Kasumov, Mir Bashir Fattakh Ogly

Born 1879 in the village of Dashbulag, Tavriz Vilayet, southern Azerbaijan; died Apr. 23, 1949, in Baku. Soviet state and party figure. Member of the Communist Party from 1905.

The son of a poor peasant, Kasumov joined the revolutionary movement in 1898. He began working in factories in Balakhany (Baku) in 1905 and took part in the Revolution of 1905–07 as a member of the combat detachment of the Baku Bolshevik organization. In 1917–18 he worked for the party in Baku and in Lenkoran’ District. After the temporary fall of the Soviet government in Baku in 1918–20 he was active in the underground. He was elected a member of the Party Central Committee at the First Congress of the Communist Party (Bolshevik) of Azerbaijan in February 1920. He helped organize the uprising against the Musavat government in April 1920 and became a member of the Baku Revolutionary Committee on April 29.

Kasumov was vice-chairman of the Azerbaijan Central Executive Committee from 1921 to 1924 and again from 1931 to 1935 and chairman of that body from 1937 to 1938. He served as people’s commissar of social security in Azerbaijan from 1935 to 1937. From 1938 until his death he was chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Azerbaijan SSR and vice-chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. A deputy to the first and second convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Kasumov was awarded two Orders of Lenin and two other orders.