VIGIL CONSILIUM
Context. Not headlines.
Coverage · South Caucasus

Key event

The Kavburo decision on Karabakh

5 Jul 1921 Essential

What happened

The Bolshevik party's Caucasus Bureau, reversing its resolution of the previous day, resolves to leave mountainous Karabakh within Soviet Azerbaijan with broad autonomy — the decision that produces the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast in 1923.

A one-line party decision became the century's most contested border: an Armenian-majority autonomy inside Soviet Azerbaijan, institutionally Armenian enough to sustain a national project and Azerbaijani enough to make its transfer unthinkable for Baku. Both 1988 and 2023 trace to this text.

Confidence: High

When5 Jul 1921
KindPolitical · Territorial change
ArenaArmenia–Azerbaijan / Karabakh legacy
Confidence: High Sources: Established historical record Methodology Corrections

See this event in the timeline Interactive: select this record and follow what connects to it.

Connected records

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

Actors1

Actor records this event names.

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.