Baku Governorate (Old Russian: Бакинская губернiя) was one of the guberniyas of the Russian Empire, with its centre in Baku. Area (1897): 34,4000 sq. verstas, population (1897): 789,659. The only foreign border of the governorate was Persia, in the south. Within the empire it bordered with Elisabethpol Governorate and Dagestan Oblast.

The governorate was established in 1846 as Shemakha Governorate, in place of several military precincts. After the devastating 1859 Shamakhi earthquake it was decided to transfter the capital of the Province from Shemakha to Baku. On July 12, 1859 the governorate's name was changed accordingly. The coat of arms of the governorate was instituted on July 5, 1878^[1]. Initially Baku Governorate included Karabakh and Zangezur, which were separated in 1868 to create Elisabethpol Governorate.

The governorate was preserved until the establishment of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, when it was split into Baku Governorate and Lankaran General-Governorate.

Baku Governorate had six uyezds (in 1868 Nukha and Shusha uyezds were attached to Elisabethpol Governorate):

Baku (Azerbaijani: Bakı, IPA: [bɑˈcɯ]), sometimes spelled as Baki or Bakou, is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. It is located on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, which projects into the Caspian Sea. The city consists of two principal parts: the downtown and the old Inner City (21.5 ha). Baku's urban population at the beginning of 2009 was estimated at just over two million people. Officially, about 25 percent of all inhabitants of the country live in the metropolitan city area of Baku.

Baku is divided into eleven administrative districts (raions) and 48 townships. Among these are the townships on islands in the Baku Bay and the town of Oil Rocks built on stilts in the Caspian Sea, 60 km (37 mi) away from Baku. The Inner City of Baku along with the Shirvanshah's Palace and Maiden Tower were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000. According to the Lonely Planet's ranking, Baku is also among the world's top ten destinations for urban nightlife.

Mikayil Mushfig (Azerbaijani: Mikayıl Müşfiq), born Mikayil Ismayilzadeh (5 June 1908, Baku – 12 March 1939, Baku) was an Azerbaijani poet of the 1930s. During the Stalinist purges in the USSR, Mikayil Mushfig was arrested and executed by the Soviet authorities at the age of 30.

Mikayil Mushfig was born in the city of Baku of Baku Governorate in 1908. He received his elementary education at Russian-language School in Baku. After the establishment of the Soviet regime in Azerbaijan in 1920, he studied at Baku Teacher's School and in 1931, he graduated from the Department of Language and Literature of the Baku State University.

Mikayil started his professional career as a school teacher. While being involved in teaching he started writing poems. His first poem Bir Gün ("The Day") was published in the Ganj fahla newspaper in Baku in 1926. At about this time, he adopted the pen name Mushfig (Perso-Arabic for "tender-hearted"). Along with Samad Vurgun and Rasul Rza, Mikayil Mushfig became one of the founders of new Azerbaijani Soviet poetic style in 1930s. He translated a number of poems from Russian as well.