalist nature.
[1] The party was headed by Yelisavetpol-based lawyer Alakbar bey Rafibeyli.
Its main goal was to achieve autonomy for the Turkic-speaking peoples in the new federative Russia.