Empires and Revolutions: Iranian-Russian Encounters since 1800

A number of abstracts have not yet been received. These will be added to the page as and when they become available.

 

Firuza Abdullaeva (University of Oxford)

Khusraw Mirza's mission of 1829 to St Petersburg
(on the material of the diary of its secretary Mirza Afshar)

The paper will focus on the trip of the special mission led by the 16 year-old Khusraw Mirza, the seventh son of Abbas Mirza, from Tabriz to St Petersburg in 1829. The mission was sent by the Persian ruler, Fath Ali Shah, to prevent another seemingly inevitable military conflict between Russia and Persia after the murder of the Russian plenipotentiary envoy Alexander Griboedov in Tehran on 11 February 1829.

The details of the mission's trip were described by its secretary Mirza Mustafa b. Nasrallah Afshar in his diary, which is now known in three surviving manuscripts: in the University of St Petersburg, the British Library and the Iranian Foreign Ministry archives. The diary has never been translated into any European language, and it seems that the details of its contents have not been known to Western scholarship (the diary is not mentioned in the exhaustive study of L. Kelly regarding the mission).

However, its importance for the history of this period is difficult to overestimate as the diary is of special interest not only for historians of Russia, but also for Persianists, as it provides rare evidence of foreign impressions about Russia in the early 19th century, written by Iranians, who crossed the whole Russian Empire from its southern borders to its northern capital.

The choice of topics and the manner of presenting the described scenes reveal the perceptions and mentality of the high-ranking nobility and intellectuals, who travelled as members of the mission. Most of them, like Muhammad Taqi Khan (the future Amir Kabir), later became significant figures in the political life of Persia. Some of them became famous as litterateurs, or literary personages, like Mirza Haji Baba, known in the West from James Morier's novel.

 

Elena Andreevna

Russian deserters in Iran in the 19th century

The issue of Russian deserters and the Russian Battalion created a lot of controversy in diplomatic and military circles involving the emperor and high-ranking diplomats.  Russians started to escape to Iran through the Caucasus at the very beginning of the 19th century, when Russia established its military presence there.  Two Russo-Iranian wars further increased the number of deserters. 

This paper will mainly address the presence of Russian deserters in the Iranian provinces of Azerbaijan and Khorasan in the first half of the 19th century.  Drawing on Russian archival materials, it examines the reasons for their desertion, their methods of escape, the manner in which they were treated by the local Persian authorities, and the reaction of the Russian authorities.  Using accounts of specific deserters, it demonstrates that Russian diplomatic and military authorities took this issue seriously and put immense pressure on the local Persian administration, including direct threats, demanding deserters' arrest and extradition.   The Convention about Deserters signed by Russia and Iran in 1844 created a legal basis for Russia's demands. The issue of deserters in the first half of the 19th century will be discussed in relation to the Russian Battalion led by Samson Khan and the successful mission of Captain Lev Al'brant in 1838 to repatriate deserters to Russia.  This issue will also be presented in the broader context of Russians' presence in Iran in the 19th century as a part of the "Great Game" and Russia's aspiration to dominate Iran. 

 

Touraj Atabaki

Labour Activism in Interwar Iran and the Soviet-Comintern Response

The end of the First World War in Iran was marked by the emergence of a new political order, which aimed at diminishing provincial and tribal autonomy throughout the country and achieving one single economic market. Reza Shah's policy of centralizing government power and imple­menting reform in Iran (1925-1941) accelerated the process of urbanization and in­dustrialization and consequently enhanced the degree of interdependencies between the provinces. The foundation of new industries increased the number of the urban working class which had, by the mid 1930s, launched its activities for better working conditions. Organised and non-organised labour engaged in mass activities such as strikes, sit-ins and demonstrations. Obviously, the neighbouring Soviet Union and the Comintern could not remain indifferent towards such labour activism in Iran.

The present study intends to explore the formation and the consolidation of the working class in interwar Iran. Furthermore, by utilising the Comintern and NKVD archives it aims at examining the Soviet and the Comintern perceptions of Iranian labour activism in this period and the stands they adopted towards it.

