Heydar Alirza oghlu Aliyev
Heydər Əlirza oğlu Əliyev
The KGB general who rose from Baku to the Kremlin and founded independent Azerbaijan
F. D. Bobkov, first deputy KGB chairman, asked him after three years: "What have you managed to achieve?" Aliyev replied: "I can guarantee only one thing — in the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan, no one takes bribes."
An Azerbaijani who served 28 years in Soviet state security, Aliyev rose from KGB chairman to First Secretary of the Azerbaijan Communist Party in 1969. Under Brezhnev, he drove rapid economic growth in the republic, expanding grape, oil, and cotton production, and became one of the few non-Slavs to reach the post of First Deputy Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers and full Politburo member in 1982. Returning to Azerbaijan as it descended into civil war after the Soviet collapse, he became president in 1993, stabilized the country, and signed the 'Contract of the Century' for Caspian oil development, securing his legacy as the founder of independent Azerbaijan.
Career timeline
- 1944–1967KGB Azerbaijan SSR: operative, head of counterintelligence, deputy chairman
- 1967–1969Chairman, KGB under the Council of Ministers, Azerbaijan SSR (Major General)
- 1969–1982First Secretary, Central Committee, Communist Party of Azerbaijan
- 1976–1982Candidate member, Politburo CPSU → full member (1982)
- 1982–1987First Deputy Chairman, USSR Council of Ministers (machine-building, light industry, transport, culture, education)
- 1993–20033rd President, Republic of Azerbaijan