"Black January," the bloody, violent suppression of the political opposition by Soviet troops in Baku, Azerbaijan in January 1990, left over one hundred, mostly Azeri civilians dead.
<....>
On the night of January 19, 1990, Soviet forces, under the authority of a state of emergency decree that would only be announced hours later, stormed Baku in an effort to crush the anti-Moscow Azerbaijani Popular Front and safeguard the rule of the Azerbaijani Communist Party. <....>
While the government did not instigate these pogroms, central authorities, including the local militia and 12,000 Soviet Ministry of Interior troops in Baku, did little to stop the violence; they mostly occupied themselves with protecting Communist Party and government buildings. <....>
The action resulted in over one hundred civilian, mostly Azeri, deaths because of the unjustified and excessive use of force.