 

Muriel Atkin

Russia, Iran, and Tajikistan's Civil War

After the break-up of the Soviet Union, Russia and Iran had reasons both to compete and co-operate in the predominantly Muslim successor states.  Both countries had political, diplomatic, and economic interests in those newly independent states as well as the expectation of deference on the part of those states.  One striking example of that was the Central Asian state of Tajikistan, where a majority of the population spoke dialects of Persian and the country was wracked by civil war between 1992 and 1997.  The conflict was often characterized, albeit inaccurately, as a contest between secularists and Islamists.  On balance, Moscow and Tehran found they had more to gain by working together to resolve the war, in a way that favoured a secular, quasi-Soviet regime, than they did by emphasizing those aspects of their interests which were mutually incompatible in Tajikistan.

 

Kaveh Bayat

The Nejat Comite of Rezaieh and the Jam'iate Azarbaijan of Tabriz, Winter of 1941,

A Prelude to the Crisis of Azerbaijan

The refusal of the Soviet Union to withdraw its forces from the north-western parts of Iran at the end of the second World War, which culminated in the emergence of two separatist movements among the Kurds and the Turkish-speaking population of  this area, better known as the "Crisis of Azerbaijan", as one of the first confrontations of the Cold War, is a relatively well-researched and  well-documented  chapter of contemporary Iranian history. What is less well-known and as yet not researched properly is the abrupt attempt by Soviet political agents to launch a similar project in Azerbaijan in the immediate aftermath of the military occupation of Iran in the winter of 1941. A number of leading figures involved in the autonomous government of Ajerbaijan and the Kurdish Republic of Mahabad in 1945-46 and  also some of the main ethnic demands expressed during that period had their initial airing in this period. The unexpected emergence of  the Jami'at Azerbaijan (the Azerbaijan Society) in Tabriz and the Nejat Comite (the Liberation Committee) in Rezaieh (Oroumieh)  after the establishment of a special political mission sent over from the Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan to facilitate the "reunion" of Iranian Azerbaijan with its northern counterpart, and the mostly civil and political activities of the former and the mainly violent behaviour of the latter that had much to do with its Kurdish - Assyrian tribal nature, and finally the reasons for the sudden fading  of these activities, are the main subjects of this paper.

Besides the precarious situation of the Eastern Front in the first winter of the German onslaught, in contrast to the victorious stance of the Soviet Union at the end of the war, and hence the opposition of the local commanders of the Red Army and the Soviet Embassy in Tehran to this untimely venture of the Baku people, this sudden reversal of Soviet policy in Iran had a number of other causes: including the highly chaotic situation of Rezaieh after the marauding activities of certain Kurdish tribes and also the serious concern it created in Turkey about the probable effect of this development on the Kurds of Turkey.

 

Maziar Behrooz

From Confidence to Fear: Early Qajar Iran Interaction with Russia

This paper examines Iranian perceptions of the Russian Empire in the wake of Iran's unification under the Qajar shahs.  Iran's unification at the end of the eighteenth century coincided with an aggressive Russian ambition involving the Caucasus.  This was a period when Iran was just about to come out of a near century of civil war and disunity and, furthermore, a period when the Qajar dynasty was just about to transfer itself from a tribal to a dynastic/royal identity.  The period under study roughly begins in 1794 and ends in 1834 and covers Russia under Tsarina Catherine I, and Tsars Paul and Alexander I, and Iran during the reign of Agha Muhammad Shah I and Fath Ali Shah. Qajar Iran's encounter with Russia was the new dynasty's first interaction with an aggressive European power endangering the guarded domain.  The encounter came in three phases resulting in three interconnected and yet distinguishable perceptions on the part of the Qajar ruling class.   

First (1795-97), was a period of confidence, when a confident and pragmatic Agha Muhammad Shah I was prepared to face off the Russian army although aware of the shortcomings of his own military.  The shah's conquest of and massacre in Tiflis in 1795, despite Russian warnings of Georgia being a protectorate state, and his rush to face the Russian army in 1796, points to this sense of confidence.  Yet, the shah's apparent awareness of the shortcomings of his military (lack of fighting ships, heavy artillery, and modern infantry) points to his plan to fight a defensive war of attrition).     

