Red Persia. Part of 3. How South Azerbaijan almost went to the USSR

7
In the middle of 1940's. the Soviet Union had a chance to increase its sphere of influence in the Middle East, and perhaps even expand the territory of the country by joining part of the lands of Northern Iran. Here, on the initiative of I.V. Stalin, by the hands of the Iranian communists and Kurdish nationalists, created two public entities - the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan and the Mehabad Republic. The Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan (hereinafter - DRA) at the same time had chances to be subsequently joined to the Soviet Union, more precisely, to the Azerbaijan SSR.

German influence in Iran

When Hitler's Germany and its satellites 22 on June 1941 attacked the Soviet Union and the Great Patriotic War began, the danger of Germany entering the war on Iran’s side, whose pro-German sentiments were strong enough, became actual. At least, the territory of Iran could be used by the Nazis as a springboard for actions against the Soviet Union in the South Caucasus and Great Britain in the Middle East. Therefore, the leadership of the USSR entered into negotiations with the British leadership on joint coordination of actions to prevent the expansion of German influence in the region. The fact is that by the time of the beginning of the Second World War, Germany had quite strong positions in Iran. The increased presence in Iran was part of Hitler Germany’s Middle East policy aimed at supporting local nationalist regimes viewed as natural allies against Britain. Hitler Germany established ties with Arab nationalists in Iraq, Syria and Palestine, with the great mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini (1895-1974) becoming the most loyal ally of Germany. The mufti considered the fight against the resettlement of Jews in Palestine a matter of his life and believed that Germany could provide him with substantial support. Another German ally in the region was Iraqi lawyer Rashid Ali al-Gailani (1892-1965), in 1933 and 1940. who served as prime minister of Iraq. 1 April 1941 g. Rashid Gailani, relying on the support of military officials who were members of the Golden Square grouping (Iraqi Army Chief of Staff General Amin Zaki Suleyman, Colonels Salah al-Din al-Sabah, Mahmoud Salman, Fahmi Said, Camil Shabib) made a military coup. The UK, fearing the transfer of Iraqi oil resources into the hands of the Nazis, 2 May 1941 launched a military operation against Iraq. It took less than a month for British troops to neutralize the Iraqi army, after which on May 30 the 1941 regime fell, and the Iraqi Prime Minister himself fled to Germany, where he received political asylum.

As for Iran, here Germany had even stronger and more stable positions than in the Arab East. The fact is that the Iranian Shah Reza Pahlavi (1878-1944), who ruled 1925, was in favor of creating a strong Iranian state and forming an Iranian political nation. For this purpose, he appealed to the ideology of the Aryan origin of the Iranian people (although he himself was half Azerbaijani), it was during his reign that the country was officially renamed from Persia to Iran - the “Aryan Country”. Shah was an opponent of British influence in the Middle East, and he was no less afraid of the spread of communist ideas and separatism of national minorities - Azerbaijanis and Kurds, whose national movements enjoyed the support of the Soviet Union. Therefore, the shah sought to develop political, economic and military ties with Germany as a country, firstly, an opponent of both the Soviet Union and Great Britain, and secondly, ideologically close (ideas of Aryan origin, right-wing radicalism and anti-communism). Germany and Italy, Shah Reza Pahlavi considered the most successful examples of military and economic modernization in modern conditions. At the same time, Italy was regarded as a model of an effective political structure and organization of society. In 1929 was a pro-government party, Iran Novin (New Iran), was created, which adopted the swastika as a party symbol. Once in 1933 The National Socialist Workers Party came to power in Germany, the shah's government established close contacts with Berlin. In 1937 was The leader of Hitler’s youth Baldur von Schirach arrived in Iran, who advised the Shah on the organization of Iranian youth. The most common among Persian youth received ideas about the purity of the Aryan race. The weekly edition of Iran-e-Bhastan (Ancient Iran) became the mouthpiece of the pro-Hitler movements in Iranian nationalism. The spread of Nazism among Iranian youth and the military eventually alarmed the Shah himself, who began to fear that right-wing radicals would revolutionize the country and remove him from power or turn him into a purely decorative figure, like the Italian king under Mussolini. In 1937 was The Shah police uncovered the conspiracy of Lieutenant Jadzhuz, who planned to overthrow the Shah and create a Nazi regime in the country, like Hitler's Germany. After the disclosure of the conspiracy, its participants were executed, the publication of Iran-e-bastan was closed, and the National Socialists significantly reduced the pace of their propaganda. However, the influence of Germany on the policy of the Iranian state continued. In 1940 was The Brown House was opened in Tehran, the construction of Nazyabad, the City of the Nazis, began, the basic work of Adolf Hitler's My Struggle was translated into Farsi. Despite concerns about the actions of right-wing radicals, the Shah did not dare to break off relations with Germany, since he was heavily dependent on military assistance from Berlin, especially in the direction of training the Iranian army, which was carried out by German military advisers. Of great importance were ties with Germany and for the country's economy.

