Baku in Pre-revolutionary photographs

Описание

Дореволюционная Россия на фотографиях
Баку вокруг 1900 г.

Pre-revolutionary Russia in photographs
Baku around 1900

Music:
From the piano piece "Elergy" by Vasily Kalinnikov

Baku is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located 28 metres (92 ft) below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world and also the largest city in the world located below sea level. Baku lies on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, alongside the Bay of Baku.
On 13 June 1796, a Russian flotilla entered Baku Bay, and a garrison of Russian troops was stationed inside the city. Later, however, Emperor Paul I of Russia ordered the cessation of the campaign and the withdrawal of Russian forces following the death of his predecessor, Catherine the Great. In March 1797 the tsarist troops left Baku and the city became part of Qajar Iran again.

In 1813, following the Russo-Persian War of 1804–1813, Qajar Iran had to sign the Treaty of Gulistan with Russia this provided for the cession of Baku and of most of Iran's territories in the North Caucasus and South Caucasus to Russia.
The Russians built the first oil-distilling factory in Balaxani in 1837. The first person to drill oil in Baku was an ethnic Armenian Ivan Mirzoev, who is also known as a 'founding father of Baku's oil industry.' By the beginning of the 20th century, half of the oil sold in international markets was extracted in Baku. This contributed to the massive growth of Baku. Between 1856 and 1910 Baku's population grew , it us claimed, at a faster rate than that of  London, Paris or New York...
Unrest at the time of the 1905 Revolution resulted in hundreds of deaths and the destruction of many oil facilities......