13.4 - Mustafayev - Our Own Voices, Our Own Minds - Stalin Crushes Would

Winter 2005 (13.4)
Pages 12-13

Mustafayev
Our Own Voices, Our Own Minds:
Stalin Crushes Would-Be Student Activists
by Fuad Mustafayev, brother of Chingiz, and nephews - Vahid Mustafayev, Seyfulla Mustafayev

Stalin had little tolerance for youth movements against his regime. Perhaps, he recalled his youth and how active he had been in organizing strikes, especially among the Baku oil workers in the early 1900s. In 1942, eight university students formed a group, which to our knowledge didn't even have a name. They were troubled with the developments that were taking place in their country and inspired by the activities of Mustafa Kamal Ataturk who gained independence for Turkey. They wanted the same independence for Azerbaijan. But it turned out to be only a dream. In truth, the group was crushed before they could do anything at all. All members were arrested. In essence, they all were killed, either through execution, torture or the hardships of exile.

Through the research of the late historian Ziya Bunyadov who gained access to the KGB files in the late 1980s, the family of Chingiz Mustafayev (1924-1943) was able to produce a television documentary that uncovered much of the mystery of what happened to these youth.

Today, it could be said that the legacy of Chingiz lives on. His two nephews - Vahid and Seyfulla - have devoted their energy to creating alternative voices for the news. Theirs were the first independent television company to be established in independent Azerbaijan, an extension of their commitment to break the news related to the war in Nagorno-Karabakh in the early 1990s. Fifty years earlier, Chingiz had given his life for the chance to listen to German broadcasters on a short-wave radio to understand the developments of the war.

Here Betty Blair, Editor of Azerbaijan International, interviewed Fuad Mustafayev, and his sons Vahid and Seyfulla, co-founders and co-owners who direct ANS (Azerbaijan News Service). ANS began about 15 years ago but now operates television and radio stations as well as produces several popular magazines.

Fuad (born 1929) was the brother of Chingiz Mustafayev (1923-1943) who was arrested in 1942 as a member of a student group and who died a few months later from injuries inflicted in prison from torture. Fuad gave the name of his brother to his son-Chingiz Mustafayev (1960-1992), who as a television cameraman, was killed during the Nagorno-Karabakh war with Armenia while on assignment to capture the essence of the war through his camera lens. Search AZER.com: "Documenting the Horrors of Karabakh: Chingiz Mustafayev in Action" in AI 7.3 (Autumn 1999).

Fuad: I was 13 years old when my brother Chingiz Mustafayev, 19, was arrested. That was in 1942. Turkey had gained its independence back in 1923 under Ataturk, and Azerbaijani youth wanted our country to be independent as well. Naturally, the Soviet regime was dead set against it.

Chingiz belonged to a group of eight students who had organized a club. One of their goals was to try to buy a short-wave radio set. At that time the Soviet government prohibited listening to foreign radio programs. Chingiz knew German quite well so he and his friends wanted to learn what the Germans were saying about the war [World War II]. They were trying to predict what the outcome of the war would be.

Chingiz Mustafayev as a child. He was arrested at age 19 in 1942 and sentenced to 10 years of labor but died of injuries from torture before being sent to Siberia. Photo: Courtesy the famliy of Chingiz Mustafayev Actually, Chingiz was really surprised when they arrested him. He hadn't expected it. He was taken at night - straight from bed. They didn't even let him get dressed. Only my mother, my brother and I were at home at the time. We didn't know where they were taking him. My mother started crying and that woke up the neighbors.

Left: Chingiz Mustafayev as a child. He was arrested at age 19 in 1942 and sentenced to 10 years of labor but died of injuries from torture before being sent to Siberia. Photo: Courtesy the famliy of Chingiz Mustafayev.

None of the neighbors could stand up and defend Chingiz. Everybody was scared. If, for example, somebody didn't like his neighbor, he could turn him in. He could say something as ridiculous as "so-and-so was criticizing Stalin's moustache". And that was enough. They would come and take that person away in the middle of the night.

We didn't know anything about what was happening to my brother after he was arrested. It was like those eight young boys had just disappeared.

We had no idea where they were being kept. Nobody knew if there had been a trial or anything. We had no idea about what was going on.

