In 1977, the Council of Ministers of the Azerbaijan SSR adopted a decision "to declare the historical part of Shusha a historical-architectural reserve" at the initiative of the national leader of the Azerbaijani people, Heydar Aliyev. A lot of work has been done to revive the socio-economic and cultural life of the city. As a result, hundreds of architectural and artistic monuments were officially registered in Shusha. Heydar Aliyev shared his personal advise and gave instructions on the restoration of historical monuments, participated in the opening of restored architectural monuments. In the meeting with the managers and residents of Shusha district, the national leader said: "Shusha is a city of monuments. It is necessary to protect everything related to the rich history of the region, to restore ancient buildings." In addition to the restoration works, new secondary, specialized, secondary-specialized and higher educational institutions were launched in Shusha. The holiday events organized in Shusha, in the cradle of music of Azerbaijan, were known for the uniqueness. A music festival (song festival) was organized in Shusha on an annual basis. Musicians, singers, poets, actors, artists, jugglers and wrestlers who work in Shusha, as well as from other cities of Azerbaijan, including Baku, joined different competitions and festivals usually hosted at the famous spot in city - Jidir plain. The latter is also known as the most picturesque site of the city. The socio-economic development, socio-political and cultural life of the city was constantly covered in "Shusha" newspaper, published since 1932, and "Shusha" television, launched in 1989.

Shusha was also a home to a beautiful mountain-climatic and balneological resort. The city has a range of sanatoriums, boarding houses and tourist recreation zones. Around the city, numerous mineral water springs of carbonic acid - hydrocarbon- sodium "narzan" type were discovered. This healing water was successfully used in the sanatoriums of Shusha both for drinking and for bathing. These waters are very effective in the treatment of respiratory diseases, digestion, disorders of the nervous system, and anemia. A beautiful mineral water gallery has been built in the city. Water is piped here from a source located 30 km outside the city. There was also a mineral water filling plant. Shusha is also famous as an ancient art center. The city had a history museum, a house museum of the genius composer Uzeyir Hajibeyli, a carpet museum and many other museums. Numerous parks and flower gardens bring additional beauty to the natural beauty of the city. The city is surrounded on all sides by oak, beech, walrus forests, green slopes and orchards. Beautiful nature, historical monuments, favorable climate provide conditions for the development of tourism here. The famous Shusha resort was also known as a modern tourist center.

As of February 1988, the separate rhetoric of Azerbaijani citizens of Armenian origin living in Karabakh, their groundless demands for the separation of Karabakh from Azerbaijan and its integration with Armenia resulted in armed conflicts. Illegal armed groups, with an extensive support from abroad and many European capitals, committed countless inhumane crimes in Karabakh. As a result, the city of Shusha, which fought fiercely against attacks for nearly 4 years, was invaded on May 8, 1992. Since that day the Armenian terrorists who invaded the city of Shusha launched massive destruction of Shusha and its cultural heritage. Armenian savages trying to armenize Shusha leveled to zero all the monuments confirming city’s attachment to Azerbaijan, destroyed the historical plaques and stone inscriptions on the monuments. In order to falsify the information about the monuments, the Armenian invaders brutally destroyed the information on the stone inscriptions and Armenized the monuments by writing made-up data on them, changed the street and quarters’ names, attaching fake Armenian titles. As a result of the occupation of the city of Shusha by the Armenian armed forces, 289 square kilometers of territory of Azerbaijan came under the control of Armenian militants, 279 religious, historical and cultural monuments, 70 tourist centers, 31 libraries, 17 clubs, 8 cultural houses, 8 museums, 3 boarding schools, 22 secondary schools , 2 medical sanatoriums, 2 cinemas, a factory producing Eastern musical instruments, the only one in the territory of the former USSR, 7 preschools, cultural-educational, agricultural technical schools and many other objects were completely destroyed. The day of occupation put an end to the lives of 193 Azerbaijanis and 102 Azerbaijanis were disabled. 68 Azerbaijanis went missing, more than 22 thousand Azerbaijanis were displaced from the city and villages of Shusha. Overall, since the beginning of the Karabakh conflict, 480 Azerbaijanis were killed and 1,860 Azerbaijanis were injured in Shusha by Armenians. Unfortunately, the double-standard approach of the major powers to the conflict resolution caused the issue to remain unresolved for nearly 30 years, which in turn served to implement the insidious policy of the hated enemy. 

On September 27, 2020, a patriotic war started in response to yet another provocation of Armenian terrorists, whose ambitions were even greater than a mere occupation of Azerbaijani lands. Starting from the beginning of 1988, resorting to all inhuman and barbarian actions, the Armenian forces lost within only 44 days, while it took them 6 years to occupy our lands, and they held control over them for nearly 30 years. Only after the city was liberated, we witnessed the scale of destruction, which was greater than expected. The whole city, our architectural pearls were in ruins.

After the liberation of Shusha, large-scale construction, restoration, construction, landscaping and clearing of landmines and unexploded ordnance were carried out in just a few months. Due to its scale, massive infrastructural projects were launched simultaneously. In addition, the city hosted numerous local and international level events against the background of these works. In a short period of time, the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Commander-in-Chief, Mr. Ilham Aliyev visited Shusha on many occasions and personally inspected the progress of reconstruction and rehabilitation activities. This once again illustrates the way how true habitants treat their homeland, our native Karabakh, Shusha, which was turned into a wasteland by the enemy. Soon, Shusha will develop again into a paradise, and will again be one of the charming and mesmerizing sites of Azerbaijan.