Yusif Vazir Chamanzaminli

Yusif Vazir Chamanzaminli (Yusif Vazirov) was born in Shusha.

He received his first education at Molla Mehdi's school in Shusha. In 1896, he entered the Shusha Realny School. In 1904, he wrote his first poem, "Jaloba". In those years, together with his cousin Mirhasan Vazirov, he published a monthly humorous magazine in Russian called "Fokusnik". As a result of the Armenian-Muslim clashes in Shusha, he was forced to leave school and went to Baku.

After graduating from the Baku Realny School (1910), he entered the Law Faculty of the Imperial University named after St. Vladimir in Kiev. During these years, he wrote the fairy tale "Melik Mammad" for children. His books were published in Ukraine. Together with Azerbaijani students, he founded the Kiev branch of "Musavat". He was appointed a diplomatic representative in Ukraine by the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. During that time, he published the books "Autonomy of Azerbaijan" and "Who are we and what do we want?" published his books.

In 1919, he was sent to Istanbul as an ambassador. His books were published in Istanbul.

After the Bolshevik occupation of Azerbaijan, he went to his younger brother Mirabdulla, who was studying in Paris. However, he decided to return to Azerbaijan after Mirabdulla died soon after. 

In 1926, he was accepted as a Soviet citizen. After returning, he worked as a department editor at the "Baku Ischisi" publishing house, as a lawyer by profession in the socio-cultural department of the State Planning Committee, and taught Russian at the Faculty of Oriental Studies of Azerbaijan State University and various institutes. He wrote his works under the pseudonyms "Jemenzaminli", "Badbakht", "Haqq tardarı", "Müsavi", "Stradayuşiy", "Sarsem" and other pseudonyms. He is the author of the work "Gızlar bulagı", which is the first example of an Azerbaijani historical-philosophical novel. In the novel "Qan ıçdın" he showed the Karabakh Khanate as a symbol of Azerbaijan. During the years of Stalin's repressions, sensing the approaching danger, he was forced to burn most of his manuscripts. In 1937, he was expelled from the Azerbaijan Writers' Union.

In 1938, he was appointed head teacher and director of the institute's library at the Pedagogical Institute in Urgench, Uzbekistan.

On January 25, 1940, he was arrested and brought to Baku. Six months later, he was sent to a concentration camp in the Nizhny Novgorod region. Yusif Vazir Chamanzaminli died in the concentration camp where he was a prisoner in 1943 and was buried in a cemetery on the banks of the Betluga River.