It turns out that another student by the name of Nasibov had turned him in. He was a student at what is now known as the Oil Academy and used to come to their meetings. The KGB documents to which we later gained access, confirmed that it was Nasibov who turned Chingiz in. We were suspicious of several people actually - neighbors and relatives. But it was him.

Mom and I would go to the KGB building. There was a window there, through which you could pass things for the prisoners. You were never allowed to see them, but you could pass food and stuff to them. Of course, you weren't even sure if they ever got what you brought. There used to be long queues with people waiting to pass things in. The guards would even take packages for people who they knew had already been shot and they wouldn't say anything. The families didn't know. They took packages from us several times, but later on they didn't accept anything more from us.

We used to hear so many stories about how the prisoners were tortured in the basement of the KGB building. After putting the prisoners through grueling interrogations, they would put them in a cell with water up to their waists. If they were to collapse from sheer exhaustion, they risked drowning.

Those interrogation sessions were so difficult. They would take place at night, usually starting around 11 p.m., and lasting until morning - five or six hours later. Chingiz insisted that his group had done nothing. They had simply organized a club, but had achieved nothing. They just wanted Azerbaijan to be independent.

Chingiz Mustafayev in 1942 as Prisoner No. 1920. When the Soviet Union began to collapse in the early 1990s, historian Ziya Bunyadov gained access to the KGB archives and started delving into the files related to Stalin's purges.

Left: Chingiz Mustafayev in 1942 as Prisoner No. 1920.

Up until then, nobody had ever done that. Bunyadov researched this group and discovered that Chingiz had resisted until the 15th session of interrogations. That's when they brought in the other seven members and they told him: "Chingiz, we've confessed."

Chingiz replied: "Confessed to what? There's nothing to confess. We haven't done anything."

Chingiz' friends had been tortured so much that after the second or third session, they had admitted to crimes that they had not even committed. So, when Chingiz realized they had given in, he gave up resisting as well. Even Bunyadov, who had read the details of so many interrogations and trials, was amazed that Chingiz could hold out so long - especially when they were torturing him.

At the trial, three of the youth were sentenced to be executed [December 24, 1942]. The remaining five were sentenced to 10 years of hard labor.

Fuad Mustafayev, younger brother of Chingiz who was repressed. Here Fuad is with his sons, Vahid and Seyfulla, who together run ANS (Azerbaijan News Service) Group. At about that time in 1943, a decree was made so that prisoners, who were deemed too ill to be treated, could be released.

Left: Fuad Mustafayev, younger brother of Chingiz who was repressed. Here Fuad is with his sons, Vahid and Seyfulla, who together run ANS (Azerbaijan News Service) Group.

In other words, if it was inevitable that the prisoner was going to die, they let him return home so that more space could be made available more quickly in the prisons. That's why Chingiz was released early. They let him come home because he had been so badly injured from abuse and tortures. Many years later, we discovered a photo in the KGB archives where you can see that they had tried to powder his head so that the bruises would not be so visible in the photo.

Seyfulla: It was wartime. A very difficult period. There were so many Soviet soldiers who had been imprisoned by the Germans. So upon their return to the Soviet Union, Stalin, did not release them. He sent the soldiers to labor camps. That's why there wasn't enough space in the prisons and camps; therefore, he made a decree to release all the others who were sick and dying, along with the elderly.

Vahid: These guys didn't bomb anything. They weren't terrorists. When my Uncle Chingiz said they hadn't done anything, he meant that they had just formed a group. It was natural for them to create a little group since the Constitution of the Soviet Union declared that their country was a democratic country, and everybody could say whatever they wanted to. That's why Chingiz had insisted that they hadn't done anything.

Seyfulla: In fact, human rights were protected in the 1937 Constitution of the Soviet Union. So, Chingiz thought it was his right to organize a club. Such things reveal the hypocrisy of the Communist regime. It looked like one thing on paper but, in reality, it was really a totalitarian regime against the people.

Vahid: These youth didn't know what they had done wrong because they had not committed any crime. They had not carried out any act of terror. Simply, they had formed a small group of close friends who were interested in political issues. They didn't agree with the state policy and they wanted Azerbaijan to be independent. According to the 1937 Constitution, every republic in the Soviet Union was independent. But these youth were in quest of real independence.

Seyfulla: It was called the Union of Independent Republics.

At the interview in August 2005 in the Mustafayev Home: (left to right) Seyfulla, Vahid, AI Editor Betty Blair, Fuad Mustafayev, and Gulnar Aydamirova, AI Editorial Assistant Vahid: But, in reality, it wasn't like this at all.

