Imam Dashdemir oglu Mustafayev (Azerbaijani: İmam Daşdəmir oğlu Mustafayev; 25 February 1910 – 10 March 1997) was an Azerbaijani politician and scientist who headed the Azerbaijan SSR as the First Secretary of the Azerbaijan Communist Party from 1954 to 1959.
In 1940, he joined the Azerbaijan Communist Party and received many important encharges. In 1954, he was elected the First Secretary of Azerbaijan Communist Party. In 1956 together with the then chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Azerbaijan SSR, Mirza Ibrahimov, he was able to introduce a new paragraph to the constitution of the Azerbaijan SSR that for the first time since the Soviet invasion declared Azerbaijani language the official language of the Azerbaijan SSR.[2] As a result of this step which was not agreed upon with Moscow (out of fears of it getting refused) Azerbaijani acquired increasingly an important status in the entire country. This was the main reason behind his premature removal from power.[1] Mustafayev was implicitly accused of nationalism, and on 12 June 1959 he was fired for "not being able to cope with his work" and was expelled from membership of the bureau of the Azerbaijan Communist Party Central Committee.[2] After being removed from that office, he worked as the Director of Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences.[1]
