Prokofy Dzhaparidze

Prokofy "Alyosha" Aprasionovich Dzhaparidze or Japaridze, (Georgian: პროკოფი აპრასიონის ძე ჯაფარიძე, Russian: Прокофий Апрасионович Джапаридзе; 15 January 1880 – 20 September 1918), was a Communist activist, one of the Red Army and Bolshevik Party leaders in Azerbaijan during the Russian Revolution.

Dzhaparidze, an ethnic Georgian joined to Bolsheviks in 1898 where he earned the nickname Alyosha (Alesha), then moved to Baku. Helping the founding of the Azerbaijani socialist party Hummet, he became Delegate of the Caucasian Union of the RSDLP at the 3rd Congress of the RSDLP in London. During his political life, he was many times arrested or exiled for his anti-tsarist activities in Russian Empire.

After the February Revolution he became a member of the Caucasian Regional Committee, joined the Baku Communeand became one of the legendary 26 Baku Commissars. He took several different positions in the commune. Dzhaparidze, along with Stepan Shahumyan, Meshadi Azizbekov, Ivan Fioletov and other commissars tried to spread the communist ideology through the whole Caucasus. Soon after the fall of the commune, on the night of September 20, he was executed by firing squad in a remote location between the stations of Pereval and Akhcha-Kuyma on the Trans-Caspian railway along with other Commissars.

Dzhaparidze was one of the main four commissars who gained a notable status in Soviet Union as a fallen hero of Russian Revolution. A street in Sochi (Russia) is still named after him and he has a small bust in Moscow. His monument in Baku, capital of the Republic of Azerbaijan was demolished in 2009.

Biography

Early life

Prokofy Dzhaparidze was born in Schardometi village of Racha, Kutaisi Governorate in the Russian Empire (present-day Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti, Republic of Georgia) to a Georgian family of landowners. His father died early. He went to a village school and learnt the profession of bootmaker.

He was educated at the Alexandrovsk Teachers Institute in Tbilisi, Dzhaparidze joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1898. He participated in the preparation of the May Day demonstration in 1900. He was arrested and held in jail 11 months, and then was sent home. In 1901, he led a strike of tobacco workers in Kutaisi.

In 1904 he moved to Baku, became one of the founders of Gummet organization, set up to do political work amongst Muslims, which grew into a mass organisation, drawing large masses of Muslim people behind the Bolsheviks. Some of its most known members included Meshadi Azizbekov, Nariman Narimanov and Sultan Majid Afandiyev. He led delegate of the Caucasian Union of the RSDLP at the 3rd Congress of the RSDLP in London. He was one of the leaders of the December strike of the workers in Baku, also actively participated in the publishment of the Bolshevik journals and magazines Bakisnkie Rabochi, Gudok and Bakinski prolitari.

In 1909 he was arrested and exiled to the North Caucasus for five years. He lived in Rostov-on-Don. In 1913 he returned to Tbilisi, present-day capital of Georgia.

In preparation for the 1915 May Day demonstration was exiled to Vologda Province, where in 1916 he fled to Petrograd, and then to Tbilisi.

Baku Commune

After the February Revolution of 1917, Dzhaparidze was a member of the Baku Committee of the Bolshevik Party; as a delegate to the 6th congress of the Bolshevik Party, he was selected as a candidate member of its Central Committee, and became a member of Caucasian Border Committee. From December 1917 Deputy Chairman, during January–July 1918 the chairman of the Executive Committee of the Baku Soviet.

During March, Dzhaparidze was the member of the Committee of Revolutionary Defence which suppressed a mutiny in Baku; from April, he was the Commissar for Internal Affairs in Baku, and, from June, he also served as Commissar for Food. During this time, he actively fought against to Musavat government in Azerbaijan as well as tried to spread the communist ideology to Azerbaijan and the whole South Caucasus in general.

On September 20, 1918, he was one of the 26 Baku Commissars shot by the White Army of the Central Caspian Dictatorship. His legacy appreciated highly in the Soviet Union as well as in the Soviet republics of Caucasus. However after the collapse of the Soviet Union the high nationalists feelings in Azerbaijan soon led into the changes of the places which are named after Dzhaparidze and the demolishment of his monument. His grave was also changed along with the other commissars in Baku which was highly opposed by the Azerbaijan Communist Party and other local left-wing politicians. In his native Georgia, Dzhaparidze is also almost removed from everywhere.

The blood of your never cool - never!

26 —

Dzhaparidze and Shahumyan!

— Vladimir Mayakovsky