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Baku Air Defence Army

military unit

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionNov 1, 2024
Entity authorityQ4075902 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Baku Air Defence Army (Russian: Бакинская армия ПВО) was a formation of the Soviet Air Defence Forces that existed in the Azerbaijan SSR from 1942 to 1945.

History

Soviet air defence in the Transcaucasus was provided by various bodies from 1918:

Air defence of detachments of the Baku Commune (1918);

Air Defence of the 11th Red Army of the Red Army (1920);

3rd Air Defence Corps (1935-1942);

The Baku Air Defence Army was formed on the Eastern Front of World War II following the decree of the State Defence Committee of April 5, 1942. Previously known as the Baku Air Defence Corps, its main objective became sheltering the Baku oil fields from German raids. The Wehrmacht had been planning the capture of the oil field under the codename Operation Edelweiss. During the intense German air reconnaissance in May–October, 1942 the Army included the 8th Air Defence Fighter Corps, seven anti-aircraft regiments, one anti-aircraft machine-gun regiment, a searchlight regiment, a barrage balloon regiment and other units. During its actions, the Army downed eight aircraft.

At the beginning of 1946, the Baku Air Defence Army was reorganized into the 17th Air Defence Corps as part of the Southwestern Air Defence District. In accordance with the directive of the Minister of the Armed Forces of the USSR of June 24, 1947, the Baku Air Defence Army was recreated on the basis of the 17th Air Defence Corps, and in the fall of 1948, the Baku Air Defence Region [Бакинский район ПВО] (of the 1st category) was recreated on the basis of its administration. This region included the 49th Fighter Aviation Corps PVO, which was later disbanded.

From 1954 it was redesignated the Baku Air Defence District of the Soviet Air Defence Forces (PVO), until it was abolished on 5 January 1980.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Baku Air Defence Army” as military unit. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1942, 1945, 1918, 1920—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1942-01-01. The account is most persuasive where Baku, Defence and Army can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as military unit. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Nov 1, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q4075902. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1942, 1945, 1918 and 1920.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
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Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Baku Air Defence Army”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Baku Air Defence Army primary sources, Baku Air Defence Army archive and Baku research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Baku Air Defence Army” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.