Baku pogrom and "Black January" — Key Events — Caucasus

What happened

Anti-Armenian pogroms in Baku kill around ninety people and end the city's centuries-old Armenian community; days later Soviet troops storm Baku to crush the Popular Front, killing well over a hundred civilians.

A double trauma with opposite lessons: for Armenians, proof that Baku was unlivable; for Azerbaijanis, "Black January" made Moscow the enemy and independence inevitable. The Soviet centre had shown it could no longer protect anyone — only punish.

Confidence: High

When13 – 20 Jan 1990

WhereBaku

KindHumanitarian · Military · Political

ArenaArmenia–Azerbaijan / Karabakh legacy

Confidence: High Sources: Established historical record Methodology Corrections

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Connected records

2 records that this event names, or that name it — every one an explicit reference in a published record, nothing inferred from subject matter.

Part of1

Campaigns whose record places this event inside them.

Karabakh conflictMovement, pogroms and the Soviet collapse

Actors1

Actor records this event names.

Azerbaijan

Where this fits

This is one entry in the Caucasus timeline. The full Key Events surface carries every dated turning point with its filters and its essential subset, and this event in place shows what came before and after it. How Vigil grades, dates and sources its claims is set out in the methodology.