Heydar Aliyev’s Destiny and Leadership: Through the Pen of a Foreign Author...

Sometimes, viewing a nation’s history through the eyes of someone from outside can reveal a different perspective. An outside observer approaches events through the lens of their own political and social experience, compares what they see, asks questions and ultimately forms their own understanding of a figure who holds a special place in that nation’s history. The book devoted to National Leader Heydar Aliyev by Ukrainian writer Viktor Kachmarik is precisely the product of such an outside perspective.

Viktor Kachmarik’s book is entitled Heydar Aliyev: The Untold History of the Azerbaijani Leadership Phenomenon (Гейдар Алиев. Непридуманная история азербайджанского Феномена Лидерства). In the foreword, the author admits that he had not originally planned to write the book. His introduction to Azerbaijan, visits to the country, what he witnessed there, conversations with people, and what he heard and read about Heydar Aliyev gradually sparked his interest in the subject. In this way, initial curiosity developed into extensive research, which eventually became a book.

One of the book’s notable features is that the author does not attempt to explain the Heydar Aliyev phenomenon solely through political positions, historical dates and decisions. His focus is on Aliyev’s style of governance, his relationships with people, his memory, his ability to grasp the essence of events and his willingness to intervene directly in the most complex matters. In the recollections presented by the author, Heydar Aliyev emerges not as a leader who remains in his office issuing instructions, but as a statesman who goes directly to the site of a problem, assesses the situation firsthand and assumes responsibility for the outcome.

In this regard, the episode concerning the construction of the Baikal–Amur Mainline railway is particularly interesting. The author describes how Heydar Aliyev personally monitored construction work under difficult and dangerous conditions, passed through a challenging tunnel and took a direct interest in the actual state of affairs. These details are presented as evidence of his leadership character. This is more than a simple recollection. Through such episodes, the author seeks to illustrate a fundamental feature of Heydar Aliyev’s leadership philosophy: governance is not about observing problems from a distance, but about understanding them thoroughly and accepting responsibility for resolving them.

The book also devotes considerable attention to the recollections of people who once worked alongside Heydar Aliyev. Their accounts highlight his exceptional memory, precise knowledge of the details of events, ability to remember figures and facts, and determination to examine every issue comprehensively. For the author, Heydar Aliyev’s leadership was not merely a matter of political will. It was underpinned by thorough preparation, discipline, experience and a profound sense of responsibility for the state.

Viktor Kachmarik presents Heydar Aliyev’s political life not as a fragmented biography made up of unrelated periods, but as a series of interconnected stages in state-building. His leadership in Azerbaijan, which began in 1969, his service in senior government positions in Moscow and his return to the country in 1993 are viewed as different phases of the same political course. The central idea behind this approach is that the essence of Heydar Aliyev’s statecraft remained consistent despite changes in time and place.

One of the book’s most important sections focuses on the events of 1993. The author highlights the political crisis Azerbaijan faced at the time, the grave situation within state governance and society’s need for a strong, experienced leader. Heydar Aliyev’s return to Baku and his assumption of national leadership are presented not merely as political events, but as a turning point in the history of Azerbaijani statehood. The materials cited by the author give particular attention to how people viewed Heydar Aliyev at the time, the expectations they placed in him and the sense of confidence his return to leadership inspired throughout society.

Another interesting aspect of the author’s approach is the connection he draws between Heydar Aliyev’s personality and the national character of Azerbaijani society. The hospitality of the Azerbaijani people, their attachment to family values, their national memory and their attitude towards history are conveyed throughout the book through the author’s personal observations. In other words, Kachmarik seeks to portray Heydar Aliyev not only as a statesman, but also as a figure shaped by Azerbaijan’s historical, national and spiritual environment.

The phrase “leadership phenomenon” in the book’s title is no coincidence. One of the author’s central questions is this: why did Azerbaijani society turn specifically to Heydar Aliyev during the difficult days of 1993? His answer rests on several factors: political experience, state-management skills, the ability to influence society, the capacity to make decisions in complex circumstances and, above all, the will to assume responsibility for the state’s destiny. From this perspective, the author does not explain Heydar Aliyev’s political authority solely through the positions he held; he demonstrates how that authority grew out of decades of experience in statecraft.

Another distinctive feature of the work lies in its genre. It would be inaccurate to classify the book as a purely academic study. By bringing together historical facts, political events, recollections, personal observations and material gathered from various sources, the author has produced a work of historical and journalistic analysis. The sources listed at the end of the book include official information from the Presidential Administration, Heydar Aliyev’s speeches and statements, recollections of his contemporaries, documentary films by Vagif Mustafayev and other materials.

Naturally, the author’s treatment of particular political events also reflects his personal views. For this reason, it is important to distinguish historical facts from the author’s individual assessments when reading the book. Yet this is also one of the work’s central values: while offering his own perspective on important periods in Azerbaijan’s history, the author reveals the impression Heydar Aliyev’s personality makes on an observer from another country.

This is precisely what makes Viktor Kachmarik’s book interesting to Azerbaijani readers. Numerous books, studies and memoirs about Heydar Aliyev have been published in Azerbaijan, and documentary films have been made about him. His political legacy, public service and role in Azerbaijan’s history have been extensively examined. Nevertheless, it is particularly noteworthy that a writer from another country developed an interest in this figure through his encounters with Azerbaijan and ultimately produced such a substantial work.

It is difficult to sum up everything written about Heydar Aliyev in Viktor Kachmarik’s book in a single sentence. Yet one conclusion emerges clearly from the work as a whole: for the author, Heydar Aliyev was not simply a statesman who held high office in Azerbaijan’s political history. He was a leader who influenced the fate of the state at critical historical junctures and established his own political school and tradition of governance.

Perhaps this is the book’s most intriguing aspect: a writer who did not personally live through Azerbaijan’s historical experience seeks to understand the stature of this figure by drawing on various sources, recollections and personal observations. The picture that emerges from his writing demonstrates that the Heydar Aliyev phenomenon is not merely the subject of an individual political biography. It is an important chapter in the history of Azerbaijani statehood, national memory and the political development of modern Azerbaijan.

Sometimes, the stature of a nation’s great figure becomes clearer through the perspective of an outsider. In this sense, Viktor Kachmarik’s book is an engaging work of historical journalism that shows how Azerbaijan’s political history and path of state-building appear through the reflections of a foreign author.

Elnarə Akimova

Member of the Milli Majlis of the Republic of Azerbaijan,
Member of the Board of the New Azerbaijan Party,
Doctor of Philological Sciences