The people of Shusha made it the pearl of the Caucasus, the cradle of our culture, the mugham-singing heart of Azerbaijan
Malik-Aslanov Khudadat bey Agha oghlu was born in Shusha, in 1879. He was a scientist, state and political figure. In 1899 he finished school in Shusha and later, in 1904 – the Petersburg Institute of Engineers of Road Transport. During his study in Petersburg, in 1901, he joined RSDRP (Russian Social Democratic Labour Party), but in 1904 left the party and remained the non-party till the end of his life.
After graduating from the institute, Malik-Aslanov worked at the Vologda-Petrozavodsk railroad construction for half a year. In 1905 he moved to Tiflis and worked on the Transcaucasian railroad: built stations and technical constructions on the Suramsk site, the second line of a way and the narrow-gage road to Chiatursk manganese mine. In 1912-17 Malik-Aslanov published in the Petersburg scientific magazines four articles about problems and prospects of the railroads’ technical development of. After the February revolution in Russia, in 1917 he was appointed the representative of the Provisional Government on the Transcaucasian railroad. In the Transcaucasian commissariat Malik-Aslanov held a post of the Commissioner for the Communications of Transcaucasia, and in the government of the Transcaucasian Federal Republic – the Minister of Railway Communications. In 1918 Malik-Aslanov published a book telling about the history of the Transcaucasian railroad.
After the ADR declaration in May, 1918 Malik-Aslanov became Minister of Railway Communications in the First Cabinet of the Government of the republic, and the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs. He held a post of the Minister of Railway Communications in four of the five cabinets, and also the Minister of Trade and Industry, and the first deputy of head of the government at the same time. He also was a member of the Azerbaijani parliament. He initiated the establishment of a bilingual Azerbaijani-Russian institution of higher education to train specialists in the field of railway communications (later reorganized into the Baku College of Railway Transportation). The same year, due to him was founded a commission dealing with preparation for transition of the Azerbaijani writing to the Latin alphabet. The commission made the plan of measures, which were approved by parliament. But the commission wasn’t succeeded to carry out this plan. The ADR fell, and the communist regime was established.
During the first years of the Soviet power Malik-Aslanov worked in the State Committee for Construction, first as the head of department, and subsequently the chairman of the committee. In 1923-33 he worked in the Supreme Soviet of the National Economy, in the State Committee for Planning and State planning commission and also as a Dean of the Faculty of Building Engineering at the Azerbaijan Polytechnic Institute. Malik-Aslanov was a member of various scientific and technical societies and commissions of the USSR and Azerbaijan. He published some scientific works, including two monographs.
At the beginning of 1930 Malik-Aslanov Khudadat bey Agha oghlu was arrested for the first time and was in prison of the State Political Directorate for two and a half years. For that not long period of time of being free, he taught at the Institutes of Transport and Construction. In August, 1934 he was arrested again and died in prison, in June, 1935.