Remembering our worth: commemorating the Azerbaijani nation through cultural exchange

Azerbaijan’s post-Soviet commemorations reproduce a little-discussed Soviet practice, which was to deploy cultural exchange to reify the nation. Military, cultural, and political figures circulated across and beyond the Soviet Union, becoming defining symbols of the Azerbaijani people. Azerbaijan’s present-day memorials, museums, and burial sites thus serve not only as locales where cultural and national luminaries are remembered, but perhaps more importantly as sites where their global recognition–as garnered through exchange–is carefully documented and stored as national value. Post-Soviet Azerbaijan remains a nation whose sense of self-worth is often framed in terms of its reception by others.