Red Persia. Part of 3. How South Azerbaijan almost went to the USSR


Operation "Consent" and the entry of Soviet troops in Iran

It was in order to prevent the further growth of German influence in Iran and the use of the latter against Great Britain and the USSR in the Middle East and Transcaucasia that the Soviet and British leaders decided to begin military intervention in Iran. To participate in this operation, the forces of the Transcaucasian Front, consisting of the 44th, 45th, 46th, and 47th armies under the command of Lieutenant General D.T. Kozlov, as well as the forces of the 53rd Army, Major General S.G. Trofimenko, stationed in Central Asia. Soviet troops were supposed to invade northern Iran and bring under control the territory of Iranian Azerbaijan. Caspian military ships carried out sea cover operations flotilla under the command of Rear Admiral F.S. Sedelnikova. In turn, the British were to occupy the southwestern regions of Iran, primarily the oil province of Khuzestan. For this purpose, the forces of the 9th were concentrated tank and the 21st Infantry Brigades, the 5th, 6th and 8th Infantry Divisions, the 13th Lancers, as well as ships of the naval forces of Great Britain and Australia. For the British, the situation was facilitated by the fact that after the defeat of the Iraqi army of Gailani, significant parts of the British army were stationed on the Iran-Iraq border. The operation, called the “Consent”, began on August 25, 1941. Of course, Iranian troops could not resist either the Soviet or British units, rapidly moving through the country. On August 26, 2,5 thousand soldiers and officers of the 105th Mountain Infantry Regiment were landed from the ships of the Caspian Flotilla in the Heavy region. After the first two days of the operation, parts of the 53rd Army of the Central Asian Military District under the command of Major General S.G. Trofimenko. The Primorsky group consisting of the 58th infantry corps moved westward, the 83rd mountain rifle division in the central direction, and the 4th cavalry corps eastward. Although parts of the Iranian army as part of two infantry divisions held comfortable positions in the Gorgan and Mashhad areas, they offered very little resistance and soon capitulated. Almost immediately after the start of hostilities on the part of the troops of Great Britain and the Soviet Union, a change of government took place in Iran. The new prime minister of Iran was Mohammed Ali Forugi (1877-1942) - a native of a wealthy family of Isfahan merchants, who began political activity in 1909 as a member of the Mejlis from Tehran. By order of Ali Forugi, on August 29, 1941, the Iranian army stopped fighting against the British troops, and on August 30, 1941, resistance to the Soviet troops was stopped. At the time of the end of the resistance of the Iranian army, Soviet troops were on the Mehabad-Qazvin line from the Transcaucasian direction and on the Sari-Damgan-Sabzevar line from the Central Asian direction. British troops controlled Khuzestan, the cities of Kermanshah and Hamadan, the main ports on the Persian Gulf.

8 September 1941 an agreement was signed, according to which the location of Soviet and British troops in Iran was determined. The territory of Iran was divided into two occupation zones. The southern occupation zone was under the control of British troops, the north - under the control of Soviet troops. The power of the Tehran government remained purely nominal, because the Shah actually lost control of the country and could no longer determine either the foreign or domestic policy of Iran. 16 September 1941 Shah Reza Pahlavi was deposed (in 1944 he died in exile in South Africa). 26 September 1941 was crowned by Mohammed Reza Pahlavi (1919-1980), the twenty-two-year-old son of Reza Pahlavi, who shortly before the outbreak of World War II completed a higher military education at an officer’s school in Tehran. Unlike his father Reza Pahlavi, Mohammed Reza Shah immediately expressed a desire to cooperate with the Soviet Union and Great Britain, knowing full well that otherwise he could be deposed. In 1942, the Shah entered into a treaty of alliance with Great Britain and the USSR, and on September 9, 1943 declared war on Hitler Germany.

