Azerbaijanis call it "Black January", meaning the massacre of civilians that occurred on January 19 and 20, 1990, when Soviet tanks and troops took to the streets of Baku. Operation "Strike" was intended to crush the makings of an independence movement in Azerbaijan. Officially, 131 people were killed; unofficially, the figures swell to at least 300 and possibly more. Even to this day, more than 28 years later, the truth is unknown, as apparently most of the documents - 200 secret boxes, according to some accounts - were confiscated and sent back to Moscow by the Soviet Army when it became clear that the Soviet Union was on the verge of collapse.

Soviet army soldiers have shot people at point-blank range with special brutality, carried out deliberate assaults of tanks and armored personnel carriers on cars, and bombarded hospitals, prevented the medical personnel from helping the wounded. The personnel of the troops wounded the wounded with bayonet knives. The use of bullets for a Kalashnikov rifle with a caliber of 5.45 mm with a displaced center of gravity does not just lead a person out of action, but repeatedly increases suffering and makes death inevitable.

Bloody "Black January" became the starting point for independence of Azerbaijan