Heydar Alirza oglu Aliyev was born on May 10, 1923 in Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan. In 1939, after graduating from the Nakhchivan Pedagogical School, he studied at the architectural department of the Azerbaijan Industrial Institute (now the Azerbaijan State Oil and Industry University). The outbreak of war did not allow him to complete his education. Since 1941, Heydar Aliyev has worked as a head of the department at the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs of Nakhchivan ASSR and at the Council of People’s Commissars of Nakhchivan ASSR. In 1944, he was assigned to work at state security bodies.
Heydar Aliyev, who has been working in the security system since that period, has held the post of deputy chairman since 1964, and since 1967 – Chairman of the State Security Committee under the Council of Ministers of the Azerbaijan SSR, he was awarded the rank of Major General. During these years, he received special higher education in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), and in 1957 graduated from the History Department of the Azerbaijan State University.
Being elected at the Plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan in July 1969 as the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev became the head of the republic.
In December 1982, Heydar Aliyev was elected a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, appointed to the post of the First Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of the USSR, and became one of the leaders of the USSR. For twenty years, Heydar Aliyev had been a deputy to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and for five years was Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
In October 1987, Heydar Aliyev, as a sign of protest against the policy pursued by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and personally Secretary General Mikhail Gorbachev, resigned from his post.
In connection with the bloody tragedy committed by Soviet troops in Baku on January 20, 1990, Heydar Aliyev, making a statement at the Azerbaijani mission in Moscow the next day, demanded to punish the organizers and perpetrators of the crime committed against the Azerbaijani people.
He left the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in July 1991 in protest against the hypocritical policy of the USSR leadership regarding the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Returning to Azerbaijan in July 1990, Heydar Aliyev lived first in Baku and then in Nakhchivan, and in the same year was elected a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of Azerbaijan SSR. In 1991-1993 he was the chairman of the Supreme Assembly of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, and deputy chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Azerbaijan Republic.
In 1992, Heydar Aliyev was elected chairman of the New Azerbaijan Party at its founding congress in Nakhchivan.
In May-June 1993, when, as a result of an extreme crisis in the government, the country was on the verge of a civil war and loss of independence, the people of Azerbaijan demanded to bring Heydar Aliyev to power. The then leaders of Azerbaijan were forced to officially invite Heydar Aliyev to Baku. On 15 June 1993, Heydar Aliyev was elected Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of Azerbaijan, and on 24 July – on the resolution of the Milli Majlis, he managed to fulfill the powers of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan. On October 3, 1993, as a result of nationwide voting, Heydar Aliyev was elected President of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
On October 11, 1998, having won the elections, passed in high activeness of the population, with 76,1 percent of the votes, he was re-elected President of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
Heydar Aliyev had given his consent to run for the presidency on October 15, 2003, but refused to run in the elections because of health problems. On December 12, the national leader of Azerbaijan, President Heydar Aliyev passed away in a Cleveland hospital in the United States of America.
Heydar Aliyev was four times awarded the Order of Lenin, Order of Red Star, numerous medals, twice received the rank of a Hero of the Socialistic Labor and numerous orders and medals from different foreign countries. On March 27, 1997, in Kyiv, the head of the state of Azerbaijan was awarded the highest award of Ukraine, the Order of Yaroslav Mudry. On April 13, 1999, President Heydar Aliyev was awarded Türkiye’s highest award – “Ataturk International Peace Prize”. On January 20, 2001, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev was awarded the rank of the Honorable Professor of Moscow State University.
