A Soviet republican leader who asserted institutional authority in crisis
“A state of emergency was declared and troops were sent in without the republic’s consent.”
Elmira Kafarova was an Azerbaijani Soviet politician and diplomat who moved through education and foreign-affairs administration before leading the republic’s Supreme Soviet. In January 1990, she publicly protested the declaration of emergency in Baku and the entry of Soviet troops, stating that the decision had been taken while she was in Moscow and without her knowledge. Her institutional dissent, unusual within the Soviet republican leadership, illuminates how the nationalities crisis became a collision among republican institutions, a mass movement, and Union power.
Career Timeline
- 1958Graduated from Azerbaijan State University; pursued philological research
- 1966–1970First Secretary of the Komsomol Central Committee of the Azerbaijan SSR
- 1971Ideology secretary of the Baku City Party Committee
- 1980–1983Minister of Education of the Azerbaijan SSR
- 1983–1987Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Azerbaijan SSR
- 1987–1989Deputy Chair of the Council of Ministers of the Azerbaijan SSR
- 1989–1990Chair of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Azerbaijan SSR
- 1990–1992Chair of the Supreme Soviet of Azerbaijan