Soviet Troops Finally Enter Sumgait After Three Days of Anti-Armenian Violence
Military units restore order as death toll rises and thousands of Armenians flee the city
SUMGAIT, Azerbaijan SSR - Soviet Interior Ministry troops have finally entered Sumgait, ending three days of anti-Armenian violence that has left dozens dead and transformed this industrial city into a symbol of ethnic hatred.
Armored personnel carriers rolled through the streets this morning as soldiers established control over neighborhoods where mobs had rampaged unchecked since February 27. The deployment came only after personal intervention by senior Politburo members, following international condemnation of Soviet inaction.
Official sources acknowledge 32 deaths, though Armenian community leaders claim the actual toll exceeds 100. Hundreds more have been injured, many severely, and the city’s hospital struggles to treat victims of beatings, stabbings, and burns.
“It was like a medieval pogrom,” said Dr. Arkady Petrosyan, who treated victims at the central hospital. “Women, children, elderly people - no one was spared. Some injuries were horrific.”
The railway station remains packed with thousands of Armenian families desperate to leave. Many arrived with only the clothes on their backs, their apartments looted and burned. Soviet authorities have begun organizing evacuation trains to Yerevan and other cities.
Among the dead are 26 Armenians and 6 Azerbaijanis, according to preliminary official reports. The violence has destroyed the multi-ethnic character of Sumgait, where Armenians had comprised nearly 10% of the population.
Witnesses describe scenes of particular brutality, including the burning of apartments with families inside and the targeting of mixed Armenian-Azerbaijani couples. Several victims were thrown from balconies or beaten to death in courtyards.
The delayed military response has sparked fierce criticism in Armenia and among Moscow’s liberal intelligentsia. “For three days, Soviet citizens were hunted like animals while authorities did nothing,” said prominent human rights activist Andrei Sakharov.
As troops patrol the streets and a curfew takes effect, the scale of destruction becomes apparent. Entire apartment blocks stand empty, their windows shattered, belongings strewn in courtyards. The pogrom has shattered illusions about ethnic harmony in the Soviet Union and marked a point of no return in Armenian-Azerbaijani relations.