Baku oil baron Taghiyev lost his mansion to the Bolsheviks in 1920 and died two days after learning his daughter had fled to Persia

Zeynalabdin Taghiyev was born poor in Baku's Old City, the son of a shoemaker. He learned masonry and was a building contractor by 18. In 1873 he and two partners bought land at Bibi-Heybat. Early drilling found nothing, the partners sold him their shares, and in 1877 a well gushed oil. He sold his oil interest to the Anglo-Russian Oil Company for 5 million roubles. He paid 184,000 roubles for a secular school for Muslim girls, built in 1898 to 1900. His Baku residence took up a whole city block. When the Red Army entered Baku in 1920 he refused to leave. The Bolsheviks confiscated the residence at once, and in June 1920 a Soviet resolution made it a museum. He was allowed to live in his summer house at Mardakan. His daughter Leyla escaped to Persia with her three children against his orders. He died two days after hearing the news, on 1 September 1924, and was buried on 4 September at the foot of the grave of Molla Abuturab, as he had asked. His birth year is given as 1821, 1823 or 1838. After his death the Mardakan house was confiscated and the family evicted, and his wife Sona died destitute on the streets of Baku in 1938^†. The residence is now the National Museum of History of Azerbaijan. Soviet workers painted over its walls and chipped off his monogram.