Baku Neighborhoods during the Interwar Period in Soviet Azerbaijan

FAIN: FT-61071-13

Heather Diane DeHaan
SUNY Research Foundation, Binghamton (Binghamton, NY 13902-4400)

My research will focus on Baku neighborhoods between World War One and World War Two. As spaces where popular custom, belief, identity, and memory express themselves spatially, neighborhoods represent ideal sites for the study of ethnic relations and identities. In placing my focus here, my goal is to capture the horizontal dimension of ethnic conflict and/or collaboration. Whereas existing studies of Soviet nationality policy have a vertical thrust in that they focus on the relationship between the center and the periphery, my goal is to explore inter-ethnic, particularly intra- and inter-neighborhood relations as affected but not necessarily predetermined by the policies of 'the center.'

Associated Products

Baku's Soviet Vnye: The Post-Soviet Creation of a Soviet Past (Book Section)
Title: Baku's Soviet Vnye: The Post-Soviet Creation of a Soviet Past
Author: Heather DeHaan
Editor: Dijana Jelaca and Daniela Lugaric
Abstract: Focusing on neighborhood life in Soviet-era Baku Azerbaijan, this paper juxtaposes Soviet experience in Baku with the post-Soviet production of the concept of the “Bakuvian” as an ideal type—its own, supra-ethnic nationality. In unpacking the relationships that constituted Baku’s multi-ethnic fabric, the article draws particular attention to the interplay of Baku’s spatial materiality and its various neighborhoods’ gender codes, examining how these latter gave voice to particular ethnic and national identities. It shows how the “bakinets,” as an ideal type, elides tension between these particularities, serving as a dynamic and contested symbol of the city’s present and future.
Year: 2018
Publisher: SUNY Press
Book Title: The Future of Post Socialism: East European Perspectives
ISBN: 978-1-4384-714

The Gift of the Stranger: Azerbaijani Hospitality (Blog Post)
Title: The Gift of the Stranger: Azerbaijani Hospitality
Author: Heather DeHaan
Abstract: A blog discussing hospitality in Islamic and Christian cultures.
Date: 09/14/2014
Primary URL: http:/http://heatherdehaan.com/uncategorized/the-gift-of-the-stranger-azerbaijani-hospitality/

Modernization and Community: The Evolution of Socio-Cultural Space in Baku (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Modernization and Community: The Evolution of Socio-Cultural Space in Baku
Author: Heather DeHaan
Abstract: A discussion of urban gangs and ethnic identity in Baku in the 1950s-1960s
Date: 11/18/2014
Conference Name: Baku: Metropolis on the Periphery (Hostel by Von Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany)

Baku's Spatial Imaginaries: The Many Futures of a Contested Past (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Baku's Spatial Imaginaries: The Many Futures of a Contested Past
Author: Heather DeHaan
Abstract: A discussion of the "bakinets" identity (see abstract for article of the same name)
Date: 04/18/2015
Conference Name: The Futures of Post-Socialism (Hosted by SUNY Stony Brook)

What is a Neighbor: The Practice of Living Together in Late Soviet Baku (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: What is a Neighbor: The Practice of Living Together in Late Soviet Baku
Abstract: A discussion of neighborhood relations in Soviet-era Baku and, with this, of the value of "neighboring" as a category of historical analysis.
Author: Heather DeHaan
Date: 03/25/2021
Location: The Center for Eastern and International Studies (ZOIS), Berlin, Germany

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