At the beginning of the 20th century, not only in the regions where Turkic people lived, but also in all Islamic nations, the sparks of the struggle against exploitation and slavery and the struggle for national independence began to emerge. The center of the first awakening movement among Russian Turks was Kazan and Crimea. Parallel to the awakening movements that started in Kazan and Crimean Turks, an enlightenment movement had also emerged in Azerbaijan.
By the middle of the 19th century, Russia had dominated the Caucasus. In this period, while Azerbaijan had Russian domination in terms of politics, there was also Persian influence due to cultural closeness of religion and sect. The activities carried out by the Russians to neutralize Iran, which they saw as their rival, and to break the Persian influence on the Turkish language and culture in Azerbaijan, even if they did not want to, started the nationalization process in the country.
In this study, the national movement that emerged at the end of the 19th century and turned into a nationalist movement in the 20th century after the loss of the influence of Persian, started under the leadership of Mirza Feth Ali Ahundzade will be examined.