In the city of Baku a Bolshevik-dominated soviet had emerged after the October Revolution. This Baku Soviet dispatched aid to the beleaguered Russians on the Terek, but was frustrated when the Muslims of Azerbaijan took advantage of the Revolution to from their own provisional government and a Muslim militia under a political party called Musavat. In December 1917 the Azerbaijanis declared solidarity with the Dagestanis and began to disarm the thousands of Russian troops who had abandoned the War and were crossing Azerbaijan on their way back to Russia. In January 1918 unit of the new Azerbaijani national army, including a regiment of the "Savage" Division killed up to 1,000 Russians on a troop train who resisted this disarming. This "Shamkhor" incident was followed by organized attacks on Russians throughout Azerbaijan. The Baku Soviet took the lead in a counter-offensive, the clashes escalating steadily until March 31, when, at the instigation of the Baku Soviet, the Armenian Dashnak militia suddenly joined the struggle and fell upon the Muslims of Baku, who were a minority in the city. Up to 3,000 of the Muslim population were killed, in partial repayment for the Young Turk genocide of Armenians in Anatolia in 1915
