Ganja is
Azerbaijan's second-largest city with a population of just over 320,000. It was named
Elisabethpol in the
Russian Empire period. The city regained its original name Ganja in 1920 during the first part of its incorporation into the
Soviet Union. However, its name was changed again in 1935 to
Kirovabad and retained it throughout the later Soviet period from 1935. Finally in 1989, during
Perestroika, the city regained the original name.