Gazanfar Makhmud-ogly Musabekov

Born in the poor Azerbaijani family, Gazanfar Musabekov went to Kiev, Ukraine, to study medicine. After the February revolution of 1917, Musabekov became head of the local administration in his native Kuba region and then moved to Baku to chair the provincial committee for food supplies. Then he departed for Russia (Aug 1918), where he helped Nariman Narimanov to organize a military hospital in Astrakhan. In 1918 he joined the Russian Communist Party and became head of the Moslem department in the Astrakhan party organization as well as local leader of the Azerbaijani "Gummet" social-democratic organization. The advance of the Soviet troops in Azerbaijan allowed Musabekov to return to his homeland as a member of the revolutionary committee presided by Narimanov. When it was reorganized into the council of people's commissars of Azerbaijan (1921), Musabekov took the portfolio of the commissar for food-processing industry. In April 1922, Musabekov became acting head of the Azerbaijani government as Nariman Narimanov participated in the Conference of Genoa. Later in the year he ultimately replaced him as chairman (1922-1928) of the Council of People's Commissars of the Azerbaijani SSR. When Narimanov died in 1925, the USSR Central Executive Committee elected Musabekov as his successor on 21 May 1925. The 15th party congress elected him a candidate member of the Central Committee (1925-1937). In 1929-1931 Musabekov also held the office of chairman of the Central Executive Committee of Azerbaijan and in 1931-1936 he headed the government of the Transcaucasian S.F.S.R. During the Great Purge, Gazanfar Musabekov was arrested (June 1937), accused of plotting against the Soviet state and sentenced to death by the military board of the USSR Supreme Court on 9 Feb 1938. Biography source: [2, pp. 433-434]