Oil and national association of Azerbaijanis

After the end of the Second World War, in accordance with the agreements, the Allied forces were to leave the territory of Iran. However, the Soviet Union, not wanting to lose control over the strategically and economically important northern regions of Iran, was in no hurry to withdraw its troops from the territory of Iranian Azerbaijan. It should be noted that even before the invasion of Soviet and British troops into Iran, the Soviet leadership was seriously considering the annexation of Iranian Azerbaijan with the aim of its joining the Azerbaijan SSR. It was supposed to use a model approved by the example of accession, after the partition of Poland, Western Ukraine and Western Belarus to the Ukrainian SSR and Byelorussian SSR. A certain ground for the rejection of Iranian Azerbaijan existed for a long time. First, the overwhelming majority of the population of the region were ethnic Azerbaijanis who had a sufficiently developed self-awareness. Many of them were inspired by the example of the existence of the autonomous Azerbaijan SSR in the neighborhood. Secondly, since Shah Reza Pahlavi assumed the throne, the central Iranian government pursued a policy aimed at discriminating the country's national minorities and their gradual assimilation into a single Persian-speaking Iranian nation. Despite the fact that Reza Pahlavi himself was also an Azerbaijani by his mother, he forbade teaching in the Azerbaijani language, closed Azerbaijani schools and newspapers, and pursued activists of the Azerbaijani national movement. It also couldn’t please many residents of the region, which until recently had played a key role in Iran’s stories (It was from among Azerbaijanis that the ruling families of Iran, Safavids, Qajars, took place over many centuries).

The main “lobbyist” of the accession of Iranian Azerbaijan to the USSR was the leadership of the Azerbaijan SSR, first of all Mir Jafar Bagirov (1895-1956). Information about the youth of this man, who came to the pre-revolutionary era, is very fragmentary and contradictory. However, already in 1921, Mir Jafar Bagirov headed the Azerbaijani Cheka and remained the head of the state security agencies in the republic until 1930, that is, almost ten years (in 1921-1926 he headed the Cheka of the AzSR, in the 1921-1927 - the NKVD AzSSR, 1926-1927 and 1929-1930 - OGPU AzSSR). In 1933, Mir Jafar Bagirov occupied the post of first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Azerbaijan SSR and remained in that post for twenty years - until 1953. It is noteworthy that, unlike many other Soviet leaders, Bagirov managed to avoid political repression and retain his power both in 1937 and in the post-war period. Bagirov took care of protecting the interests of the Azerbaijani population of the USSR and, quite understandably, sought to unite all Azerbaijanis in Transcaucasia, counting on the accession of Iranian Azerbaijan. Under Bagirov, Baku turned into a habitat and activity of Iranian communists, fleeing from the persecution of the Shah’s regime. Among the Iranian communists, the majority was made up of ethnic Azerbaijanis, natives of more developed than other regions of Iran, and associated with Soviet Azerbaijan, Iranian Azerbaijan. It was decided to rely on them in the process of establishing Soviet power in Iranian Azerbaijan. Bagirov emphasized that the most important cities of Iranian Azerbaijan - Qazvin, Khoy, Urmia, Tabriz, Ardebil, and others - are centers of Azerbaijani culture, the Azerbaijani people and should be united with Soviet Azerbaijan.

