ABSTRACT
The Iranian Azeri literary emigres were warmly received by the Azerbaijan Writers Union, which organized public meetings and forums at which Iranian and Soviet Azeri writers presented the case for the national liberation of Southern Azerbaijan. The collapse of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic forced both Moscow and Baku to reflect on the future of Iranian Azerbaijan. Soviet political-literary criticism recognized that Azerbaijani national consciousness is given special emphasis in the novel. The great political importance attributed to the novel at the time of its publication also signaled a tactical change in the Soviet propaganda directed at Iran; the national question had begun to take precedence over the class struggle. Mirza Ibrahimov's novel about the national liberation movement in Iranian Azerbaijan was perhaps the most important literary event in post-war Soviet Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijan Writers Union occupies the most visible position in discussions of the "Southern question".