Second (1797-1813), was a period which began with continued confidence and changed to a sense of ambivalence and anxiety under Fath Ali Shah and Crown Prince Abbas Mirza.  This was a time when, under the command of the crown prince and the army of Azarbaijan, backed by the shah's forces, some victories were scored against the Russians culminating in the death of Gen. Sisianov (the Ishpokhter).  Yet, the military encounter was defensive in nature and the Qajar army was never really able to turn it into an offensive war.  This is also a period when the Qajars fully realize the shortcomings of their armed forces and, under the leadership of the crown prince, initiated a nezam-e jadid military modernization.  This period ends with defeat and the Golestan Treaty of 1813.   

Third (1813-28), was a period of fear and impotence toward a power that at least part of the Qajar ruling class had come to realize it could not stop.  During this period, while modernization of the military continued, the notion that the lost territory was permanently gone and that at best one should hope for maintaining the status quo began to sink in. The contemplation of compensating for lost territory in the Caucasus by attacking Afghanistan and beyond, the reluctance of the crown prince to start another war with Russia, and the dichotomy between the cautious court of Tabriz and hawkish court of Tehran were main features of this period.     

The paper relies on official and semi-official Qajar historiography, contemporary western accounts, as well some secondary sources.      

 

Joanna de Groot

Socialist Iranians? Iranian socialisms: Iranian-Russian ideological encounters and the constitutional revolution in Iran

This paper would revisit accounts of the interactions between the activism and ideas of Iranians involved in political conflicts and changes in Iran during the first dozen years of the twentieth century and contemporary Russian 'social democratic' thinking and practices. It would reflect on how this might shed light on debates over the role of 'foreign' influences on the 'constitutional' revolution, and on the nature of left wing internationalism in that period. It will thereby contribute to a discussion of the intersections of nationalism with other programmes and ideologies in the context of political upheaval in Iran. It will explore two lines of enquiry; firstly it will consider whether notions of hybridity and plurality might offer better insights into the thoughts and activities of Iranian radicals than a binary framework of 'indigenous' versus 'imported' elements in political life and thought ; secondly it will examine how analyses of the role of 'social-democracy' have been influenced by both the outlook of the analysts concerned, and by perceived links between these early manifestations of left wing politics and developments after 1917. The paper will thus contribute to discussions of the constitutional era in Iran and to an analysis of the historiography of the period.

 

Hirotake Maeda

An Armenian Family Crossing the Two Empires: The Enikolopian family between Iran and Russia in the 19th Century

The vast territory north of the Aras River was ceded to Russia through the two wars in the first half of 19th century. However the Southern Caucasus, which was lost as a territory, newly appeared as the bridge of two civilizations. The unique society which unites Iran and Russia was born exactly at this period. Thus the history of the Caucasus in the 19th century could be studied not only as a part of the Russian empire's history but also a part of Iranian history. Its inhabitants took a quite active role in Iranian economics and politics and many Iranians visited the Caucasus with different intentions. In the presentation a history of one Armenian family in Tbilisi will be paid special attention. This family produced many interesting political figures in Iran as well as in Russia. However their history is less studied because of their trans-national character and less known to the current academic world. For revealing their activity, Russian, Persian, Georgian sources are used but the most important source is Galust Arutyunyan Shermazan-Vardanyants or Shermazan-Vardanov's work on Armenians in Iran. I will discuss their activity in detail using this unique and very important source with reference to the relevant Georgian translation. The lives of Armenians in Tbilisi and especially that of the Enikolopians (Enikolopeantz) reveal the contradictary features of 19th century Caucasian society as the Russian imperial frontier opened to Iran. This study intends to explore a new aspect of the history of the Caucasus, and at the same time, a minority's role in the transitional period of the two empires as well.