In May-June 1941, before the start of the Soviet operation in Iran, mobilization of party and state workers began in the Azerbaijan SSR. From 3, 816 party workers, employees of the internal affairs and state security bodies, court and prosecutor’s office workers, printing officers, journalists and even geological engineers and railway workers created 52 brigades that were supposed to be used to form new government bodies in Iranian Azerbaijan. The direct leadership of the mobilized officers and employees of the Azerbaijan SSR was entrusted to Aziz Aliyev, secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of the Azerbaijan SSR. But Bagirov’s plans did not meet an unequivocal understanding of the Moscow leadership. In particular, V.M. Molotov, who headed the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs of the USSR, believed that the unwinding of the Azerbaijani and Kurdish problems in Iran would not contribute to strengthening the foreign policy positions of the Soviet Union, since they would cause a negative reaction from Britain and the United States. I.V. Stalin doubted the correctness of both Bagirov’s position and Molotov’s position, so for a long time he didn’t take any one decision. Meanwhile, in Iran, local communists became active, which in the 1930-ies. The Shah’s government was practically able to crush it, throwing the leading Communist Party activists in jail. According to the Comintern, after the invasion of Soviet troops into Iran, in the fall of 1941, a group of Iranian communists began the process of rebuilding the Iranian Communist Party. Another group of progressive-minded Iranians set about creating the People’s Party of Iran with a broader democratic program. Suleiman Mirza stood at the head of the latter group, and many Iranian communists were its members.

An important issue for the Soviet Union in the first half of 1940's. Access to the oil fields of northern Iran. Iranian oil interested the USSR much more than the creation of the Communist Party, since the Soviet leadership doubted the effectiveness of the propaganda of the Communists in Iranian society. In 1944, the USSR stepped up pressure on the Iranian leadership, trying to knock out exclusive rights in the production and transportation of North Iranian oil. 16 August 1944 LP Beria compiled an analytical report, which was addressed to Stalin and Molotov. In it, Beria drew attention to the Anglo-American competition for Iran’s oil fields and stressed the desirability of Soviet participation in discussing the oil policy of Great Britain and the United States in Iran. However, the Iranian government stubbornly did not agree to the Soviet conditions, as a result of which the Soviet leadership decided to turn again to the unwinding of the Azerbaijani and Kurdish issues. In February, 1945 Mr. Hasan Hasanov, who led the mission of Soviet political workers in Iranian Azerbaijan, told Mir Jafar Bagirov that separatist sentiments were widespread among southern Azerbaijanis, so it is desirable to raise an uprising in Iranian Azerbaijan, join it to the Azerbaijani SSR and supply Great Britain and the United States before the fact of the accession of this territory. Hasan Hasanov proposed using a number of leading activists of the Iranian communist movement, ethnic Azerbaijanis, to directly organize the uprising in Iranian Azerbaijan.

Preparations for the proclamation of autonomy

In the first days of July, 1945. Mir Jafar Bagirov was summoned to Moscow to Stalin, after which 6 July 1945, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) was made under the “top secret” resolution “On measures to organize the separatist movement in South Azerbaijan and other provinces of northern Iran. " In accordance with this decree, it was considered expedient to prepare for the creation within Azerbaijan of national autonomy Azerbaijanis with the broadest possible rights, and also emphasized the desirability of supporting separatist movements in Gilan, Mazandaran, Gorgan and Khorasan. The main work on the implementation of this plan was supposed to be entrusted to the People’s Party of Iran, more precisely, its branch in South Azerbaijan, which was specifically renamed the Azerbaijan Democratic Party. It was supposed to temporarily abandon the communist ideology and focus on separatist slogans, which were supposed to attract separatists and Azerbaijani nationalists from all walks of life. In accordance with another clause of the decree, a separatist movement was supposed to be deployed in Iranian Kurdistan with the aim of forming the national autonomy of the Kurds in Iran. The direct leadership of the separatist movement was to be carried out by a group of party workers in Tabriz, and the general coordination of the activities of this group was proposed to be entrusted to the top leadership of the Azerbaijan SSR — Mir Jafar Bagirov and Mir Teymur Yakubov. It was supposed to begin the formation of armed groups that would take over the protection of activists of the separatist movement. Mir Jafar Bagirov and Nikolai Bulganin, who at that time served as deputy people's commissar of defense of the USSR, were appointed responsible for creating these armed formations. Funds in the amount of 1 million of foreign currency rubles were allocated to finance the above activities in the territory of Southern Azerbaijan.