Left: At the interview in August 2005 in the Mustafayev Home: (left to right) Seyfulla, Vahid, AI Editor Betty Blair, Fuad Mustafayev, and Gulnar Aydamirova, AI Editorial Assistant.
Seyfulla:

Formally, every republic in the Soviet Union had its constitution, its own flag, its own national anthem and emblem. But all these things were just another guise for the Russian empire. So many people had already been repressed during those horrible years - particularly 1937 and 1938 - because the Soviet Union was cut off from the rest of the world. The international community didn't know what was going on. The Soviet Union was a closed society - like a big prison.

Vahid: People could not understand what was happening. Radio, TV and government officials said one thing, but the State operated in exactly the opposite manner. They said you were free, that you had freedom and could do what you wanted. But they would watch everything you did. And if you did anything against their policies or ideology, they would arrest you.

Seyfulla: The authorities would compile a list of names and charge these people with being "Enemies of People". I'm a historian. I know how the system worked. People would attend meetings at work or on the streets, and they would agree to the annihilation of the "Enemies of the People". All the people - we ourselves - not somebody from another planet, just ordinary local citizens - were involved with accusing fellow neighbors, fellow workers. This is one of the most destructive things about totalitarian regimes: it pits people, one against the other. It's so difficult for us to comprehend such things now, but they were commonplace back then. People were used to the fact that almost every night someone would disappear.

Everybody was absolutely afraid and that's why nobody would speak out against anything. They were afraid that they, too, would be taken away some night. When I was growing up in the 1960s, I remember my parents trying to find a way to make us behave. Father used to try to scare us by saying: "A big black car will come and take you away." It wasn't until I had grown up that I understood what that meant. I didn't know what black cars were all about. I later learned that people referred to these cars as "Black Ravens". Everybody was so afraid of them. They would pull up in front of a house or apartment in the wee hours of the morning and agents would arrest the occupants inside. The black cars were used to haul people back to the KGB prisons.

Fuad: This all started happening around 1937. For example, we had a neighbor whose husband had been arrested and later was shot. He had been a commander-in-chief of an army division or something like that. Later the wives of such people were also arrested so that they wouldn't speak out. They were sent to exile, often to Central Asia or Siberia. Many of them died during transit because of the inhumane conditions.

This neighbor later told us how they had stopped the train in between two stations. All the women were made to stand outside in a line. Two officials started calling out the names and reading the sentences. Just there - out there in the middle of nowhere. No trial, nothing. They sentenced this woman to eight years in exile and she just turned and said: "Thank you". If she had objected, she would have had more trouble. She spent five years in exile in Siberia before she was finally freed.

The primary goal of Stalinism was to create "a new man". They were looking for people who would blindly follow the rules of the Communist party and who wouldn't think for themselves. People like Chingiz and his friends were perceived as enemies because they weren't among these "new men". People like Mammad Amin Rasulzade, Fatali Khan Khoyski or Nariman Narimanov also wanted an independent Azerbaijan but they were deceived. Narimanov was called to Moscow and then was mysteriously murdered. That just goes to show that from the beginning, the Soviet Union was really an empire; there wasn't any democracy here.

Chingiz was very smart. He would spend his summer vacations studying mathematical problems. He was especially strong in math and was intrigued with anything that had to do with electricity. Those eight young fellows used to gather in our courtyard. They used to do all sorts of physical exercises together. They would practice weight lifting with heavy rocks. They were all strong guys. My father wasn't at home when Chingiz was arrested. He was at our uncle's place.

Father was sick and the doctor recommended that he get some fresh air. The air was good for him there down near the sea at his brother's place. For several months, we succeeded in hiding the fact from him that Chingiz had been arrested and taken away. Then someone, who wasn't a family member or close friend, broke the news to him, and father had a heart attack and died.

Father had suffered so much when the Bolsheviks came into power and that's why he was always thinking about it. It had affected his heart. Bolsheviks took away almost everything he owned.

Before the Revolution [1920], my father had been a successful merchant in Baku. He had a factory that produced leather, wool and carpets, which he sold to Turkey, Central Asian and other countries. When the Soviets came, they confiscated everything and sent him to prison in Gusar where they kept him for about a year and a half. He was repressed simply because of his wealth.

