ایران‌بوم

[The following documents were provided to CWIHP by Dr. Jamil Hasanli (Baku State University). Hasanli,who has conducted extensive research on Soviet policies with regard to Iranian Azerbaijan in the early Cold War, obtained these documents from the State Archive of Political Parties and Social Movements of the Republic of Azerbaijan in Baku. Only a sample of a much larger collection to be published in future issues of the CWIHP Bulletin and CWIHP Working Papers, these documents allow unprecedented insight into Stalin’s systematic efforts to sponsor a separatist movement in Northern Iran. Some of the documents have also been consulted by Dr. Fernande Scheid (Yale University), who presented her findings for the first time at the September 1999 CWIHP Conference on “Stalin and the Cold War” at Yale University and who is the author of a forthcoming CWIHP Working Paper. Previous CWIHP publications on the subject, based on Russian archival materials, include Natalia Egorova, The ‘Iran Crisis’ of 1945-1946: A View from the Russian Archives (CWIHP Working Paper No. 15, Washington D.C.: Woodrow Wilson Center, 1997).

Hasanli contributed the documents in the framework of a new initiative on “The Caucasus in the Cold War,” co-sponsored by the National Security Archive and CWIHP. The initiative aims at unearthing new evidence from archives in the Southern Caucasus on important Cold War issues, such as Stalin’s plans for territorial expansion in 1945-46 with regard to Turkey and Iran; …

DOCUMENT No. 2

Decree of the Politburo of the Central Committee (CC) of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) to Mir Bagirov, CC Secretary of the Communist

Party of Azerbaijan, on “Measures to Organize a Separatist Movement in Southern Azerbaijan and Other Provinces of Northern Iran,”

6 July 19451

TOP SECRET

To Cde. Bagirov

Measures to Organize a Separatist Movement in Southern Azerbaijan and Other Provinces in Northern Iran

1. Consider it advisable to begin preparatory work to form a national autonomous Azerbaijan district [oblast’] with broad powers within the Iranian state. At the same time develop a separatist movement in the

provinces of Gilyan, Mazandaran, Gorgan, and Khorasan.

2. Establish a democratic party in Southern Azerbaijan under the name “Azerbaijan Democratic Party” with the objective of guiding the separatist movement. The creation of the Democratic Party in Southern Azerbaijan is to be done by a corresponding reorganization of the Azerbaijani branch of the People’s Party of Iran and drawing into it supporters of the separatist movement from all strata of the

population.

3. Conduct suitable work among the Kurds of northern Iran to draw them into the separatist movement to form a national autonomous Kurdish district.

4. Establish in Tabriz a group of responsible workers to guide the separatist movement, charging them with

coordinating [kontaktirovat’] their work with the USSR General Consulate in Tabriz. Overall supervision of this group is entrusted to Bagirov and Yakubov.

5. Entrust the Azerbaijan CP(b) CC (Bagirov and Ibragimov) with developing preparatory work to hold

elections in Southern Azerbaijan to the 15th Convocation of the Iranian Majlis, ensuring the election of deputies who are supporters of the separatist movement on the basis of

the following slogans:

a) Allotment of land to the peasants from state and large landowning holdings and awarding long-term

monetary credit to the peasants;

b) Elimination of unemployment by the restoration and expansion of work at enterprises and also by developing road construction and other public works;

c) Improvement of the organization of public amenities of cities and the public water supply;

d) Improvement in public health;

e) Use of no less than 50% of state taxes for local needs;

f) Equal rights for national minorities and tribes: opening schools and publication of newspapers and books

in the Azerbaijani, Kurdish, Armenian, and Assyrian languages; court proceedings and official communications in local institutions in their native language; creating a provincial administration, including the gendarmerie and police, from local national elements; formation of regional,

district, and city enjumens [and] local self-governing bodies.

g) Radical improvement in Soviet-Iranian relations.

6. Combat groups armed with weapons of foreign manufacture are to be created with the objective of selfdefense for pro-Soviet people [and] activists of the separatist movement of democratic and Party organizations. Entrust Cde. [Nicolai] Bulganin together with Cde. Bagirov with carrying out this point.