At the end of August, 1945, Mir Jafar Bagirov, received Stalin’s decree on more rapid preparation for the rejection of South Azerbaijan. 3 September 1945 was officially established by the Azerbaijan Democratic Party (ADP, it is also the Democratic Party of Iranian Azerbaijan, DPIA), the backbone of which was the veterans of the Iranian communist movement. All members of the Azerbaijani branch of the People’s Party of Iran were recommended to join the ADP. Seyd Jafar Pishevari became the chairman of the ADP (his real name is Mir Jafar Jawad-zade, 1892-1947). A native of Halkal province in Iranian Azerbaijan, Jafar Pishevari moved to Baku as a young man, where, while working as a village teacher, he became acquainted with socialist and revolutionary ideas, joining the RSDLP. Mir Jafar Jawadzade participated in the creation of the Azerbaijani democratic organization Adalat, and in 1920 he returned to Iran, where he joined the revolutionary movement in Iran. Jafar Pishevari took an active part in the leadership of the Gilan Soviet Republic, where he took the post of foreign affairs commissioner. In addition, after the creation of the Iranian Communist Party, Pishevari was elected to its Central Committee and became the chief editor of the party press. In 1929, Seid Jafar Pishevari took the post of first secretary of the Central Committee of the Iranian Communist Party, in 1931-1941. he was in prison for anti-government communist activities, and after being released from prison, he became editor of the left-hand newspaper Akhir. Pishevari criticized the People’s Party of Iran (Tude), accusing it of sectarianism and isolation from the masses. Pishevari himself focused on a more active political struggle and even advanced in 1944 in Iran’s 14 th Mejlis, but was denied admission to parliamentary activities. After the establishment of the Azerbaijan Democratic Party, Pishevari became its leader, organizing the entry of Tude organizations and Iranian trade unions operating in the territory of South Azerbaijan into the party. With the help of the Soviet Union, the formation of an autonomous government of South Azerbaijan began. Already at the very beginning of September, 1945, immediately after its creation, the Democratic Party of Azerbaijan declared itself ruling in Iranian Azerbaijan and promised to carry out broad democratic reforms.

Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan

The peasant militia was subordinated to the party, with which 18 in November 1945 was carried out a bloodless coup d'état in Iranian Azerbaijan. Practically all state posts in the province were occupied by activists of the Azerbaijan Democratic Party, after which Iranian Azerbaijan was proclaimed an autonomous Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan. The units of the Red Army, stationed in the territory of Iranian Azerbaijan, defended the DRA from the Iranian government troops. Therefore, the Iranian government forces, which were in the direction of Tabriz, were soon stopped. The Shah’s government was completely perplexed because it had no idea how to react to the events in order to save the north-western territories and, at the same time, not to enter into confrontation with the Soviet Union. On November 20-21, a meeting of the Azerbaijan National Congress was held in Tabriz, to which 687 delegates gathered. At the congress, a statement was made, which, in particular, emphasized: “We bring to the attention of the whole world: there is a nation in the world that has decided to defend its right by all means. In one of the corners of Asia, this nation raised the banner of democracy in the name of its own freedom. ” A National DRA Executive Committee was formed as a part of 39 people, Ahmad Kordari was appointed the Prime Minister of the Republic. The elections to the Azerbaijani Milli Mejlis, which ended by December 27, were scheduled for November 3. At 100 seats, 95 deputies were elected, and women participated in the election of candidates (for the first time in Iranian political history). The first session of the Milli Majlis was supposed to be held on December 10. According to the plan of the ADP Central Committee, a DRA government consisting of ten ministers was to be created under the leadership of Pishevari. By 11 December 1945, virtually all provinces of Iranian Azerbaijan came under the control of the Azerbaijan Democratic Party, after which 12 December 1945 opened the first session of the Azerbaijan Parliament. At this session, Mirza Ali Shabustari was elected chairman of the Milli Majlis, Seyd Jafar Pishevari was confirmed prime minister, Zeynalabiddin Giyami became chairman of the Supreme Court, Feridun Ibrahimi became the prosecutor. Jafar Kavian (pictured) took the post of Minister of War of the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan. First held the post of Governor General of Azerbaijan, Wali M. Bayat was forced to leave Tabriz. At about the same time, Iranian police and gendarmerie units stationed in Azerbaijani cities and towns were disarmed by armed units controlled by the ADP.

