The Azerbaijan Communist Party (Azerbaijani

Azerbaijani language

Azerbaijani or Azeri or Torki is a language belonging to the Turkic language family, spoken in southwestern Asia by the Azerbaijani people, primarily in Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran...

: Azərbaycan Kommunist Partiyası) was the ruling political party

Political party

A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...

 in the Azerbaijan SSR

Azerbaijan SSR

The Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Azerbaijan SSR for short, was one of the republics that made up the former Soviet Union....

, making it effectively a branch of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Communist Party of the Soviet Union

The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...

. It was formed on February 20, 1920, when the Hummat Party, the Adalat Party, the Ahrar Party of Iran and Baku

Baku

Baku , sometimes spelled as Baki or Bakou, is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. It is located on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, which projects into the Caspian Sea. The city consists of two principal...

 Bolsheviks joined together to establish the Azerbaijan Communist Party. On April 1 of the same year, the Fifth Cabinet of Ministers of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic

Azerbaijan Democratic Republic

The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was the first successful attempt to establish a democratic and secular republic in the Muslim world . The ADR was founded on May 28, 1918 after the collapse of the Russian Empire that began with the Russian Revolution of 1917 by Azerbaijani National Council in...

 gave its resignations and all the power to AKP. The party ruled the Azerbaijan SSR

Azerbaijan SSR

The Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Azerbaijan SSR for short, was one of the republics that made up the former Soviet Union....

 until 16 September 1991 when it was formally disbanded. Nevertheless, former leaders and members of the communists continued to play a role in the family- and patronage-based political system. The Azerbaijan Communist Party won the first multi-party elections in Azerbaijan that took place on 30 September and 14 October 1990 for the Supreme Soviet obtaining 280 out of 360 seats.

First secretaries of the Azerbaijan Communist Party (AKP) of the Azerbaijan SSR

No.	Name	Took Office	Left Office
1	Mirza Davud Husseynov	February 12, 1920	October 23, 1920
2	Grigory Kaminsky Grigory Kaminsky Grigory Naumovich Kaminsky , was the 2nd First Secretary of Azerbaijan Communist Party, Soviet politician and one of founders of health care system in Soviet Union.-Early life:...	October 23, 1920	July, 1921
3	Sergey Kirov Sergey Kirov Sergei Mironovich Kirov , born Sergei Mironovich Kostrikov, was a prominent early Bolshevik leader in the Soviet Union. Kirov rose through the Communist Party ranks to become head of the Party organization in Leningrad...	July, 1921	January, 1926
4	Levon Mirzoyan	January, 1926	August, 1929
5	Nikolay Gikalo Nikolay Gikalo Nikolay Fedorovich Gikalo was a Soviet revolutionary and statesman. From 1915 he served in the Russian Imperial Army, in 1917 he joined the RSDLP. He commanded the Red Army in the fight against the White Army in the Northern Caucasus...	August, 1929	June, 1930
6	Vladimir Polonsky Vladimir Polonsky Vladimir Ivanovich Polonsky , was the 5th First Secretary of Azerbaijan Communist Party and revolutionary-Early life:Polonsky was born to a Jewish family in Tobolsk, Russia. Since 1907, he was a member of Russian Social Democratic Labour Party...	June, 1930	November, 1933
7	Ruben Rubenov (Mkrtchyan)	January 1, 1933	December 12, 1933
8	Mir Jafar Baghirov Mir Jafar Baghirov Mir Jafar Baghirov Abbas oglu was the communist leader of Azerbaijan SSR from 1932 till 1953, under the Soviet leadership of Joseph Stalin.-Early life:Born in Quba of Baku Governorate in 1896, Baghirov studied pedagogy in Petrovsk....	November, 1933	July, 1953
9	Mir Teymur Yaqubov Mir Teymur Yaqubov Mir Teymur Yaqubov Mir Alekper oglu , was the 8th First Secretary of Azerbaijan Communist Party.Land surveyor by profession, Yaqubov held various positions within Komsomol of Azerbaijan SSR. In 1936, he became the First Secretary of Komsomol Central Committee and held the position until 1938. In...	July, 1953	February, 1954
10	Imam Mustafayev Imam Mustafayev Imam Mustafayev Dashdemir oglu was an Azerbaijani politician and First Secretary of the Azerbaijan Communist Party of the Azerbaijan SSR. Son of a poor peasant, he was born in a village of the Qakh region in Azerbaijan....	February 7, 1954	June 12, 1959
11	Veli Akhundov	July 11, 1959	July 14, 1969
12	Heidar Aliyev	July 14, 1969	December 3, 1982
13	Kamran Baghirov Kamran Baghirov Kamran Baghirov Mammad oglu , was the 12th First Secretary of Azerbaijan Communist Party.From December 3, 1982 through May 21, 1988, Baghirov served as the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan SSR. After start and escalation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,...	December 3, 1982	May 21, 1988
14	Abdulrahman Vezirov	May 21, 1988	January 20, 1990
15	Ayaz Mütallibov Ayaz Mütallibov Ayaz Niyazi oğlu Mütallibov was the last leader of Soviet Azerbaijan, and the first President of independent Azerbaijan from October 1991 till May 1992.-Biography:...	January 24, 1990	September 16, 1991

Trivia

Azerbaijani nationalist leader, anti-communist politician and former president Abulfaz Elchibey was also a member of the Azerbaijan Communist Party. He joined the Party in 1972.