THOSE WHO INSPIRE US: TOUR OF BALAKHANY WITH THE INSPIRING FUAD AKHUNDOV

THOSE WHO INSPIRE US: TOUR OF BALAKHANY WITH THE INSPIRING FUAD AKHUNDOV.

Stories told by Fuad:

All roads lead to Balakhani, a diamond stained with fuel oil.
Balakhani is a place where local people hid Stalin during the revolutions.
Balakhani is the first monument in the Muslim east.
Balakhany is the first football club.

Our journey through the wonderful village began with a monument to the outstanding satirist of Azerbaijani literature, Mirza Alekper Sabir. “Who will imprison him, he’s a monument!” says the catchphrase.
However, this definitely does not apply to the monument to Mirza Alekper Sabir, which now sits in one of the parks near the Ichari Sheher. Mirza Alekper spent the last year of his life in Balakhani. While teaching at a local school, Sabir also found reasons for satire, once saying the phrase: Balaxanların Azanı fitdir! – which translated means: for the Balakhans, Azan is a whistle. This was explained by the fact that early in the morning people got up and went to work in the oil fields, and one whistle informed the workers about the beginning and end of the working day.

But the story goes much deeper! The first and only monument to an outstanding representative of Azerbaijani literature and at the same time the first monument in the Muslim east was erected in Balakhani. Created in 1922, the standing monument was the work of a talented sculptor, a student of the Florentine Academy of Arts – Keilihis Yakov Iosifovich, for the 60th anniversary of Sabir, who in real life did not even live to be 50 years old. Yakov was distinguished by his dynamic works; his sculptures were full of life. But after the monument to Sabir, a terrible event occurs – his wife dies. Love is a crushing force. Yacov loses his muse and creates nothing more.

But this is not the only part of the Balakhani art history. Pinkhos Vladimirovich Sabsai, the author of the monument to Mirza Fatali Akhundov, meets Lydia Abramova Lermont, the daughter of the Balakhani oil engineer, at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. And it is she who brings him from St. Petersburg to Balakhani! After all, love can add color to everything, even oil fields. Sabsay’s main work was the 10-meter monument to Kirov, majestically towering over the city of Baku in the Upland Park.
This creation was proof of the genius and talent of the creator.

His wife, who was a true artist’s wife, created for him such an atmosphere around him in which all he could do was create. And he did it!
And everyone knew that they should go to Sabsai through Sabsikha.
And who would have thought that the first film shot of a gushing oil well, and later the first film show in the history of Azerbaijan in the summer of 1898, also refers to Balakhani. The frame was shot by Alexander Mikhailovich Mishon, a Russian photographer and cinematographer. He left a rich photographic heritage, and only one photograph of himself. Until now, in independent Azerbaijan, August 2 is celebrated as Cinema Day.

Well, world history is familiar with the village of Balakhani thanks to the Nobel brothers.
Nobel, Ludwig Emmanuilovich – an outstanding personality!
By order of Ludwig Nobel, engineer V. G. Shukhov built the first Russian oil pipeline at the oil fields in the Baku region from Balakhani.
The Swedish and Russian engineer, inventor, entrepreneur and philanthropist Mr. Nobel, despite all his achievements, was a very modest person, and when he was told: but you are a scientist, he restrainedly replied that dogs can be scientists if they are trained well.”

Such is the whirlwind of the minds of the Balakhans!
Our history is the heritage of centuries; learning the customs, traditions and life of our ancestors is a particularly pleasant pleasure. After all, those who are close to history are given inspiration and strength.