Editing Heydar Aliyev (section)

=== Early career ===
[[File:Young Heydar Aliyev.jpg|thumb|150px|left|alt=refer to caption|Young Heydar Aliyev]]
During World War II, he served as commander of a [[SMERSH|Smersh]] battalion, which conducted intelligence operations on the Soviet Union's own forces and executed soldiers who deserted or fought insufficiently hard.<ref name=":6">{{Cite news |date=2003 |title=Heydar Aliyev, Azerbaijan's Hard-Nosed 'Savior,' Dies |newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2003/12/13/heydar-aliyev-azerbaijans-hard-nosed-savior-dies/5d2901ae-1c50-41da-96a4-15438d870a56/}}</ref>  

He joined the [[Azerbaijan SSR]] [[People's Commissariat for State Security]] (NKGB) in 1944 and proceeded to become the department head of the [[Committee for State Security of the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic|State Security Committee of Azerbaijan SSR]] in 1950, after he graduated from the Senior Staff Training School of the [[KGB|USSR State Security Committee]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://en.president.az/azerbaijan/leader|title=Heydar Alirza oglu Aliyev|website=en.president.az|access-date=28 February 2018}}</ref> 

In 1954, as part of a government reform, the NKGB, which was previously named the [[Ministry of State Security (Soviet Union)|Ministry of State Security]] (MGB), was again renamed, this time as the [[KGB]]. Sources point to Aliyev working in the Azerbaijani KGB's Eastern Division, which included Iran and the Middle East.<ref name=":23">{{Cite book |last=Cornell |first=Svante E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4aZzCQAAQBAJ |title=Azerbaijan Since Independence |date=2015 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-47620-7 |pages=42–43 |language=en}}</ref> During this time, Aliyev was a close associate of Semyon Tvsigun.<ref name=":23" /> Aliyev became head of the [[Committee for State Security of the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic|Azerbaijani KGB]] in 1960<ref name=":19">{{Citation |last=Waal |first=Thomas de |title=Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through Peace and War |date=2013 |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.18574/nyu/9780814770825.001.0001/html |work=Black Garden |pages=106 |publisher=New York University Press |language=en |doi=10.18574/nyu/9780814770825.001.0001 |isbn=978-0-8147-7082-5|s2cid=250081480 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> and eventually received the rank of [[major general]].<ref name=":20">{{Cite news |date=1984 |title=A Soviet Politician's Rise: Talent and Guile Pay Off |newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1984/12/16/a-soviet-politicians-rise-talent-and-guile-pay-off/80d72494-cc2c-4093-aa52-17a11fd0c2ef/}}</ref><ref>Nikolaij Nor-Mesek, Wolfgang Rieper. ''The Defense Council of the USSR'', Institut für Sowjet-Studien, 1984, p. 9</ref> During his time in Soviet Secret Service, Aliyev was mostly unknown in Azerbaijan.<ref name=":20" />