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Russian Settlements in Iran in the Early Twentieth Century: Initial Phase of Colonization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Elena Andreeva  and
Morteza Nouraei
Elena Andreeva
Affiliation:
Virginia Military Institute
Morteza Nouraei
Affiliation:
University of Isfahan
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Abstract

This article reveals the story of Russia's attempts to colonize Astarabad and Mazanderan provinces of Iran in the early twentieth century. By backing and sponsoring Russian settlements there, the Russian government sought to eventually annex the territories in the northeast of Iran. Drawing on Russian and Iranian sources, the article follows the development of the settlements from their spontaneous beginning in 1907 to a state-supported colonization project by 1914. After the Russian government tried to accelerate colonization of the occupied Iranian territories during the First World War, this ambitious project came to an end with the Bolshevik coup of 1917.

Type
Research Article
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 46 , Issue 3: Special Issue: Power Interplay Between Iran and Russia from the Mid-Seventeenth to the Early Twenty-First Century , May 2013 , pp. 415 - 442
Copyright
Copyright © The International Society for Iranian Studies 2013

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38 Bezsonov, Russkie pereselentsy, 15–16.

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71 Bezsonov, Russkie pereselentsy, 81.

72 Abdullaev accuses consul Ivanov and commissar Lavrov of deliberately spreading exaggerated gossip about the attractiveness and availability of lands in the Caspian provinces and of land speculation using Iranian figureheads. At the same time, according to Abdullaev, these officials sometimes indirectly sabotaged Russian colonization since they often preferred to rent lands at their disposal to Iranian peasants whom they considered more hardworking and less demanding. Those officials even started to turn down Russian settlers in search for lands using the excuse of land shortage. Abdullaev also claims that Mogilev, the author of Persidsie zemili, bought a piece of land near Ashref for a significant sum of 22,500 rubles but does not specify the source of this information. Abdullaev, Astrabad, 104–5, 108.

73 Bezsonov, Russkie pereselentsy, 81.

74 Sakharov, Russkaia kolonizatsiia, 42, 44.

75 RGIA, f. 391, op. 6, d. 306: 35–36 ob. (17–18, 20); Sakharov, Russkaia kolonizatsiia, 44–45.

76 Sakharov, Russkaia kolonizatsiia, 45.

77 RGIA, f. 391, op. 6, d. 306: 35 (17).

78 RGIA, f. 391, op. 6, d. 306: 42 (31).

79 RGVIA, f. 400, op. 1, d. 4507:12 ob.

80 RGIA, f. 391, op. 6, d. 307: 121.

81 RGIA, f. 391, op. 6, d. 307: 153.

82 Mogilev, Persidskie zemli, 5.

83 Sakharov, Russkaia kolonizatsiia, 44.

84 RGIA, f. 391, op. 6, d. 306: 42 ob. (32).

85 RGIA, f. 391, op. 6, d. 300: 95 ob.–97.

86 RGIA, f. 391, op. 6, d. 306: 52–57.

87 RGIA, f. 391, op. 6, d. 306: 49 ob.–50 ob.

88 RGIA, f. 391, op. 6, d. 306: 12, 64–65, 67–68, 72, 74, 91.

89 RGIA, f. 391, op. 6, d. 306: 77–80.

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96 RGIA, f. 391, op. 6, d. 306: 104 ob.

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103 RGIA, f. 391, op. 6, d. 307: 50 ob.–51, 59.

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105 Bezsonov, Russkie pereselentsy, 28.

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120 Sakharov, Russkaia kolonizatsiia, 17–18.

121 Bezsonov, Russkie pereselentsy, 71–74.

122 Sakharov, Russkaia kolonizatsiia, 19–20.

123 Bezsonov, Russkie pereselentsy, 82–83.

124 Ibid., 70–71.

125 Ibid., 75–76.

126 Ibid., 76–84.

127 Sakharov, Russkaia kolonizatsiia, 30–38

128 Ibid., 74–75.

129 Ibid., 42–53. About private land owners and renters see also Bezsonov, Russkie pereselentsy, 85–86.

130 RGIA, f. 391, op. 6, d. 307: 112–15 ob.

131 Sakharov, Russkaia kolonizatsiia, 72.

132 RGIA, f. 391, op. 6, d. 307: 74.

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136 RGIA, f. 391, op. 6, d. 307: 20–24 ob., 44–45.

137 Abdullaev, Astrabad, 108.

138 RGIA, f. 391, op. 6, d. 307: 83, 89, 93, 96.

139 RGVIA, f. 400, op. 1, d. 4507: 11.

140 RGVIA, f. 400, op. 1, d. 4507: 16–18.

141 RGIA, f. 391, o. 6, d. 307: 122.

142 RGIA, f. 391, op. 6, d. 307: 122–42 ob.

143 RGVIA, f. 400, op. 1, d. 4507: 19.

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145 RGIA, f. 391, op. 6, d. 307: 148–53 ob.

146 RGIA, f. 391, op. 6, d. 307: 153 ob., 160, 171–72.

147 RGIA, f. 391, op. 6, d. 307: 168.