 

Shireen Mahdavi

Haj Muhammad Hassan Amin al-Zarb: his connections with and travels to Russia

Haj Muhammad Hassan Amin al-Zarb (1834-1898) was a self-made man who came to Tehran from Isfahan in the middle of the nineteenth century with a meagre sum of money and within a decade had begun the most extensive commercial enterprise in Iran and was the richest and most influential merchant in the country. He became the leader of the merchant community, Master of the Mint and had agents all over the world. Concurrently he invested capital in industry and constructed the first railway line in Iran to the Caspian Sea. Russia was one of the countries with which Amin al-Zarb traded and where he had a permanent agent. He imported hardware, candles, paper, naphtha, iron and copper from Russia and exported dried fruits, hides and leather, silk, woollen wares, British textile fabrics dyed in Iran, wax, cotton and carpets to Russia. His first journey to Russia was on his way to the Hajj when he went from the port of Enzeli to Baku and the second journey was in the company of Sayyid Jamal al-Din Afghani when he was planning to import a railway to Persia. There were further business trips to Russia. Through his letters to Iran's leaders he described his impressions of Russia and made profound comments on political, social and cultural life there aimed at drawing the attention of those in authority to Russian progress and by contrast Iran's underdevelopment. The paper will discuss these letters and other material concerning Amin al-Zarb's relationship with Russia and will be based upon unpublished material in the Mahdavi Archives in Tehran.

 

Vanessa Martin

Russian Land Purchases in northern Iran during the Nineteenth  and early Twentieth Centuries

Despite the significance of the subject of foreign land ownership and tenancies in Iran in the Qajar period, no detailed study of it exits.  Eastwick observed that Gilan was the residence of a large number of Russian protégées.  Issawi notes that there was a considerable amount of land purchase in Astarabad, Gilan and Azerbaijan by Russian subjects, who became settled there during the nineteenth century. However, as will be shown, the picture was more complex than it appeared, it varied from region to region, and in particular there was a contrast between the north and the British-dominated south. The nature of the claims of foreigners on land also evolved over time, much depending on the impact of the central government and of foreign trade. Within this framework this paper will examine broadly the ways in which, and by what rights, land and its usage were acquired in particular by the Russians between the signing of the Treaty of Turkmanchai  in 1828 and the breakdown of Iranian government central control in 1911.  The main sources will be the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Archives in Iran and the British National Archives.

 

Afshin Matin-asghari

Russia/Soviet Union as the Alternate Model of Iranian Modernity

This paper will be an historical overview of Russia/Soviet Union serving as an alternate model to "the West" in the construction of Iranian modernity. Relying on new primary sources, especially 20th century memoirs and travelogues, it will suggest revisions to existing historiography's relegation of Russia/Soviet Union to a typically secondary and less creative role in comparison to the West.

In the 19th century, tsarist autocratic modernization was the Qajar elite's preferred model, while the people of northern Iran may have preferred Russia's growing economic and political presence to ineffectual Qajar rule.  Later, British, rather than Russian, intrusions became the main target of proto-nationalist protests, while Russian intervention (both tsarist and revolutionary) was more crucial to the outcome of the constitutional revolution than was British involvement. Russo-Caucasian social democracy also established Iran's basic reformist and revolutionary agenda throughout the 20th century.

Iranians welcomed the Bolshevik Revolution, which might have triumphed in Tehran if not for British military intervention. Later, the 1921 Anglo-Soviet accord created the buffer zone where an independent Iranian nation-state could be established. And the anti-communist nationalism of the Reza Shah era could not prevent the pro-Soviet drift of the Iranian intelligentsia in mid-20th century.

During the 1960s-70s, the Shah-People Revolution borrowed significantly from socialist models, while ex-communists helped its implementation as the regime's high functionaries. The Soviet model clearly affected the Islamic Republic's formative anti-Americanism, one-party politics, and state-run economy, while continued confrontation with the U.S. drove Iran into an even closer alignment with post-Soviet Russia.

 

Emily Jane O'Dell

A Russian-Iranian Cinematic Encounter: The Birth of Iranian Film

The first feature length movie in Iran, Abi and Rabi, was made in 1930 when Ovans Ohanian emigrated back to Iran from Russia, where he had spent most of his life and had studied film at the Cinema Academy of Moscow.  In order to create a film industry in Iran, Ohanian created a foundation, Parvareshghabe Artistiye Cinema, to train and groom future film actors and actresses.  Ohanian and Sa'id Nafici became instructors of sixteen students, two of whom became leading actors in Abi and Rabi, the first Persian silent, black and white feature, which happened to be based on a Danish comedy series.  Ohanian and his crew's second comedic film, Haji Agha, followed two years later, contributing to Ohanian's lasting influence on Iranian cinema-an influence which was both revolutionary and limiting, as imitation of foreign comedy films and escapist melodramas became an ongoing trend that conflicted greatly with the social and economic realities of the time.  Today, Iranian film-makers are widely regarded to be at the forefront of cinematic mastery.  This paper considers the influence of Russian film on early Iranian cinema, the implications of the lack of any surviving copy of Abi and Rabi truly to illustrate such an influence, and the significant contributions of the Cinema Artist Educational Centre in Tehran on the Iranian film industry.

 

Irina Pavlova

The Lianozov Caspian Fisheries Concession in Iran

The subscription of the fisheries contract of Mr. Lionozov with the Persian Shah in 1878  is a vivid example of the Russian - British rivalry in Persia in this period.

In the Historical Archive of the Russian Empire we found one original document which tells us about the reasons, circumstances and conditions of the subscription of this treaty. We see that, for several years, many Russian merchants and businessmen attempted to conclude this treaty. But this enterprise was put into effect only after the interference of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Russian Legation in Tehran. In practice the Russian diplomats chose the candidate among the  Russian merchants. They decided to appoint Mr. Lionozov as manager of this enterprise. This person was a representative of an Armenian family and lived in the town of Astrachan. He knew the Persian language and was a capable organizer.

During many years up to 1917 year he and his descendants maintained Russian interests in the Northern Persia. By this action the Russian administration was able stop British influence in this region and  force the Persian government to refuse Britain's request to sail on the river Karun freely. The contract of Mr. Lionozov confirmed the right of Russia to use the water of the Caspian Sea absolutely. So Mr. Lianozov became an executor of the Tsar's policy in Persia.

In addition we must say that from this moment the problem of the territorial borders on the Caspian Sea began to exist.

 

Solmaz Rustamova-Tohidi

A Community in Turmoil: The Iranians of the Caucasus and the Russian Revolution of 1917

The community of Persian subjects-Iranians- in the Caucasus, more than 150,000 strong, became drawn into the social and economic processes taking place in Russian Empire between the February Revolution of 1917 and sovietization in 1920, affecting three independent states: Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia, founded in may 1918. The Iranian community consisted of different social groups- strata of the traders, average and petty bourgeoisie, intelligentsia and tens of thousands of Iranian workers. Up to this time,  the Iranians of the Caucasus had their own political parties, social organizations, charitable societies, schools, etc. The best organized was the community in Baku. However, under the influence of different political tendencies, the Iranian community was experiencing political and class stratification. A section of the Iranian workers, drawn by the Caucasian Bolshevists into the working class movement actively participated in the revolutionary struggle, openly quarreling with Iranian Consulates and blaming them for betrayal of their interests and violation of the rights of the Persian poor, working in the hardest social conditions. The Iranian consulates constituted the representatives of the petty and average bourgeoisie intelligentsia, merchants attempting to take control over life, and matters of Iranian citizens. So, during the active political events in the Caucasus, the Persian subjects turned out to be on different sides of the barricades. The Iranians managed to maintain their economic and civil rights in the period of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (May 1918-April 1920). The same cannot be said about the Soviet period. Most of the Iranians very often married local Moslem women and preferred not to return to their motherland. Despite the definite difficulties, socio-cultural conditions in the Caucasus were more attractive for them than in the backward Iran. This factor mostly determined the further fortunes of the Caucasian Iranians.

 

Fatema Soudavar Farmanfarmaian

How the Russians hosted the entrepreneur who gave them indigestion.
New revelations about Malek al-Tojjar and the Russian connection

Haj Kazem Malek-al-tojjar, referred to as the Tsar of Merchants by Kosogovskii and as King of Merchants by Gertrude Bell, was born in 1848-49, son of a Georgian mother and of Agha Mehdi Tabrizi, the first Malek-al-tojjar of Mamalek-e Mahrusa in the Qajar era and an erstwhile companion and treasurer to Crown Prince Abbas Mirza during the Russian Wars. From the death of Agha Mehdi in 1870, when Kazem inherited his title and responsibilities, to a few years before his own demise in 1918, three key events marked his career, all three directly or indirectly involving Russia, either in collusion or in a game of complex rivalry over the control of Iran's resources and trade. These events, which, to date, have been brought together only once, in R.A. Seidov's "The Iranian Bourgeoisie at the End of the Nineteenth and the Beginning of the Twentieth Centuries" (Moscow, 1974), will be summarily reviewed and revised on the basis of hitherto unknown sources that shed new light and complete Seidov's perforce inadequate account. They include:

1. The Tobacco Protest, which is now generally believed to have been instigated by Malek-al-tojjar with the backing of a large segment of the mercantile and clerical community in Iran.
2. Opposition to the British-owned Imperial Bank of Iran and a run on that bank in 1897, for the coordination of which Malek was jailed in Ardabil for six months.
3. The founding of the first international shareholding company in Iran, the Sherkat-e Omumi, in 1899, followed by its subsidiary, Sherkat-e Tariq-e Mozaffari which obtained the concession for building the Ardabil-Astara road which, in Malek's own words, gave the Russians 'a stomach ache' for having been carried out by an Iranian company. As a result of various intrigues these projects, which had been intended as attempts to reduce foreign involvement in Iran�s economy, did not live up to expectations and eventually led to the bankruptcy of the Sherkat-e Omumi, to the sublease of the road to a shady Russian citizen and the inevitable scandal-mongering by the constitutional press and Malek's spectacular escape to a much-publicized refuge in the summer compound of the Russian Legation.

Some of the above has received short shrift in inadequate accounts, while an impartial assessment of the last has been skewed by the sensationalist writing of the Constitutional era. Now, thanks to hundreds of unpublished Russian and Iranian archives, as well as hitherto unknown documents from family collections, a clearer picture has emerged with respect to Russia's involvement and to Malek's alleged culpability in an affair which his accusers failed to pursue to its logical end and the satisfactory resolution of the investors' claims.

In brief, the focus will be on a little studied giant figure of late nineteenth century Iran and his relations with Russia through the three key events of his active career. A fuller account of Malek-al-tojjar and his ancestry is being prepared for publication in Persian, together with facsimiles of the most important unpublished documents.

 

Dr Saeed R. Talajooy

The Impact of the Russian Contact on Iranian Theatre: The Case of Nushin

In Iran the early nineteenth century was dominated by three disastrous wars with Russia (1812 and 1828) and British Empire (1848). As a result, during the second half of the nineteenth century several patterns of resistance against colonialism emerged. These were centred on the Persian language and literature and a 'national' modern self, created on the basis of the rediscovered glories of the ancient Persian empires.

Though it took long for theatre to find its way into Iran's discourse on modernity, theatre was among the first artistic forms that acquired and developed this new discourse. Fatali Akhundzadeh's plays and translations, for instance, were among the first literary works that replaced the image of the Koranic mythical or allegorical man with individuals who were involved in everyday conflicts with direct cultural, historical and socio-political relevance. However, this pioneer of Iranian theatre spent most of his life in the Russian ruled Tbilisi of the late nineteenth century and learned his craft by exposing himself to the masterpieces of Russian drama.

A major source of influence on the development of European style theatre in Iran was, of course, rooted in Darolfonoon and the translation of French plays into Persian. Yet the socialist side of European modernity continued to influence the theatrical reconstruction of Iranian identity through Iran's borders with its northern neighbour. The purpose of the paper is to put the history of this encounter in perspective and examine the role this contact played in the success and failure of Abdolhussein-e Nushin, the most important figure of Iranian theatre in the 1940s and early 1950s.

