Vasily Velichko

Who was Vasily Velichko?

Vasili Lvovich Velichko was a Russian explorer, and editor of the semi-official Kavkaz gazette.

Known as a Russian chauvinist, he demonstrated blatant intolerance to the Armenians and tried to set them on other populations in the Caucasus. He was active during the period when the imperial Russian authorities carried out a purposeful anti-Armenian policy.

According to the Russian historian V. Shnirelman, "it is curious that his works were re-published in Azerbaijan in the early 1990s and received wide popularity there". Velichko's "forgotten racist tract" was reissued by Ziya Bunyadov's academy.