Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916-1926

SHUSHA MASSACRE. Sometimes termed the “Shusha pogrom,” this term refers to one of the most brutal instances of interethnic conflict unleashed by the “Russian” Civil Wars: the violent events in the town of Shusha (Shushi), the largest settlement in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, on 22–26 March 1920, during the closing stages of the Armenian–Azerbaijan War. The town had a population of around 44,000 in 1916, with a slight preponderance of Armenians over Azeris. On 15 January 1919, the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan had appointed the ardently pan-Turkist Khosrov bek Sultanov as governor of Karabakh, a move that was rejected by the Armenian National Council of Karabakh, which had declared the region to be an integral part of the Democratic Republic of Armenia, but accepted by the local British garrison. Armed clashes occurred between the two communities on several occasions in 1919, with British forces unable to prevent the killing of hundreds of Armenian civilians by the Azeri army. In August 1919, to prevent further bloodshed, the Armenian Council agreed to a treaty that recognized the provisional incorporation of Karabakh into Azerbaijan, pending the final decision of the Paris Peace Conference. The treaty’s 26 conditions strictly limited the Azeri administrative and military presence in the region and emphasized the continued internal autonomy of Mountainous Karabakh. However, the Azeris’ violations of these conditions were blatant, and when Sultanov demanded, on 19 February 1920, that the Armenian Council accept the full and final incorporation of Karabakh into Azerbaijan, the Armenians determined upon a revolt.

On 22–23 March 1920, Armenian militias simultaneously attacked Azeri garrisons at Shusha, Askeran, and Terter. The attacks failed, however, and in revenge the Azeri army, supported by civilian militias, set about massacring the Armenian population and destroying their property in the center of Shusha, which was laid almost entirely to waste. At least 500 Armenians were killed in Shusha itself, while some Armenian sources cite figures as high as 30,000 for the number of deaths across the region over the following days. Shusha, from which all surviving Armenians fled, remained largely in ruins until a clearance and rebuilding program in the early 1960s. On 9 May 1992, the town was recaptured by Armenian forces, during the Armenian–Azeri conflict of that time, and today it is populated almost exclusively by Armenians. On 20 March 2000, a memorial stone was unveiled in Shusha to commemorate the victims of the massacre.

SHUVAEV, ALEKSANDR DMITRIEVICH (8 December 1886–December 1943). Lieutenant (15 August 1916). The Soviet commander A. D. Shuvaev was born into a military family at Novocherkassk, in the territory of the Don Cossack Host, but was not a Cossack. (His father was Lieutenant General D. S. Shuvaev, who also served the Reds.) He was a graduate of the Kiev Vladimir Cadet Corps, the Kiev Military School (1906), and the Academy of the General Staff (1912). Having entered military service on 31 August 1904, he joined the Finland Life Guards Regiment. During the First World War, he occupied numerous staff posts, including assistant senior adjutant to the quartermasters general of, successively, the 13th, 5th, and 9th Armies; from 18 June 1917, he was assigned to work in the Ministry of War in Petrograd.

Shuvaev was mobilized into the Red Army in early 1918, as a military specialist, and became chief of staff of the Petrograd Regional Division (to 26 January 1919), then head of the Codification Department of the Revvoensovet of the Republic (1 February 1919–2 June 1920). During the Soviet–Polish War, he was chief of staff of the northern group of forces on the Western Front (6–18 June 1920), then acting chief of staff (18 June–31 July 1920), then acting commander (31 July–17 October 1920) of the 4th Red Army. His subsequent postings included second assistant chief of staff of the armed forces of Ukraine and Crimea (7 February 1921–7 June 1922), chief of staff of the People’s-Revolutionary Army of the Far Eastern Republic (4 July–21 August 1922), and chief of staff of the Turkestan Front (15 October 1923–25 April 1924).

Shuvaev was arrested on 8 August 1937, and having been found guilty of anti-Soviet activity by the NKVD troika of Voronezh oblast′ on 29 September 1937, was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment. He was released on 21 October 1943, but died soon afterward in the Komi region. He was posthumously rehabilitated on 20 October 1956.