The history of the administrative and territorial division of the city of Lachin

On December 1, 2020, under the terms of the Trilateral Ceasefire Declaration signed on November 10, 2020 between Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia, Lachin district (including the city of Lachin) was returned to Azerbaijan. Lachin is the last Azerbaijani city liberated from the Armenian occupation. Qarabag.com has prepared material on the history of the administrative and territorial division of the city of Lachin from the beginning of the XIX century to the present.

The administrative center of the Lachin district is the city of Lachin (formerly Abdalar, Abdallar, Abdallyar, Abdalyar) located in the southwestern part of Azerbaijan, at the foot of the Karabakh ridge, on the left bank of the Akeri river.
[The Caucasian calendar as of 1856. Tiflis, 1855. Section three., p. 365]
[List of populated places in Azerbaijan.  Publication of Namcomprod. Based on the materials of the agricultural censuses of 1917 and 1921,  Baku, 1922, p. 83]
[Territorial and administrative division of the USSR as of January 1, 1925, 1925, p. 202]
[The Azerbaijan SSR: administrative and territorial division as of January 1, 1977. 1979, p. 9]

In 1813, according to the Treaty of Gulistan, the Karabakh Khanate (including Lachin) became a part of the Russian Empire.
[E. Weidenbaum. A guide to the Caucasus. Tiflis, 1888., p. 146]

In 1855, Lachin was indicated as Abdalar in the Karachorli minbashestvo, the Zangezur region of Shusha Uyezd.
[The Caucasian calendar as of 1856. Tiflis, 1855. Section 3, p. 365]

During the years of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (1918-1920), the village was part of the Zangezur Uyezd of the Elizavetpol (Ganja) Governorate.
[The former administrative division of Transcaucasia: Map of the Republic of Azerbaijan (Ancienne division administrative de la Transcaucasie: carte de la république de l’Azerbaïdjan)]

In 1919-1920, Lachin was incorporated into the Karabakh Governorate-General.
[Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (1918-1920) Legislative acts (Collection of Documents) 1998, p. 389]

In the book of the Russian historian V.M.Sysoev “A short guide to the most famous monuments of antiquity and nature of Azerbaijan” of 1930, it is indicated that the city of Lachin was founded in 1924.
[V.M.Sysoev. A short guide to the most famous monuments of antiquity and nature of Azerbaijan. 1930, p. 12]
[V.M.Sysoev. A brief sketch of the history of Azerbaijan (northern) 1925, p. 131]

However, according to the “Administrative and Territorial Division of the Azerbaijani SSR as of January 1, 1977″, the village of Abdalyar was renamed to Lachin on August 10, 1923, and in the same year it was granted the status of a city. In the” Territorial and Administrative Divisions of the USSR” as of 1925-1926 and on the map of Transcaucasia as of August 1, 1927, Lachin is listed as Abdallyar. Only in 1928 the city was already indicated as Lachin.
[Azerbaijan SSR: Administrative and territorial division as of January 1, 1977. 1979, p. 9]
[Territorial and administrative division of the USSR as of January 1, 1925, 1925, p. 202]
[Territorial and administrative division of the USSR as of January 1, 1926, 1926, p. 191]
[Transcaucasia.  Administrative boundaries as of August 1, 1927]
[The population of Transcaucasia. 1928, p. 6]

In 1925-1929, Lachin was designated as the administrative center of Kurdistan Uyezd.
[Territorial and administrative division of the USSR as of January 1, 1925, 1925, p. 202]
[Administrative and territorial division of the USSR and the list of the most important settlements with a chronological list of resolutions on changing the borders of governorates, regions and republics from 1917 to 1929, 1929, p. 115; 214]
[All-Union Population Census, which was held in 1926. Schematic map of the administrative division of the Transcaucasian SFSR (TSFSR) as of January 1, 1927, Volume XIV. 1929]

In 1930, the city of Lachin was designated as the administrative center of Kurdistan Uyezd.
[T.F. Aristova. Kurds of Transcaucasia (historical and ethnographic essay). 1966, p. 40]

In accordance with the resolution “On the liquidation of Okrugs” of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR of July 23, 1930, and pursuant to the eponymous resolution of the Central Executive Committee and the CPC (Council of People’s Commissars) of the Azerbaijani SSR of August 8, 1930, the Kurdistan Okrug was abolished and the Lachin district with the center in the city of Lachin was withdrawn from it.
[The history of the state and law of the Azerbaijan SSR. (1920-1934) 1973, p. 412]
[Azerbaijan SSR: Administrative and territorial division as of January 1, 1961. 1961, p. 92]

Following the independence of Azerbaijan, in 1991, the Lachin district retained its administrative and territorial status with its center in the city of Lachin.

On May 18, 1992, Lachin was occupied by Armenian armed formations.
[Black Garden. Armenia and Azerbaijan through peace and war. 2003, p. 249; 384]