Heydar Alirza oglu Aliyev was born on May 10, 1923, in Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan. In 1939, after graduating from Nakhchivan Pedagogical School he entered the Azerbaijan Industrial Institute (present Azerbaijan State Oil and Industrial University), Faculty of Architecture, but the outbreak of World War II prevented him from completing his education. 
     
In 1941-1944, Heydar Aliyev headed a secret division at the Archive Department of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic and then served as head of the General Department of the Council of People's Commissars of Nakhchivan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. In May 1944, he was sent to work at state security bodies. After graduating from the USSR State Security Committee`s (KGB) Senior Staff Training School in Leningrad (presently St. Petersburg) in 1949-1950, Heydar Aliyev was appointed as department head at the State Security Committee of Azerbaijan SSR in 1950. In 1958, Heydar Aliyev was appointed as head of the Counter-Intelligence Department of the State Security Committee of Azerbaijan SSR and was promoted to deputy chairman of the State Security Committee in 1964.

In 1967, he was elected as chairman of the State Security Committee under the Council of Ministers of Azerbaijan SSR and was promoted to the rank of a major general. Heydar Aliyev was elected as the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan at its Plenary Session held on 12 July 1969. For twenty-two years, Heydar Aliyev had been a member of the Supreme Soviets of the USSR and Azerbaijan SSR. From 1974 to 1979, he held the post of first deputy chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers. 

In 1976, Heydar Aliyev was a candidate for the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and was elected as its member in December 1982 and then appointed as the First Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of the USSR. During his tenure, Heydar Aliyev was responsible for vital sectors of the USSR`s economic, social and cultural life.

In October 1987, in protest at the policy pursued by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and personally by Secretary General Mikhail Gorbachev, Heydar Aliyev resigned from his posts.

The day after the bloody tragedy committed by the Soviet troops in Baku on the night of 19-20 January 1990, Heydar Aliyev made a statement at Azerbaijan`s Representative Office in Moscow demanding to punish the organizers and executors of the crime against the people of Azerbaijan. As a sign of protest against the hypocritical policy of the USSR leadership towards the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, he left the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in July 1991.
  
Having returned to Baku on 20 July 1990, Heydar Aliyev left for Nakhchivan two days later, where he was elected as a member of the Supreme Soviet of Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1991, Heydar Aliyev was elected as chairman of the Supreme Assembly of the Autonomous Republic of Nakhchivan, and by the legislation as deputy chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Republic of Azerbaijan. He held this post until 1993. In November 1992, at the constituent congress of the New Azerbaijan Party in Nakhchivan, Heydar Aliyev was elected as chairman of the Party.

In May-June 1993, when Azerbaijan was on the verge of civil war and loss of independence, the people of Azerbaijan demanded to bring Heydar Aliyev to power. The leadership of Azerbaijan was forced to invite Heydar Aliyev to Baku. On 15 June 1993, Heydar Aliyev was elected as chairman of the Supreme Soviet of Azerbaijan, and on 24 June took the office of President of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

On 3 October 1993, in a nationwide voting that saw high turnout, Heydar Aliyev was elected as President of the Republic of Azerbaijan. On 11 October 1998, Heydar Aliyev was re-elected as President of the Republic of Azerbaijan with 76.1 percent of votes in a high turnout election. Having agreed to run for the presidential office at the 15 October 2003 election, he then withdrew his candidacy in favor of Ilham Aliyev in connection with health problems.

On 12 December 2003, the national leader of the Azerbaijani people Heydar Aliyev died at Cleveland Hospital in the United States of America and was buried at the Alley of Honors in Baku on 15 December.
 
The period spanning over 30 years of state building, economic revival, political awareness, and political life in modern Azerbaijan is inseparably linked with the name and practical activities of Heydar Aliyev. He possessed inexhaustible talent, encyclopedic knowledge, and a broad worldview, making him a historical personality and an outstanding political figure. Throughout these years, revival in all areas of the public-political, economic, and cultural life of the people is precisely associated with his name.

The path leading to the establishment of independent state of Azerbaijan began in 1969 - precisely after H. Aliyev came to power. In this sense, the brightest pages of Azerbaijanism were written just in those years. During that period, Heydar Aliyev, within the framework of the prevailing ideology and, of course, in a manner that did not overtly contradict that ideology, skillfully managed to not only prevent the complete suppression of the national spirit in Azerbaijan but, on the contrary, succeeded in using all available means to the maximum extent to elevate it. 

The work carried out by Heydar Aliyev while leading Azerbaijan in 1969-82 released national self-consciousness from the fetters of the previous ideological system and ensured boundless rising of national spirit based on such fundamental principles as giving historical memory back to the people and created favorable conditions for the idea of national statehood our people had been maturing for many years to turn into the great driving force.

Heydar Aliyev's return to leadership in Azerbaijan in 1993 marked a turning point in the country's socio-political, economic, scientific-cultural life, and international relations. The process of establishing an independent statehood began in accordance with scientific principles and international norms and principles. As a result of the urgent measures taken by Heydar Aliyev - on one hand, forming the National Army and regular Armed forces capable of guarding the national interests of Azerbaijan and defending our lands, on the other hand, stop the war by all diplomatic and political means – the ceasefire regime having vital importance to our country was established in May 1994.

