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"History of Azerbaijan" created.
During the decades of Soviet rule, the Armenians of Artsakh repeatedly protested against the policy of barefaced discrimination and persecutions. Planning to change the ethnic structure of population, the government of Azerbaijan tried all ways to impede economic development of the region, and also pursued severe discrimination in cultural realm. Many Armenian schools and establishments ceased to exist, and the Armenian newspapers and periodicals were shut down. Out of more than 200 active Armenian churches no one was allowed to function. At the same, time both of the two mosques built in Shushi in the late 19th century functioned freely.
From 1936, a new concept of "Azerbaijanis" or "Azeris" was brought into general use in the Soviet Union. Before that, what is now Azeri was simply called Turk or Caucasian Tatar. Stalin ordered the Soviet historians to create the "history of Azerbaijan". As a result, many of the Armenian cultural-historical monuments in Karabakh were then destroyed or shamelessly declared belonging to the Azerbaijani heritage.
Armenian protests.
Aghasi Khanjian, leader of Communist Party of Armenia tried to raise the Armenian grievances before Stalin. He was later shot dead by the odious Beria. Then a campaign of purges launched by Stalin swept hundreds of local leaders and activists in Artsakh. In 1945, Arutiunov, Secretary of Communist Party of Armenia wrote a letter to Stalin, asking for reunification of Artsakh with Armenia, but without result.
The next wave of mass protestations in 1965-1967 was suppressed by Azerbaijani government. Hundreds of Armenian activists were arrested on charges of nationalism and some of them were murdered in prisons. Despite the promises, the Soviet government shelved the issue for an indefinite time. In 1975, Kochynian, leader of Soviet Armenia was made scapegoat and removed from his post. The protest demonstrations continued under the next Armenian leader Karin Demirchyan.
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