It should be noted that the People’s Party of Iran (Tude), with the exception of its Azerbaijani organizations, did not actually support the coup d'état in Iranian Azerbaijan, since it focused on preserving the territorial integrity of the Iranian state. According to the leaders of Tudeh, the policy of the Soviet Union in Iranian Azerbaijan actually turned out to be beneficial to the enemies of the Soviet state, since it undermined the authority of the USSR in the eyes of the inhabitants of the rest of Iran. It turned out that the Soviet Union did not respect the territorial integrity of the Iranian state and freely annexed part of its territory, and this, the Iranian communists noted, is a very dangerous tendency - first of all, to further preserve the authority of the Soviet state and the communist party in Iran and other eastern countries. In exchange for the Azerbaijani strategy, the leaders of the Tude proposed a plan to carry out a coup in Tehran and establish control of the Communist Party over the entire territory of Iran. However, he was rejected by the Soviet leadership as unrealistic and adventurous - it was obvious that the forces of Tude and trade unions could not seize power in Iran and suppress the resistance of loyal Shah forces. Moreover, Moscow was more likely not for a change of political power in Iran, but for the accession of South Azerbaijan to Soviet Azerbaijan. December 17 TASS published the Manifesto of the National Government of Iranian Azerbaijan. 23th of December 1945 Seyid Jafar Pishevari, Mirza Ali Shabustari and other top leaders of Iranian Azerbaijan appealed to Mir Jafar Bagirov to assist in the formation of an independent democratic republican government in Azerbaijan. According to the leaders of the ADP, the borders of the state of Enzeli in the north of the country and the borders of Iraq in the south of the country were to become the borders of the new state entity. It is clear that the proposal of the leaders of Iranian Azerbaijan also met the interests of Mir Jafar Bagirov himself, who carried out the general management of the activities on the creation of government structures in South Azerbaijan. The leaders of the ADP themselves told Bagirov that the new state would receive the name of the Azerbaijan National Democratic Republic, would be based on democratic and constitutional principles of governance, respect for basic democratic freedoms. It was planned to include the cities of Tabriz, Ardabil, Urmia, Miandoab, Maragu, Salmas, Hoi, Marand, Mian, Enzeli, Maku, Ahar, Herovabad, Zenjan, Qazvin and Hamadan. It was emphasized that the borders of the republic should cover the territory of Iran, in which the population of 95% consists of representatives of the Azerbaijani people. In parallel with the issue of creating an independent republic on the territory of Iranian Azerbaijan, it was supposed to solve the “Kurdish problem”, since the national Kurdish movement, oriented towards the creation of a national republic, also became more active in Iranian Kurdistan.

"Sly fox" Kavam es-Soltan and the withdrawal of Soviet troops

Naturally, the strengthening of the Soviet positions in Iran through the creation of independent Azerbaijani and Kurdish republics was not included in the plans of either the Shah or the British and American governments. At the January 10 opening session of the United Nations General Assembly in London, the Iranian delegation, supported by the United States, put on the agenda the issue of the continued presence of foreign troops in the country. Pondered the further developments in the Middle East I.V. Stalin was more inclined to turn the Azeri problem into a bargaining issue with Iran on the exploitation of oil fields. In order to influence Tehran’s policy and implement its plans, all that remained was to bring a person to power in Iran who was ready to conclude an agreement with the Soviet Union. Such a man in Moscow was considered to be Kawama es Saltan. Ahmed Qawam es-Saltan (1946-1879) was one of the most influential Iranian politicians. A big landowner from Gilan province, Kawam al-Saltan was brought in by his brother Hassan Vosug al-Doule, who twice held the post of prime minister of the country. Cavam himself in 1955-1910. was the Minister of War of Iran, in 1911-1921, 1922-1922. and 1923-1942 served as prime minister of Iran. Qavam es-Saltan presented himself as the main opponent of the growth of British influence in Iran and managed to convince the Soviet leadership of this. Kawam said that he considered the attempt of the Shah government to solve the issue of the growth of separatist sentiments in Azerbaijan by force through a big mistake.

