Baku is populated by many statues, bust and memorials of various discriptions. In order of size, however, the Nariman Narimanov statue takes first prize. Looming over Narimanov Square, down from Elmlar Metro and across from Palms Restaurant and business center, the statue is an impressive, and quintessentially soviet sight.
Nariman Narimanov was a renowed educator, author, medical doctor, lont time Bolshevik and head of the first soviet government of Azerbaijan.
Born in 1870 in Tbilisi, to a poor Azerbaijan family, at age 6 he entered an Islamic "medrec" school where he studied hte Koran. In his early years nariman "picked up" Arabic, Farsi, Georgian and Russian, as wel al his native Azeri language. Narimanov attended a theacher's seminary in Gori (Stalin's hometown) and later moved to Baku to work where he established the first public free-access library and reading hall in the Caucuses.
After working for many years as a theacher, he entered Medical School at age 32. He explained this late start in a letter to his young son, stating that he began his studies only after caring for"the families of my brother and sisters".
Odessa was a hotbed of revolutionary talk during the early 1900's and Narimanov became active in the Bolshevik movement, leading student demostrations and eventually becoming one of the organizers of the Persian socialist democratic party Isheyun-Asheyun.
After the October Revolution, Narimanov gradually rose through the ranks to head the Soviet government of Azerbaijan, the Counsil of People's Comissars (1920-1922).
Although most statues from this revolutionary period have been removed (i.e. Stalin's, Lenin's, Kirov's and Dzerzhinsky's) from Baku, Narimanov's is still to be found, along with streets, avenues and squares named in his honor, and many attribute this to the humanity found in this famed letter al well as his love for Azerbaijan and the East.
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