7. Organize a Society for Cultural Relations Between Iran and the Azerbaijani SSR to strengthen cultural and propaganda work in Southern Azerbaijan.

8. To draw the broad masses into the separatist movement, [we] consider it necessary to create a “Society

of Friends of Soviet Azerbaijan” in Tabriz with branches in all regions of Southern Azerbaijan and Gilyan.

9. Entrust the CC CP(b) of Azerbaijan with organizing publication of an illustrated magazine in Baku for distribution in Iran and also three new newspapers in Southern Azerbaijan.

10. Commit the OGIZ [State Publishing House](Yudin) to allocating three flat-bed printing presses for the use of the CC CP(b) of Azerbaijan to create printing resources [tipografskaya baza] for the Democratic Party of Southern Azerbaijan.

11. Commit the Narkomvneshtorg [People’s Commissariat for Foreign Trade] (Cde. [Anastas] Mikoyan) with providing good paper for the publication of the illustrated magazine in Baku and also the three new daily newspapers in Southern Azerbaijan; the total press run is to be no less than 30,000 copies.

12. Permit the NKVD of the Azerbaijan SSR, under the observation of Cde. Bagirov, to issue permission for departure to Iran and return from Iran of persons being sent on business connected with putting these measures into effect.

13. To finance the separatist movement in Southern Azerbaijan and also to hold elections to the 15th Convocation of the Iranian Majlis; to create in the CC CP(y) of Azerbaijan a special fund of one million foreign-currency rubles (“for conversion into tumans”).

6 July 1945

CC VKP(b) Politburo

[Source: GAPPOD AzR, f. 1, op. 89, d. 90, ll. 4-5. Obtained by Jamil Hasanli. Translated for CWIHP by Gary Goldberg.]

DOCUMENT No. 3

Secret Soviet Instructions on Measures to Carry out Special Assignments throughout Southern Azerbaijan and the Northern Provinces of Iran,

14 July 1945

Strictly Secret

Measures to carry out special assignments throughout Southern Azerbaijan and the northern provinces of

Iran

I. The Question of Creating the Azerbaijani Democratic Party
1. Immediately organize [the] transport of Pishevari and Kombakhsh to Baku for talks. Depending on the

results of the talks keep in mind [the] transport to Baku of Padekan [sic! “Padegan” in other documents], the Chairman of the District Committee of the People’s Party of

Azerbaijan.

2. To create organizing committees in the center (Tabriz) and elsewhere [na mestakh], within a month select candidates from authoritative democratic elements from the intelligentsia, middle-class merchants, small and average landowners, and the clergy in various democratic parties, and also from non-party members and bring them into the organizing committees of the Azerbaijan Democratic Party.

The first priority is to create an organizing committee in Tabriz which, via the existing democratic press Khavar Nou, Azhir, Dzhodat and others, will publish an appeal to organize an Azerbaijani Democratic Party and print leaflets.

3. With the appearance of the appeal, initiative groups elsewhere will speak out in the press in its support and create Azerbaijani Democratic Party committees from the most active organizations of the People’s Party and other democratic organizations and elements. Do not permit a mechanical renaming of organizations of the People’s Party to committees of the Azerbaijani Democratic Party. Recommend that the Tabriz district committee and its local organizations of the People’s Party discuss the appeal of the Azerbaijani Democratic Party, decide to disband the organizations of the People’s Party and enter its members in the Azerbaijani Democratic Party.

4. After establishing the organizing committee of the Azerbaijani Democratic Party in Tabriz the first priority is to create local committees of the Azerbaijani Democratic Party in the following cities: Ardebil’, Rezaye, Khoy, Mianeh, Zanjan, Maraghe, Marand, Mahabad, Maku, Qazvin, Rasht, Pahlavi, Sari, Shakh, Gorgan, and Mashhad. Send representatives of the central organizing committee to organize the committees in these cities. Systematically place positive responses and calls to join the Azerbaijani Democratic Party in the democratic press.

5. Create a press agency in the organizing committee of the Azerbaijan Democratic Party in Tabriz under the name “Voice of Azerbaijan”.

