Hamid bey Yusifbeyli

Hamid Bey Yusifbeyli, Yusifbeyov or Usubbeyov (October 13, 1873, Elizavetpol, Elizavetpol Uezd, Elizavetpol Governorate, Russian Empire – 1942 at the earliest, unknown) — Azerbaijani politician, educator, teacher. One of the founders of the Ganja committee of the Turkic Social-Federal Revolutionary Qeyrat Party, the Turkic Federalist Party and the Difai Party. Chairman of the Qeyrat party.

During both the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, he was repeatedly arrested and exiled for his political activities. The last time he was arrested by the USSR NKVD. In 1942, the decision to exile him was issued, but there is no information about his fate after that. It is assumed that he died in one of the prisons.

He is the son of Yusif Bey Yusifbeyli, a lawyer and court advisor, and the brother of Nasib Bey Yusifbeyli, the chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic and the first chairman of Ganja Branch of the Musavat Party.

His life

First years Hamid Bey Yusifbeyli was born on October 13, 1873, in the city of Ganja. After graduating from the Ganja Men's Gymnasium in 1895, he began working as a teacher at the "Maktabi-kheyiriya" in 1898. Under his initiative, secret classes on subjects like geography, history, physics, and mathematics were organized in the madrasa. During this period, Hamid Bey also became involved in political activities. In 1898, he founded the Pushkin Library in his home in Ganja. A year later, in 1899, due to 100th anniversary of Alexander Pushkin's birth, the library was moved to the Huseyniyya Mosque in Ganja. Prominent figures like Abdurrahim Bey Hagverdiyev, Sultan Majid Ganizade, Karim Bey Mehmandarov, S.A. Rustambayli, Sh.S. Shahmaliyev, Haji Mirza Rafiyev, I.L. Sayad, and Y.I. Sizenskaya contributed to the library's growth. Within a short period, the library's collection expanded to over 700 books, and its readership grew to more than 1,200 people.

On December 18, 1899, Hamid Bey Yusifbeyli was arrested for his political activities and taken to Tbilisi. He was detained in the Metekhi prison for 14 months and later exiled to Kokand, Turkestan, where he remained until 1905. The committee later laid the groundwork for the creation of the "Qeyrat" party. Documents show that the leadership of the Turkic Social-Federal Revolutionary Party included prominent figures such as Alakbar Bey Rafibeyli, Alakbar Bey Khasmammadov, Yusif Bey Yusifbeyli, and Hamid Bey Yusifbeyli. Some sources suggest that Hamid Bey was made chairman of the party at the recommendation of Alakbar Bey Rafibeyli. This began with the arrest of members of the Karabakh Unity Assembly in Shusha, The homes of the leading committee members, including Hamid Bey Yusifbeyli, were searched, and revolutionary literature in Russian, French, and Azerbaijani was found. Despite their arrest, Hamid Bey and others were released on August 4, 1909, under the condition of open police surveillance. In 1910, the Russian authorities intensified their repression. N. Akhundov was exiled to Samarkand, and Hamid Bey Yusifbeyli was exiled to Bagchasaray for five years.

After Soviet occupation After the Soviet occupation, from 1921 to 1930, Hamid Bey Yusifbeyli taught at the Ganja Turkic Pedagogical Technical College, which was named after Mirza Fatali Akhundov. Despite this, he was arrested on charges of spreading anti-Soviet propaganda. Hamid Bey was detained for a year by the OGPU, but was eventually released.

In September 1932, he got a job at Kirovabad Industrial Polytechnic.

On December 31, 1957, the Criminal Cases panel of the Supreme Court of the Azerbaijan SSR acquitted Hamid Bey Yusifbeyli because there was no criminal element in his case. The decision of the court was announced to Hamid Bey's son Anvar Yusifbeyli on January 9, 1958. His father, Yusif Bey Yusifbeyli, studied at the Faculty of Law at Petersburg University and held various legal positions at the Ueaz Court in Elizavetpol. Yusif Bey was also one of the founders of the Turkic Socialist-Federal Revolutionary Party, later known as the “Qeyrat” Party.

Hamid Bey's mother, Buyukkhanim, was a descendant of the Khanbudagovs. Hamid Bey later married to Bilgeis Najaf gizi Juvarli.

His son, Anvar Bey Yusifbeyli, was born in 1915. In 1933, he entered the Tbilisi Electrotechnical Institute of Communication. After graduating from the institute, he moved to Irkutsk, Russia, to escape persecution. In 1938–1939, he worked as a senior engineer in Irkutsk, and in 1939–1941, he worked as a chief engineer in the Communications Department in Stalinabad, Tajikistan. In 1941, he was drafted into the army due to the outbreak of war. He was captured along with his division. Although he was released from captivity in 1945, he was later arrested. He was acquitted in 1956 and died in 1989. He was buried in the Yusifbeyli family tomb in Ganja.

Legacy In the house where Hamid bay lived, there was a private library with more than 2,000 books until 1949. The collection included a Russian translation of the "Holy Qur'an" by Ismayil Bey Gaspirali. In 1949, the books were sold to the Ganja Scientific Research Center of the Academy of Sciences of the Azerbaijan SSR to support the children of his brother, Eyyub Bey Yusifbeyli, and his sister, Dilshad Khanum, as well as Gulnar and Rasim Khasmammadov, who were in exile. Most of these books were later lost. However, 120 copies could be found and given to the "Treasure" library created in Shahsevan Mosque in Ganja.