Heydar Alirza oglu Aliyev was born on May 10, 1923, in the city of Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan Republic.
After graduating in 1939 from the Nakhchivan Pedagogical Technical School, he enrolled in the architectural faculty of the Azerbaijan Industrial Institute (now Azerbaijan State University of Oil and Industry). However, the onset of World War II prevented him from completing his education.
From 1941 to 1944, Heydar Aliyev initially worked as the head of the secret section of the archive department at the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, and later as the head of the general department at the Council of People’s Commissars of the Nakhchivan ASSR.
In May 1944, he was transferred to work in the state security agencies.
After training in 1949-1950 at the School for Training Executive Staff of the State Security Committee of the USSR in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), he was appointed in 1950 as the head of a department in the State Security Committee of the Azerbaijan SSR.
In 1957, he completed his correspondence course at the historical faculty of Azerbaijan State University (now Baku State University).
In 1958, he was appointed head of the counterintelligence department of the State Security Committee, and in 1964, he became the deputy chairman of the KGB of the Azerbaijan SSR.
In 1966, he successfully completed courses at the F.E. Dzerzhinsky Higher School of the KGB in Moscow for the improvement of senior personnel.
In 1967, he was appointed as the chairman of the State Security Committee under the Council of Ministers of the Azerbaijan SSR, and in the same year, he was awarded the rank of major general.
At the Central Committee plenum of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan on June 14, 1969, Heydar Aliyev was elected the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan.
Heydar Aliyev was a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Azerbaijan SSR and the Supreme Soviet of the USSR for 22 years. From 1974 to 1979, he served as the deputy chairman of the Soviet of the Union of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
Elected a candidate member of the Politburo in 1976, and in December 1982, a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Heydar Aliyev was appointed as the first deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. In this position, he oversaw major areas of the economic, social, and cultural life of the USSR.
In October 1987, he resigned from his positions in protest against the political course conducted by the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and personally by General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev.
On January 21, 1990, Heydar Aliyev spoke at the Azerbaijani representation in Moscow regarding the bloody tragedy inflicted by Soviet troops in Baku on the night of January 19-20, demanding punishment for the organizers and perpetrators of the crime against the Azerbaijani people. In protest against the duplicitous policy of the USSR leadership regarding the acute conflict situation in Karabakh, he left the ranks of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
Returning to Baku on July 20, 1990, Heydar Aliyev traveled to Nakhchivan two days later, where he was elected a people’s deputy of the Azerbaijan SSR and a people’s deputy of the Nakhchivan ASSR that same year.
On September 3, 1991, Heydar Aliyev was elected chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic and, according to the relevant legislation, became the deputy chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Azerbaijan Republic. He served in this position until 1993.
At the founding conference of the “New Azerbaijan” party, held on November 21, 1992, in the city of Nakhchivan, Heydar Aliyev was elected chairman of the party.
In May-June 1993, when the country faced the threat of civil war and loss of independence, the Azerbaijani people demanded the return of Heydar Aliyev to power, and the then-leadership of the country was forced to invite him to Baku.
On June 15, 1993, Heydar Aliyev was elected chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Azerbaijan Republic, and from June 24, he began to exercise the powers of the President of the Azerbaijan Republic.
On October 3, 1993, as a result of a nationwide vote, Heydar Aliyev was elected President of the Azerbaijan Republic.
In the elections held on October 11, 1998, with high voter turnout, he received 76.1% of the votes and was re-elected President of Azerbaijan.
Having agreed to run in the presidential elections held on October 15, 2003, Heydar Aliyev withdrew his candidacy due to health problems in favor of Ilham Aliyev.
Heydar Aliyev passed away on December 12, 2003, at the Cleveland Clinic in the United States of America and was buried on December 15 at the Alley of Honor in Baku.
Heydar Aliyev was awarded the Lenin Order five times, the Order of the Red Star of the former USSR, and numerous medals, was twice honored with the title of Hero of Socialist Labor, as well as the highest awards of various countries and honorary titles of prestigious universities.
