Sona Mehmandarova - beauty queen from Azerbaijan

SOCIETY  14 June 2022 - 20:32

When we hear of beauty pageants, we imagine leggy good-lookers in swimsuits being chosen like racehorses at a trade show. It's an American format that conquered the world in the mid-20th century. There, women were really treated like thoroughbred horses.

In Europe, it was a little different. The origins of European beauty contests go back to the beginning of the 19th century when at different high-society celebrations, the winner was chosen among the ladies.

For example, in 1839 the contest held in Eglinton was won by the Duchess of Somerset, the wife of Edward Seymour, the 12th Duke of Somerset.

The first international pageant

By the end of the 19th century, beauty pageants were well known around the world. They were widely covered by the press even in countries where they were not held. So when an advertisement appeared in the newspapers in 1888 that the Belgian resort town of Spa was accepting applications for a beauty contest, more than 350 women responded.

Girls sent their photos from all over the world, including applicants from the Russian and Ottoman empires.

The jury selected 21 applicants for the face-to-face competition.

All the girls were accommodated in luxurious apartments with one condition - before the contest they were not allowed to appear in public.

The event itself took place in the city's most expensive venue, a large casino hall. The male spectators were only allowed in tails, and the contestants themselves paraded in floor-length dresses. The jury was composed of eight people of creative professions - famous painters, sculptors, and writers.

The winner was 18-year-old Creole from Guadeloupe - Martha Sukare, second place went to Flemish Angela Delrose.

Third and fourth places went to Austrian Marie Stevens and Olga Nadjaska.

The first beauty contest in the Russian Empire

It was held on December 7, 1901, in St. Petersburg and caused a stir in the audience.

Despite the fact that the event was held at the spacious St. Michael's Manege, and ticket prices reached 30 roubles (as many preferred boxes at the Bolshoy Theater), they were sold out long before the start of the competition.

True, the prizes were serious. The first place winner and the main title were supposed to wear a diamond brooch. The second place winner was promised a diamond bracelet and the third place winner - a gold medal.

All the contestants except one - Lydia Yavorskaya - took part on the condition of complete anonymity.

Lydia Yavorskaya was a famous actress. But her fame began to fade, whether because of her age or the fact that she became a princess (married), the contest for her was an attempt to restore her popularity.

Each of the dozens of contestants had only one time to parade on stage, presenting herself beautifully in an evening gown. Yavorskaya hoped for her stage skills, and they didn't let her down. The girl took second place.
The other contestants remained incognito. First place went to Baroness K, third to "the brown-haired girl in a pink cleavage," and fourth to "the blonde in blue."

Therefore there is nothing surprising that when Baku has decided to carry out such a competition, Sona Mehmandarova - daughter of the Lankaran town governor and niece of the general of the Russian Empire has also registered for it.

Tragic prehistory

The daughter of the city head of Lankaran was known as the reigning beauty of the town from her early years. In addition, she came from two well-known families. Her father, Naghi bay, was of the noble Karabakh family of Mehmandarovs, one of the branches of the Karabakh khan family. Her mother, Bikya khanim Talyshkhanova was from the family of the rulers of the Talysh khanate.

Sona had no shortage of suitors. Some enlisted for her beauty, others for her position, others for her lineage. Nagi bey politely refused them all.

In 1910, one of the offspring of wealthy merchants, Ahmed bay Zeynalov, after receiving a refusal, planned to get rid of an obstacle to his goal - to kill Sona's father.

At night, sneaking with a comrade into the house of the mayor, the criminals mortally wounded Naghi bay. They took the body and drowned it in the sea, trying to make it look like the unexpected disappearance of the head of Lankaran.

However, the investigation, which lasted several months, uncovered the killers and they received 25 years of hard labor and were exiled to Siberia.

Sona was the only child of the family. Her mother died in childbirth and her father was murdered. Her uncles served in various places in the vast Russian Empire. She was left practically alone. Even though those who sought her hand because of her father's position dropped out, there were still rich men who dreamed of adding kinship with the khan's clans to their money. And the suitors in love did not go anywhere.

