n.
City (pop., 1997 est.: 1,727,200), capital of Azerbaijan.
Located on the western shore of the Caspian Sea at the sea's best harbour, Baku has long been inhabited. By the 11th century AD, it was in the possession of the Sh 012B; rv 0101; n shahs, who made it their capital in the 12th century. In 1723 Peter the Great took Baku but returned it to Persia in 1735; Russia recaptured the town in 1806. It was the capital of the Bolshevik government in 1917 and became the capital of the new Soviet republic of Azerbaijan in 1920. The basis of Baku's economy is petroleum.