Yusif Vazir Chamanzaminli is one of the talented writers occupying a prominent place in the Azerbaijani literature. He was born in Shusha and spent his childhood and youth in this town. “Imagine a town in the mountains, shrouded in green in spring and summer; and in mist and snow in autumn and winter. This is my town,” - Chamanzaminli, who always remembered Shusha with love and pride, write in his memoirs.

Shusha and Karabakh themes occupy the central place in Chamanzaminli’s works.

One can find a detailed description of late XIX c. and early XX c. Karabakh in his novels “Twenty Years of My Life”, “Copybook of a Youth” etc. These novels can be of great interest for the researchers learning the history of Karabakh.

Chamanzaminli was also a prominent political figure, first ambassador of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (1918-1920) in Turkey. After the Soviet invasion he had to live for several years abroad. His yearning for the Motherland made him to return after a while but the Soviet government always persecuted him for his past. In 1940 he was arrested and exiled to the village of Sukhobezvodnoye in Gorki (N.Novgorod) region of Russia. Chamanzaminli couldn’t resist the deprivations of the life in exile and died in 1947 after a long period of illness.