Attempts to win Sona Mehmandarova's heart became more and more insistent, so she decided to move to Baku, lost in the huge, fast-growing city.

Possessing a strong independent character, educated and beautiful, Sona was disgusted with the life of a recluse in the capital.

Although her uncles offered her various parties that would allow her to raise her status and go out in the world, she could not think of marriage, after Lankaran.

So when in 1912, in Baku, the first beauty contest was announced, Sona challenged herself to sign up for it.

The contest was held in the newly opened House of the Public Assembly (now the Philharmonic Hall).

Several groups stood out among the three dozen contestants - daughters of senior officers in the Russian army, unmarried ladies from the city's secular society, and girls from families that had migrated from Europe.

In Baku, the contest was dubbed "the contest of brides," and among the spectators were the city's most distinguished bachelors.

Sona Mehmandarova had quite different goals, and she was almost the only Azerbaijani among the contestants. Perhaps because she stood out among the other girls, the Lankaran beauty was awarded first place.

Not everyone reacted well to the fact that a Muslim girl took part in the contest. Especially in Lankaran, where Sona had many ill-wishers among her rejected admirers. But she decided to go all the way. When a month after the Baku event, a contest was announced in Tiflis (in two categories at once, "Miss Caucasus" and "Miss South of Russia"), Sona signed up for it as well.

It is true that she took her mother's surname to participate, presenting herself as Tugra khanim Talyshinskaya.

At that time Tiflis was considered a concentration of Caucasian beauties. Brides from all over the empire came to it. Many Russian officials and military officers who served in the city left with local wives.

Winning a contest in Tiflis practically guaranteed a high place in any beauty contest.

Suffice it to say that in 1912, Mary Shervashidze, the future leading model of Coco Chanel, participated in the contest.

But Sona Mehmandarova (Tugra Talyshinskaya) won.

Next was St. Petersburg and dizzying success at the "Miss Russia" contest.

She was not going to participate. She did not consider herself a beauty capable of competing at the level of the empire. But under the terms of the Tiflis contest, Sona was automatically included in the list of contestants from St. Petersburg.

Her path was now bound for St. Petersburg. She was to take part in the Miss Russia contest there. And once again, she turned out to be the most beautiful. A jeweled crown placed on her head only accentuated her mysterious beauty. Now she could see that those around her were fascinated by her. Her own beauty, which she was beginning to realize, brought her self-confidence. It was with these feelings that Sona went to the 1912 finals of the "Beauty of the World" beauty pageant in Paris.

Victory in Paris was a real triumph for the girl from the deep provinces. The world's leading newspaper's front-page photos of Sona khanim Mehmandarova wearing the emerald crown of the winner.

Her victory caused an even greater furor in the empire. She was welcomed as a heroine.

The pride of the great empire had to live only in the capital city of St. Petersburg. Her worldwide fame also contributed to her prosperity. Now she was influential not only in high society, but even at court. She bought a luxurious mansion in the center of St. Petersburg, and took a place in society worthy of her name, included in secular life.

Representatives of the most famous families hovered around Sona, but she was cold and unapproachable until she fell in love with a certain Uruzov, a Dagestani who lived in St. Petersburg.

It is not known why her relatives did not like him, but when Mehmandarova married him, contact with her family stopped.

Tough times

Family life did not work out for Sona. Her husband went to an unknown destination, and then the October Revolution broke out.

Mehmandarova lost her mansion and all her valuables. Probably she would have been repressed like many representatives of the khan families, but her friendship with Lunacharsky helped.

She had to burn all her documents and photographs and moved to a small room on the outskirts of Moscow.

The fate of the beauty from Lankaran is covered by darkness. It is known only that she returned to Baku in 1966.

The young and brilliant Sona, who left the city in 1912, returned half a century later as an old and ill person. The heiress of Azerbaijani khans, who had once conquered the world with her beauty, turned out to be useless in her native land as well.

Sona khanim Mehmandarova died in 1968. Even her burial place remains unknown.

Caliber.Az