Signing the first oil agreement called “Contract of the Century” in 1994 and its realization under conditions of relative stability within Azerbaijan and increasing interest and confidence in our country in the international arena, are vivid evidence of the realization of Heydar Aliyev’s oil strategy constituting a concept of economic development of Azerbaijan.

The domestic policy carried out by Heydar Aliyev implied providing each Azerbaijani citizen with the right to live freely and create conditions for the improvement of his living standard. Economic reforms, establishment of the market economy, ensuring economic development, Azerbaijan’s integration into the world economy, implementation of the privatization program and agrarian reforms were priority directions of Heydar Aliyev’s activity.

Due to the foreign policy of Heydar Aliyev, Azerbaijan’s relations with the world’s leading countries and international organizations began developing in accordance with the national interests far-sighted political perspective. His resolute steps, skillful use of the most authoritative rostrums in the name national goals, had extremely important significance from the standpoint of the present and future of the Azerbaijan’s statehood.

The active diplomacy of Heydar Aliyev made democratic states and leading international public organizations change their attitude to our country and the armed conflict it had been involved in forcedly. The Heydar Aliyev’s foreign policy was based on peace, respect to international legal norms, integrity and inviolability of borders, territorial integrity of states and principles of mutually beneficial cooperation.

Since 1992, Heydar Aliyev had been carrying out tense activity aimed at expanding and strengthening economic, political, literary and cultural links with Turkic-speaking countries.

He did extremely intensive and fruitful work to prepare and realize large-scale international economic agreements on utilization of natural resources and the favorable geo-strategic position of Azerbaijan following the national interests. During the period of his political activities, Heydar Aliyev succeeded in gaining confidence and trust both among Azerbaijani people and those who had a chance to meet him from all over the world.
 
Due to his huge political will and wise prescience, very important international contracts were signed, and their implementation was launched. Heydar Aliyev was the initiator of Azerbaijan’s leading role in the realization of many world-scale economic programs of great political significance.
     
Heydar Aliyev has great merits in the unity and solidarity of Azerbaijanis who had been scattered around the world during the merciless and severe trials of history. He gave a powerful impetus to the process of historical development of Azerbaijan, worked hard for the World Azerbaijanis to be organized, and unite closely around their only Motherland, the independent Azerbaijan, and made extremely important decisions to this end. It was exactly Heydar Aliyev, the creator of the independent Azerbaijani state, who laid the ideological basis for our national statehood. 
 

Recommended literature:

1. Mirzəyev, Ramiz Şəmşəd oğlu. Heydər Əliyev və müstəqil Azərbaycan dövlətinin yeni neft strategiyası = Heydar Aliyev and new oil strategy of independent Azerbaijan / R. Ş. Mirzəyev ; red. B. Y. Sadıqov ; tərc. R. Ə. İsayev. - Bakı : Göytürk, 1999. - 157 s.
2. Abdullayev, Vaqif İdris oğlu. Müstəqilliyimizin strategiyası / V. İ. Abdullayev ; elmi red. İ. Ə. Həbibbəyli. - Bakı : Azərbaycan nəşriyyatı, 2002. - 416 s. 
   İsmayıl, Eldar. Böyük öndər / E. İsmayıl ; red. H. Ə. İsmayılov. - Bakı : Nurlan, 2004. - 408 s.
3. Atakişiyev, Müşviq Cəmil oğlu. Azərbaycanın yeni neft siyasəti və iqtisadi yükşəliş / M. C. Atakişiyev ; elmi red. Z. Ə. Səmədzadə. - Bakı : Azərbaycan nəşriyyatı, 2004. - 264 s.
4. Böyük insan haqqında / red. V. Yolçiyev. - Bakı : Azərbaycan nəşriyyatı, 2004. - 296 s.
5. Abbasov, Vaqif Məhərrəm oğlu. Liderlik fəlsəfəsi / V. M. Abbasov ; red. F. Nadir. - Bakı : Təhsil, 2004. - 204 s.
6. Mahmudov, Yaqub Mikayıl oğlu. Azərbaycan tarixində Heydər Əliyev şəxsiyyəti / Y. M. Mahmudov ; elmi red. Ə. M. Həsənov. - Bakı : Təhsil, 2002. - 328,[40] s.
7. Heydər Əliyev müasir Azərbaycan parlamentinin banisidir / tərt.-müəl.: S. A. Mirzəyev, M. Qayıbov ; red. O. S. Əsədov. - Bakı : Milli Məclisin nəşri, 2008. - 495,[36] s.
8. Андриянов, Виктор Иванович. Гейдар Алиев / В. И. Андриянов, Г. Ф. Мираламов. - М. : Молодая гвардия, 2005. - 394 с.
9. Кремлевские будни Гейдара Алиева / авт.-ред. З. Фараджев ; сост. Э. Аскеров ; ред. Р. Камалов. - Баку : Адильоглы, 2007. - 394 с.
10. Heydar Aliyev’s New Oil Strategy = Heydər Əliyevin yeni neft strategiyası / Azərbaycan Respublikası Prezidentinin Katibliyi. - Baku : w. p., 1997. - 191 p.