We lived on Polukhin Street near School No. 5 - on the way from Baksoviet Metro station up towards the Narimanov statue. The entire building used to belong to my father. Then the Bolsheviks divided it up among several families and left our family with only one room. Originally, the house had had six rooms.

I served in the Soviet Army for 15 years. Upon graduating from the military academy in Leningrad, I was sent to Kapustingrad where I was the head of one of the departments where the Soviet rockets were being tested. Had officials known my background - since my brother had been killed as an "Enemy of the People" and my father had been imprisoned by the Bolsheviks, they would never have let me work there as it was a state entity. But they didn't know. I simply never mentioned those things in my CV. I simply wrote that both my father and my brother had died in the war, not that both of them had been repressed.

Left: Fifth Graduating Class from International School No. 1 in the Chaparidze District of Baku (1939-1940). Chingiz Mustafayev and classmates who joined together to try to help Azerbaijan become an independent nation: (1) Suleyman Isgandarli, (2) Zaman Mehdiyev, (3) Huseinagha Aghayev, (4) Alasgar Taghiyev and (5) Chingiz Mustafayev. There were three other youth arrested. All of them were killed or died in exile. Photo: Courtesy the family of Chingiz Mustafayev.

Vahid: Grandfather probably could have fled the country. Many people did leave for Turkey and Europe. But every generation in our family has said that this is where our parents died, and we have always refused to give up our land.
Every generation has said: my grandfather did this, my father did this, and now we say the same thing.

We have seen difficult times here as well and it's not very easy now either. We have a lot of friends abroad. But we stay here. We'll die here.

Seyfulla: This is my country - mine personally. Not the government's, not the opposition's. It's mine.

Vahid: Our family has the tradition of fighting and dying for this land. We know how to fight and we know how to die. That's very important.

Seyfulla: It wasn't until 1961 that the government sent us a letter saying that Chingiz was not guilty and that they were "rehabilitating" him. But the truth is: he really was guilty in front of the regime. He fought for independence against them.

Vahid: He wasn't guilty in front of his own people, but he was guilty in front of the Soviet government.

Fuad: Look at this photo. Do you see that five of those young boys from that group studied together at school? They were from the same class. There was one girl who was a member of their group as well but none of the boys exposed and named her. Ziya Bunyadov researched their story in memory of this woman, whose name was Nasiba.

After ANS made a TV documentary based on Bunyadov's research that featured Chingiz and this group, the brother of Agha came to see me at my office. He was very grateful that the truth about those young boys was being made known and that people could learn about these youth. His brother had been sent into exile at Kolyma [in Eastern Siberia] for 10 years. But after he completed that sentence, they made up some sort of excuse and gave him another five-year sentence so that he wouldn't be able return to Baku and talk about the things that had happened to him.

He only returned after Khrushchev came to power. He had no teeth left. The next day after his arrival, he was told he had to leave Baku and that he wouldn't be allowed to live in the capital. So, they left for Ali Bayramli where they had relatives and that's where he died. He didn't even manage to live for five or six months after his return.

We didn't know what Chingiz was being accused of when they took him. Nor did we know what went on during his trials after the KGB arrested him. Only after Chingiz was released and we brought him home did he tell us a little bit about it.

He was arrested in July 1942 and released in May 1943. Some of his friends came to visit him the night that he was released, but he told them not to come again as he was afraid that they could get into trouble because of him. They were just friends - not members of any group. But Chingiz was concerned about their safety if they came to visit him.

"All the people - we ourselves - not somebody from another planet, just ordinary local citizens - were involved with accusing fellow neighbors, fellow workers. This is one of the most destructive things about totalitarian regimes: it pits people, one against the other."

--Seyfulla Mustafayev, historian and co-founder of ANS,
looking back on Stalin's purges, which took a devastating
toll on millions of lives in the Soviet Union.

They didn't tell us that they were releasing Chingiz. They just released him and let him leave the prison on his own. But he was too weak. He took a few steps, and then had to sit down because he couldn't walk. So he went back and told them he couldn't walk. Someone was assigned to drive him and that's how they brought him home.
We were shocked to see him on our doorstep. We didn't know anything about his release and that he was coming home. But Chingiz was so ill he couldn't even sit down when he arrived here. He was so sick. We made a bed for him so that he could lie down. He was in such a horrible state - beaten up, with bruises all over his body.
Chingiz was so ill that they released him to make way for other prisoners. The next day someone from the KGB came knocking on our door and told us that Chingiz could not remain here in Baku. Another decree had identified more than 150 cities to which prisoners were not allowed to return. Baku was on the list.