- Ahmed Kawam es-Soltan in Moscow. 1946

27 January 1946 Mr. Ahmed Qawam Al-Saltan was appointed by Shah Mohammed Reza as Prime Minister of Iran. Already on February 19, three weeks after being appointed to this high post, Kawam visited the Soviet Union, where Molotov and Stalin accepted him. It goes without saying that the main issue on the agenda of the meeting was events in Iranian Azerbaijan. The Soviet leadership was most interested in the issue of the oil concession in Iran, but in accordance with Iranian legislation, its decision completely depended on whether foreign troops would be present in Iran. Kawam es-Soltan told Stalin that he generally supports the change of Iran’s political course and is ready to ensure the signing of an oil concession with the Soviet Union. Stalin promised Kavam Soviet military support and stressed that the USSR should not withdraw its troops, since the Soviet military presence is a guarantee of preserving Kavam’s positions. However, the latter, on the contrary, noted that his positions would rather be strengthened precisely because of the withdrawal of the Soviet troops. At the talks with Kavam, Stalin stressed that the Azerbaijan Democratic Party overly exceeded its authority when it appointed the ministers of defense and foreign affairs, expressing thus a claim not for autonomy, but for full political independence. This reproach of Stalin showed Kawam that, on the whole, the Soviet leader remains a supporter of the territorial integrity of the Iranian state. In turn, Kavam, in an interview with both Stalin and Molotov, repeatedly stressed that a favorable for the USSR resolution of the oil concession issue depends entirely on the solution of the Azerbaijani problem and the withdrawal of foreign troops from Iranian territory. However, the Iranian prime minister failed to beat the Soviet leaders. Soviet leaders denied Iran the withdrawal of troops, stressing that Iran’s obstacles to concluding an oil concession testify Tehran’s hostile policy toward Moscow and that Iran could pose a threat to the Azerbaijan and Turkmen SSR, and therefore it makes sense to continue to find Soviet ones troops in the country. Then Kavam met with representatives of the United States and Great Britain and secured the participation of the powers in the pressure on the Soviet Union. Finally, on April 4, the Soviet-Iranian agreement was signed by which the Soviet Union withdrew its armed forces from the territory of Iran, and Iran provided the Soviet Union with oil concessions in the northern regions of the country.

In May 1946, the Soviet Union carried out the withdrawal of troops from Iran. However, Ahmed Kawam es-Soltan simply deceived the Soviet leaders - the Majlis of Iran refused to ratify the agreement on granting oil concessions to the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, Soviet troops had already been withdrawn from Iran, and without their support, the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan could not exist. 13 June 1946 The Iranian representatives and Seid Jafar Pishevari entered into an agreement whereby the DRA renounced its autonomy, eliminated the posts of prime minister and ministers, and the Milli Mejlis was transformed into provincial councils acting in accordance with Iranian law. 21 November 1946. Iranian troops were introduced into the territory of Southern Azerbaijan and Iranian Kurdistan, formally to ensure the holding of elections to the 15 of the Mejlis of Iran. 15 December 1946, Iranian troops occupied Tabriz. The integrity of the Iranian state was restored, and the Azerbaijani autonomy created with the support of the USSR actually ceased to exist.

After the suppression of the national autonomist movement, government forces and police began massacres of the liberation movement activists of Iranian Azerbaijanis, many of whom were killed. A significant part of the leaders of South Azerbaijan after the cessation of the existence of the republic left its territory and left for the Soviet Union. Seyid Jafar Pishevari settled in Baku, and in 1947 he died in a car accident. General Jafar Kavian Mammad-zadeh, who held the post of Minister of War in DRA, also left for Baku. He, unlike Pishevari, lived to old age and died in 1975, being buried with honor at one of the Baku cemeteries.
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  1. +4
    4 November 2015 09: 59
    Thank you, Ilya is very interesting, sorry it didn’t grow together .. But maybe for the better?
    1. +2
      4 November 2015 13: 39
      Quote: parusnik
      Or maybe for the better?


      Yes. anyway, now it would not be ours
    2. 0
      4 November 2015 13: 39
      Quote: parusnik
      Or maybe for the better?


      Yes. anyway, now it would not be ours
  2. +3
    4 November 2015 11: 41
    Yes, an interesting moment in history. Thanks a lot.
  3. +1
    4 November 2015 16: 14
    In 1946, the north wind too ...
  4. +1
    5 November 2015 10: 21
    Thank you very much for this third part. When the second part was --- I thought it was the final one. But now I have hopes for a continuation about the Red East. Thanks to your articles, the pages of the History about which there was nothing before can be understood. So, some touches .
  5. 0
    3 July 2020 12: 09
    What about the 1921 treaty? and where are we, and where is Persia, Az ..?, Russia?

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