Baku, Azerbaijan, April 19
Trend:
During the Great Patriotic War, Azerbaijan's oil industry provided almost three-quarters of the USSR's entire oil production, and Azerbaijan's oil industry was one of the key industries that determined the defense capability of the country during that time, the Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper reported.
The leading researcher of the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Historical Sciences Mikhail Mukhin highlighted Baku's role in his monograph titled 'Fuel of Victory: Azerbaijan During the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945)'.
Hitler's strategy stipulated seizing Baku and other Caucasian deposits, as well as inclusion of the agricultural lands of Ukraine into Germany.
According to Mukhin, oil was the blood of war, because the fuel shortage affected the situation on the front as much as the shortage of ammunition and weapons.
Mukhin said that he did not plan to write a book. Initially, he was preparing an article about the oil industry of Azerbaijan during the war years.
Mukhin studied the archives, as well as searched open sources. The monograph is ultimately addressed not only to professionals, but to wider public.