So, we had no choice but to take Chingiz to Goychay [a town in the foothills of the Caucasus in north central Azerbaijan]. He had severe brain injuries. He had been beaten up so much that the membrane of his brain had become inflamed. When he arrived home from prison, he was only bone and flesh. There the doctors tried to treat him, but it was already too late. He died about three or four months later. And so we buried Chingiz there. It was during those few months in Goychay that Chingiz told us about the tortures that he had suffered. They had tied him up in a black rubber sack and thrown and kicked him around. This was a usual practice until the prisoner would give in and sign a paper admitting that he was an "Enemy of the People".

At the last interrogation session, they made Chingiz sign beneath every sentence in the document. They wrote whatever they wanted there and made him sign it. But Chingiz really didn't talk much about what had happened to him. He only told us that he had been beaten up. He didn't say much more. He mostly remained silent.

Those were difficult times. It's difficult for us to understand it now. Even those who already suffered so much, just didn't say anything. They were so broken and so scared.

You know, when we were growing up, we never told anyone that Chingiz had been in prison and later released. We never said anything. If someone asked what happened to Chingiz, we just said that he died in the war. Of course, people close to our family - our close relatives and neighbors - knew the truth. And I didn't tell my children anything either.

Young Chingiz Mustafayev is seated on the bench on the second row, third from the left. He was eight years old, 1931. Photo: Courtesy the family of Chingiz Mustafayev. Seyfulla: Let me give another example about how afraid people were.

Left: Young Chingiz Mustafayev is seated on the bench on the second row, third from the left. He was eight years old, 1931. Photo: Courtesy the family of Chingiz Mustafayev.

When the Armenians were killing so many people in Baku in March 1918, my grandmother was only 13 years old. She remembered all those things. She was old enough to understand what was going on. Once I was coming home from school with an Armenian child.

When I got home, grandmother told me not to make friends with Armenians. I objected saying we were international and that she was old-fashioned.

She told me not to be friends with them, but she didn't say anything else. I asked her why but she wouldn't tell me anything else. I mean the fear was so deep within her that she didn't even tell her own grandchildren who she considered the enemy to be.

She had witnessed all that violence that the Armenians had carried out in the 1918 massacre in Baku, but yet she wouldn't tell us anything. In the case of my own brother [whose name also was Chingiz], he found out about our Uncle Chingiz for the first time in 1989 when Ziya Bunyadov published an article about it. He got hold of the newspaper and walked home reading that article.

Of course, Chingiz knew that his uncle had been repressed, but nobody talked much about it. Nobody talked about the details.

"This is my country - mine personally.
Not the government's, not the opposition's. But mine."

--Seyfulla Mustafayev, speaking about the responsibility that he and his family feel towards protecting the independence of Azerbaijan. Seyfulla's uncle was killed by Stalin's regime in 1942 because he wanted Azerbaijan to be independent.

Vahid: I knew about him from childhood because I had found Chingiz' rehabilitation papers in a drawer.

Seyfulla: We already had the makings of "the new person" that Stalin wanted to create. I remember that during my first year of study at the University of Leningrad, I prepared a paper about how Solzhenitsyn was the "Enemy of the People". Up until that time, I had not even read a single line from Solzhenitsyn. We had all been Pioneers and Komsomols. We didn't really know what he was saying.

Vahid: It was very difficult to carry out the research that Ziya Bunyadov did. Even today the KGB still doesn't allow access to some of those documents. Ziya Bunyadov was very famous and very powerful. We at ANS went there to make a documentary because we had the power to do that as well. But other people - ordinary Azeris - don't have access to the KGB archives. Nobody will listen to them. That's the problem. No information. I think it would be very valuable for the government to release those documents, for sake of ideology.

Seyfulla: If we had had such information, we could have started our fight for independence earlier [than the late 1980s].

Vahid: Here in Azerbaijan during every period under Soviet power, we had our dissidents, we had our people who died for their ideas, for their quest for independence. I think this shows the power of our nation, of our people. Because our people are very independent and they want to be independent.

