Muslim Social Democratic Party
The Muslim Social Democratic Party, usually referred to as Hummet, was a left-wing political party in the South Caucasus. In 1920, it merged with the Baku communist group Adalat to form the first Communist Party of Azerbaijan.
"Old" Hummet (1904 – 1920)
At the end of 1904, the Baku committee of the Russian [Social Democratic Labour Party|Russian Social Democratic Party] created the Hummet in order to attract Muslim workers. Prominent Hummet politicians included Mammed Amin Rasulzade, Meshadi Azizbekov, Prokopius Dzhaparidze, Sultan Medjid Efendiev, Zeynal Zeynalov and Nariman Narimanov. During the 1905 revolution, the support of the Hummet and the Armenian Hunchak party permitted the Bolsheviks to seize the leadership of the strike committee that oversaw the.A series of arrests in 1911 weakened the activities of the party, but after the February Revolution, the Hummet renewed its operations. From 1918 to 1920 the Hummet was represented in the parliament of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. On 20 February 1920, it merged with the Adalat Party, the Ahrar Party of Iran and Baku Bolsheviks to establish the Azerbaijan Communist Party.
Some sources report that pro-Bolshevik Muslims from the Hummet party participated in the March Events, massacres by the Bolshevik-led Baku Commune and Dashnak militias against Azerbaijanis in Baku, in a bid to suppress the Musavat party and to gain control of Baku. Other sources, on the contrary, report that Hummet party members were very critical of the conduct of the events. Sultan Majid Efendiyev, a member of the Hummet party, wrote: