Iran: historical background

December 11, 1998

Britain and Russian Interventions

For Iran, as for many other Middle East countries, the 19th century marked the beginnings of economic and social transformation associated with the expansionism of the capitalist West.

Independent communities in Iran at that time could prevent submission to a strong central government. Around half the population lived as nomades. The weak and disintegrated central government struggled for survival and domination of civil society and became increasingly dependent on foreign powers for expansion of control.

Traders come before Soldiers

Trade treaties with Russia in 1827 and Britain in 1841 resulted in increased foreign penetration of the Iranian economy. Some social groups benefited from this change, mainly the large merchants and large landowners involved in cash crop production for export, moneylenders in an increasingly monetized society, bureaucrats and members of the corrupt central government and royal family.

Smaller merchants and artisans traditionally organized in self-regulating guilds of the bazaars were especially hurt. In their fighting against the Qajar dynasty they were supported by the ulama (Islamic clerical leaders), with which they were closely connected. A rising intelligentsia was also prominent in the confrontation, which culminated in the Constitutional Revolution of 1905.

Russian expansion

The conquest of Transcaucasia by Russian forces began in the late eighteenth century. Its western part, the Black Sea coast, and its hinterland were at that time in the sphere of influence of the Ottoman Empire. Armenia, Azerbaijan and Eastern Georgia (Gruzia) in the east were under Persian control. The rivalry between Persians and Ottomans was much to Russia's advantage and facilitated its conquests. Generally, the Russians had to fight only one of these powers at a time; only from 1806-12 did they fight Persia and Turkey simultaneously. Tbilisi, the capital of Gruzia, was captured by the Russians in 1801, Baku in 1806, Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, in 1828. The Russian frontier advanced to the river Araxes, where it has remained. The occupation of the Caucasus was accomplished only in 1864.

... The remoteness and the unfamiliar climate made Central Asia a place more for exploitation than for colonization. The Russians ... made the weaker states of Kokand and Khorezm a part of their empire. The more productive areas, such as the Fergana Valley and Samarkand, were put directly under Russian control with the intention of growing cotton. Bukhara and Khiva were left as native states, nominally independent ...

The advances in Central Asia brought the Russians close to the sphere of British interests. The Russian occupation in 1844 of Merv, from which a road was open to Herat and further south to India ... A period of Anglo-Russian tension followed, and negotiations concerning Afghanistan: the British attempted to define the northern frontier of Afghanistan as the southern limit of the Russian sphere of influence. Afghanistan was declared to be a neutral buffer state, separating the Russian and British areas.

In Persia, the Russian presence and influence steadily increased. The Treaty of Turkmenchai in 1828 ceded the provinces of Erevan and Nakhichevan to Russia, imposed a heavy indemnity on Persia, and forced it to grant commercial privileges and extraterritorial rights to Russian subjects. This was the beginning of the Russian economic and political penetration of Persia, and it was particularly predominant in Russian-controlled territory in the north.

One of Russia's instruments in Persia were the Cossack units. Trained by Russian officers, they dealt directly with the Ministry of War in St Petersburg, and during the 1880s became the most efficient military force in Persia. Russian Cossacks were selected by the Shah in 1878 as a model for the Persian cavalry. A Persian Cossack brigade was organized in 1879, soon growing to three regiments. They became 'a powerful instrument for furthering Russian influence in Persia'.

To consolidate their gains in Central Asia, the Russians built a number of railways. The first was officially opened in 1888, commencing at the Caspian Sea eastward, from Krasnovodsk, via Ashkhabad to Merv, Samarkand and Tashkent, continuing to Kokand and Andizhan. ...

Railroads fundamentally changed military strategy. The ability to move troups and supply rapidly and in sufficient numbers to remote areas of conflict was always crucial. Russia could now move troups by train close to the Persian border and advances were also made in the Caspian Sea with steamers put into operation. This enabled them to seize control in most parts of northern Persia.

British naval supremacy

The Russians had no access to the Persian Gulf because it was still quite distant from the Russian border. Although plans were made to extend the railway through Persia and get access to port facilities and a coaling station in the Gulf, Russia's limited financial resources prevented realization.

British naval supremacy in fact made the Gulf a British preserve and blocked Russian attempts to establish a presence there.

The British Foreign Minister Lord Lansdowneave made the point on 15 May 1903 in the House of Lords:

We should regard the establishment of a naval base, or of a fortified port, in the Persian Gulf by any other power as a grave menace to British interests, and we should certainly resist it with all the means at our disposal.

Fueled by coal

Britain possessed a virtual monopoly of the hard smokeless coal which had become the preferred maritime fuel. As the world's largest producer of coal, providing roughly half of the coal in foreign trade in 1913. Britain exercied extensive control over the foreign bunkering of naval as well as merchant ships. ... The Royal navy itself had established an elaborate network of Imperial communications, to keep its ships supplied with British coal.

The commanding resource position was used by Britain to support or hinder the naval operations of other powers. ... Most notably, Britain used her ability to deny Russia access to naval coal in order to hinder the concentration of Russian squadrons in the Russo-Japanese war, thus contributing to the Russian defeats at Port Arthur and the Battle of Tsushima.

Britain and Russia divide Persia

Internal disturbances which led to the Russian revolution of 1905, problems with industrialization and financial limits weakened Russia's position relative to its colonial competitors. German strong economic expansion and aspirations for increased influence in the resource-rich areas of Turkey and the Middle East are symbolized in the Berlin-Baghdad railway project. In 1905 Russia was defeated in the war with Japan, which checked Russian advances in the Far East. Britain and Japan agreed on joint action in its defence of India. British control of Egypt secured domination of the Eastern Mediterranean. A weakened Russia was willing to accept the British proposal to declare Persia a buffer state.

The Russian-British rapprochement reached its peak with the signing of the convention of 31 August 1907 between the two countries. Among its provisions was the division of Persia into British and Russian spheres of influence, with a neutral zone between them. The richer northern part was in the Russian sphere and Bandar Abbas was east of it, while Afghanistan was in the British sphere. The Gulf area to the west was in the neutral zone.

The First World War brought Britain and Russia into the same camp. During the war Russia raised the question of the annexation of Constantinople ... It was agreed to transfer the neutral zone in Persia to Britain in exchange for Russian annexation of Constantinople and the Turkish Straits. The agreement was later repudiated by the Soviet regime.

The revolutions of 1917 shifted Russian attention away from Persia. Left without Russian support the Qajar dynasty could not survive. Local rebellions broke out in the Gilan, Azarbaijan, and Khorasan provinces.

One of the first measures taken by the new [Soviet] regime was to publish the secret agreements made by the Tsar's government, which included the British-Russian agreements of 1907 concerning Persia. All claims of the old regime pertaining to Persia were renounced.

A nationalist Islamic reform movement, headed by Kuchuk Khan, Ehsanullah Khan and others, was established in 1915 in the Gilan Province in northern Persia. The rebellion started 1917 and was fought by Persian troops. Under pressure they asked for Russian help.

On 28 April 1920 Red forces occupied Baku and proclaimed the establishment of an Azerbaijani Soviet Republic. Some of the retreating Whites fled to the Persian port of Enzeli sacking British protection. They were pursued by Soviet Caspian Sea naval units who forced the British to withdraw. The Soviet Caspian fleet landed a force at Enzeli on 18 May 1920, and assisted the forces of Kuchuk Khan in bringing all the Gilan region under their control. That same year, on 4 June, a Persian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed in the Gilan province ...

With southern Persia occupied by the British and Russian troups in the north, both Britain and Russia wanted to avoid conflict over Persia. Both had to consolidate internally and other priorities of foreign policy. They again fall back upon division of spheres of influence and military presence. 1951 both removed their forces. The Soviets removed their support for the Kuchuk Khan movement and entered into friendly relations with the Persian government. Persian forces then entered Gilan.

A Soviet-Persian friendship treaty was signed on 26 February 1921. It was on the same day that the 1919 treaty with Britain was formally renounced, and only a few days after the Cossack Brigade headed by Reza Khan took control of Tehran (on 21 February 1921). Reza Khan became War Minister in April 1921, and Prime Minister as well as de facto ruler of Iran in October 1923. He was crowned Shah on 26 April 1926. In the 1921 treaty Soviet Russia renounced all Tsarist privileges and concessions, recognized Persia's sovereignty and agreed to evacuate its troops. All Persian debts were cancelled, and the Russian Bank, railways, roads and ports were handed over to Iran. Capitulations were abolished.

Another Soviet-Persian treaty was signed on 1 October 1927 and stressed non-aggression, repect to each others integrity and sovereignty. Further it was agreed to remain neutral in the case of conflict with third powers.

... Soviet Russia worked hard to improve relations, showing that it was not against Iran, but on the contrary, was both ready to help it and prepared to refrain from interfering in Iranian internal affairs. ...

The developments resulted for Iran in a centralized state with a standing army and powerful bureaucracy. But the national bourgeoisie was still too weak to dominate the society. The state used its humble resources to act as mediator between various social forces to promote capitalist restructuring. With an interventionist economic strategy to encourage industrialization and improve infrastructure like railways and roads they were able to transform the social order. There were consistent attacks against the bazaar people and religious community. The nomadic groups were greatly weakened and most of them forced to give up their way of life.

A large part of Iran's foreign trade was conducted with the USSR. Extensive commercial relations existed, particularly between Iran's northern provinces and the Soviets, since no other transport facilities were available to turn trade away from north Iran. The situation was changed only as a result of the construction of the Trans-Iranian railway. During the 1930s the USSR occupied first place in Iran's foreign trade, with Soviet-Iranian trade comprising, a third of the total. In the late 1930s Iran's trade with the Soviet Union declined while, on the other hand, its trade with Germany increased. Reza Shah tried to offset the dominance of the USSR and Britain by introducing Germany as a third and balancing power.

... on 18 December 1940, Hitler issued his 'Operation Barbarossa' order to attack the Soviet Union. The German attack began on 22 June 1941. Reza Shah declared his country's neutrality but tended to favour Germany, refusing requests to permit Iran to be used as a route for the transport of Western aid to the Soviet Union. ... On 25 August 1941, after the Iranian government had rejected an ultimatum to expel all Germans from its territory and allow the transportation of Allied war materials for the USSR over its roads and railways, Soviet and British troops entered Iran. The pro-German Reza Shah was forced to abdicate and was succeeded by his son, Muhammad Reza Pahlavi.

Iran became important as a corridor of US military supplies to the USSR. The Trans-Iranian railway, completed in 1938 from Bandar Shahpur on the Persian Gulf to Bandar Shah on the Caspian Sea, became the main line of that route. ...

In a treaty between the USSR, UK and Iran signed in Tehran January 1942 both agreed to withdraw all forces from Iranian territory within six month after suspension of all hostilities with Germany and its associates. This was again stressed at the Tehran Conference between Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin from 28 November- 1 December 1943 where an additional Allied declaration regarding the withdrawal of troops from Iran was signed.

The Allied occupation of Iran discredited the Pahlavi dynasty and the regime came under increasing pressure. Communists and other political prisoners were released. The rise of the left-wing, nationalist and anti-Western Tudeh Party and the workers and trade union movement challenged the system. The Tudeh party's most important constituency was the industrial working class and they were therefore particulary strong in the more industrialized northern Iran. Between 1944 and 1946, the Central Council of the Federated Trade Unions of Iranian Workers and Toilers (CCFTU) led many major strikes and forced concessions in the fields of minimum wages, eight hours work day, control of local food prices, and abolish child labour.

The rise of the Tudeh Party and the trade movement also coincided with organized minority movements seeking autonomy from the central government.

After the end of the war Soviet military forces remained in Iran. In the Soviet-occupied areas, two autonomous republics were established with Soviet backing: the Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan, on 12 December 1945, and a Kurdish People's Republic, three days later, on 15 December 1945.

... On March 3, 1946, fresh Soviet troops poured into Iran and moved toward Tehran and the Turkish and Iraqi borders. US Secretary of State Byrnes ordered the SU to withdraw or face an American response. ...

Due to American pressure and economic and political concessions from Iranian Prime Minister Ghavam al-Sultaneh the Russians withdraw their troops on 9 May 1946. The Shah's could now restore his command and let his army destroy the autonomous rule in northern Iran.

In 1949, after an assassination attempt against Muhammad Reza Shah, martial law was declared and leaders of the nationalist opposition were arrested. The Tudeh Party was finally outlawed and reorganized from a mass organization to a more clandestine group.

The Tudeh ... continued to keep a relatively large membership, estimated in 1953 at between 15,000 and 20,000, half of whom were in Tehran. It had an officers' organization, comprising over 600 members, including a number of army colonels.

... Lacking the mass base which characterized the Tudeh Party, the nationalist and constitutionalist politicians staged their fight to revive the 1906 constitution from the Majlis. Hence, in this period Iranian politics also became characterized by constant manoeuvering between the Majlis and the Court. ... The declaration of martial law and the subsequent arrest of national leaders in 1949 ... set the basis for the emergence of the National Front under the leadership of Dr Mohammad Mossadeq.