Chingiz with his mother. 1926. Photo: Courtesy the family of Chingiz Mustafayev Fuad: You ask if it's important that these stories be told. Definitely, yes. The young generation needs to know all about them. These are facts. This is truth. It's part of our history. It's important that people know - both within the Azerbaijani society, as well as within the international community.

Left: Chingiz with his mother. 1926. Photo: Courtesy the family of Chingiz Mustafayev.

In addition to Chingiz who died from injuries inflicted while he was tortured, and the three boys who were shot, the other four friends who were sent to labor camps all died there. So, essentially, none of the members of this group survived. They all were barely 20-21 years old when they were arrested.

I think it's important to name those people who spied and turned these youth in. Those names should not be forgotten. They should be documented as part of history for everybody to know why these things happened and how.

Seyfulla: I disagree. I don't think those people who turned others in should be exposed. Those who carried out such deeds are dead. Only their descendents live today. But that's not the only reason they shouldn't be exposed. You see, those people lived under such difficult circumstances and such a terrible regime. But they are still Azerbaijanis. We should not kill each other because of such things. Those things are from the past. Those people were victims of circumstances.

If their names are mentioned, I don't think hatred should be generated against their children. These people are from our nation, they are Azerbaijanis. They were weak and could not withstand the pressures of their circumstances.

Vahid: I disagree. Those people who contributed to the deaths of others during Stalin's regime should be held responsible. Those who spied on innocent people and turned them in - their families and descendants should bear the guilt. They have blood on their hands as well and this guilt passes down, generation after generation, through the genes.

If Chingiz Mustafayev were alive - both of them - my uncle and my brother, if they had lived and not been killed, they could have done so much for our nation. But they were murdered and the evildoers survived. You need to maintain the balance of nature. If you kill all the good people, the evil ones will rule. That's the problem. We have to fight against those people. We have to choose the balance in the country now. Don't you think it would be better for Chingiz to have lived rather than those who turned him in? Those who spied on them? Chingiz died but Nasibov lived.

"Those people who contributed to the deaths of others during Stalin's regime should be held responsible. Those who spied on innocent people and turned them in - their families and descendants should bear the stain of guilt. They have blood on their hands and this guilt passes down, generation after generation."

--Vahid Mustafayev, President of ANS Group,
and nephew of the Chingiz Mustafayev,
who at 19, was killed by the KGB.

Fuad: I agree with you. They should be punished.

Vahid: Chingiz could have done so much if he had lived. He was a genius.

Fuad: It's interesting also to know what people thought about Stalin. How could Stalin rise and be admired so much when all of this was happening? Those who suffered from his policy condemned him in their hearts. But no one could say anything openly because they were afraid of being arrested. As unbelievable as it may sound, many people admired Stalin back then, and even still do today.

Chingiz Mustafayev, 16, in the 10th grade (late 1930s). Chingiz is the Lower right hand corner. Photo: Courtesy the family of Chingiz Mustafayev. Seyfulla: My mother cried in the classroom when Stalin died [1953]. She thought that God has died. She was a little girl at that time.

Left: Chingiz Mustafayev, 16, in the 10th grade (late 1930s). Chingiz is the Lower right hand corner. Photo: Courtesy the family of Chingiz Mustafayev.

Fuad: Stalin was a bandit before he came into power. He used to rob banks and send the money to Lenin, who would use it to publish books and pamphlets. People didn't have much information at that time. They only heard, "Stalin this and Stalin that; he cares about us; thanks to Stalin for our nation." So, it was all brainwashing and propaganda. So, it's natural, for example, that my wife cried when Stalin died. But now, of course, she has more information about it and now she thinks differently.

Seyfulla: Stalin was a very complicated and many-sided person. He did a lot of things as the head of the state. For example, my dad would say that each year the prices would go down under his rule.

Vahid: People didn't always realize that Stalin himself was behind all this death and destruction. They thought it was carried out by people working under him and that he didn't know about these crimes - the executions, repressions, tortures and exiles. They didn't make the association between those atrocities and Stalin. People also had great admiration for Stalin because he had won the war [World War II].

Fuad: But, on the other hand, he also killed so many people. Millions upon millions.

Vahid: We're working on Uncle Chingiz' grave now. We're doing this because we want to preserve the history. People need to know what really happened - what the truth really is. It's impossible to build a nation if it doesn't know its history.

Gulnar Aydamirova, Azerbaijan International Editorial Assistant also contributed significantly in the preparation of this article.