 

John Tchalenko

Kurdish Portraits by Alexander Iyas

My great-uncle, Alexander Iyas, provided us with many memorable photographic portraits of Kurds met during his period as Consul in Soujbulak (1912-1914). Amongst these were Sardar Mukri, Governor of the Soujbulak province, and Bayz Pasha, Head of the Mangur tribe. Iyas' reports to the Foreign Ministry in St. Petersburg complemented these images with vivid descriptions of his encounters and dealings with the two leaders. The present note presents additional information that has recently come to light, allowing identification of Sardar Mukri in one of Iyas' photographs and details of Bayz Pasha's genealogy.

In December 1914 the Turkish army invaded Persia and advanced towards Soujbulak, recruiting along the way thousands of Kurdish tribesmen - including the Mangurs. Sardar Mukri was executed by firing squad, Iyas beheaded and the Turko-Kurdish forces marched on to conquer, temporarily, the provincial capital, Tabriz. Iyas' cruel death was confirmed by Augusta Gudhart from the Lutheran Orient Missionary Society based in Soujbulak, and also recently identified in two Iyas photographs.

 

Clément Therme

Iran and Russia : Towards an Energy Alliance ?

Iran and Russia are in the process of increasing their energy co-operation (in the nuclear energy sector and the oil and gas fields). The Iranian choice of shifting foreign policy towards the East and U.S. unilateral sanctions push Iranian foreign policy towards more co-operation with Russia. This choice of the Islamic Republic was first initiated under the Presidency of Rafsanjani and accentuated by the Supreme Leader and President Ahmadinejad after 2005. This orientation was due to the Iranian need to bypass Western restrictions regarding technology transfers towards Iranian Oil and Gas sectors. Nevertheless, there is a debate inside the Islamic Republic's political establishment about whether or not this foreign policy choice is beneficial for Iran. The Reformist and Pragmatic conservative factions are using the Iran-Russia dispute about how to divide the Caspian Sea to justify their opposition vis-à-vis an alliance with Russia. This intervention will try to show the ideological nature of this relationship based on mutual short terms interests, reciprocal hostility between Iran and the U.S. and the American-Russian tensions in the post-Cold War period. Thus we will analyze the tactical dimension of this entente. This dimension reveals an absence of any long-term strategy to defend Iranian national economic interest in Iranian foreign policy. We will first study the nature of energy co-operation between Russia and Iran focusing on their economic rationality and then we will describe the internal political debate about the relevance of this relationship for the national interest of Iran.

 

Sohrab Yazdani

The Question of the Iranian Ijtimaiyun-e Amiyun Party

The history of Firqi-ye Ijtimaiyun-e Amiyun-e Iraniyan ( the Iranian Social Democrat Party ) has conventionally been treated in line with the development of Caucasian Social Democracy. The standard historiography on this subject maintains that the Russian Social Democrats , more precisely the Bolsheviks, set up the Himmat Organization in Baku for the purpose of recruiting Muslim oil labourers to their ranks. Thereafter, Himmat leaders founded the Ijtimaiyun Party in order to organize and politicize migrant Iranians who constituted the bulk of unskilled workers in the Baku oil fields. Thus, it is assumed that the Ijtimaiyun Party was indirectly connected to the Russian Social Democratic Workers Party and remained subject to its organizational / ideological imperatives.

This paper disputes the validity of the foregoing viewpoint. It argues that historical evidence disproves the assertion that the RSDWP officially encouraged the formation of an independent section for the Caucasian Muslims. Although organizational and personal ties did exist between Himmatites and Ijtimaiyuns, the latter developed their own type of organization and drew up a programme in accord with the exigencies of Iranian socio- economic conditions. During the life of the First Majlis, Ijtimaiyuns established branches in various Iranian towns. The organizational expansion, however, had its drawbacks. A breach appeared between the Party's internal factions and its centre which remained in Baku. Moreover, rivalries, even plain hostilities, contaminated the Iranian branches. This factor inhibited them from being united in a cohesive party.

It is hoped that by re-examining the relationship between Russo-Caucasian Social Democrats and Iranian Ijtimaiyuns a clearer picture will emerge of the nascent Iranian socialism of the early 20th Century.