6. Organize the drafting of programs and a charter for the Tabriz organizing committee.

II. Ensuring the Election of Deputies to the 15th Convocation of the Majlis

1. Begin talks with deputies of the Majlis who are supporting them during the elections to the Majlis for this convocation with the object of nominating these deputies to the 15th Convocation under the condition that they fight for the implementation of the slogans of the Azerbaijani Democratic Party.

2. Begin work to nominate candidates for deputy to the Majlis from democratic elements who would fight for the implementation of the slogans of the Azerbaijani Democratic Party.

3. Review the list of deputies recommended by the Embassy in light of [these] new tasks.

4. Organize a broad popularization of the selected candidates for election to the Majlis in the press and their

contacts [and] meetings with voters.

5. Support meetings, demonstrations, strikes, and the disbanding [razgon] of electoral commissions unsuitable for us with the objective of ensuring our interests in the elections.

6. In the process of preparing for the elections, compromise and expel from the electoral districts of

northern Iran candidates nominated by reactionary circles [who are] actively operating against the candidates of the democratic movement.

7. Demand the replacement of unsuitable reactionaryminded leaders of local bodies [vlasti].

III. Creation of the “Society of Friends of Soviet Azerbaijan”
1. In the matter of organizing the “Society of Friends of Soviet Azerbaijan”, use the delegates participating in the jubilee celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Azerbaijan SSR.

2. Recruit the workers of our consulates, military commandants, and their active [Party] members into the

organization of the Society.

3. The organizing group of the “Society of Friends of Soviet Azerbaijan” in Tabriz is to draw up the charter of the Society.

4. To widely attract the population to the “Society of Friends of Soviet Azerbaijan”, use the press to systematically illustrate the achievements of the economy, culture, and art of Soviet Azerbaijan and the historical friendship of the peoples of Southern Azerbaijan and the peoples of Soviet Azerbaijan.

IV. The Organization of the Separatist Movement
1. Organize work to develop a separatist movement to create: an Azerbaijani Autonomous District [and] a Kurdish Autonomous District with broad powers. In Gorgan, Gilyan, Mazandaran, and Khorasan

provinces organize the separatist movement along local [korennyye] questions, in particular: in Gilyan Province:

The organization of public services and amenities in the cities of Rasht [and] Pahlavi, leaving no less than 50% of the tax proceeds collected from the province for this purpose; in Gorgan Province:

Study in the native Turkmen language in the schools; replacement of the local organization, gendarmerie, and police with Turkomans, leaving no less than 50% of the tax proceeds collected from the province for public services, amenities, and health in Gonbad-e-Kavus, Gorgan, and Bandar Shah. in Mazandaran and Khorasan Provinces:

1. Return of land to small and average landowners taken by Reza Shah (amlyak lands).

2. Leaving no less than 50% of tax proceeds collected from the province for public services and amenities of the cities of Sari, Shah, Mashhad, and New Quchan. Additionally, bring to light locally such questions so as to organize a separatist movement in the above provinces. Raise the demand to conduct land reform not only in Southern Azerbaijan but in [regions] regions of the northern provinces of Iran.

V. Organization of Enjumens
1. After creating the organizing committees of the Azerbaijan Democratic Party at the same time as work is

conducted to elect deputies to the 15th Convocation of the Majlis, develop a campaign to organize njumens, using the electoral enthusiasm of the population for this purpose.

VI. Organization of Press Organs
1. To organize all the agitation work via the press, establish a publishing house for new magazines in the

cities of Rasht, Rezaye, and Mahabad in addition to the existing newspapers.

[illegible signatures]

14.7.45

[Source: GAPPOD AzR), f. 1, op. 89, d. 90, ll. 9-15. Obtained by Jamil Hasanli. Translated for CWIHP by Gary Goldberg.]

See also the top secret 11 June 1945 draft decree of

the CC CPSU for “Measures to Organize a Separatist Movement in Southern Azerbaijan and Other Provinces of Northern Iran.” Handwritten across the upper left-hand corner: “One copy for Yemel’yanov.” Distribution: 1-2 Cde. Molotov; 3-4 Cde. Bagirov;5- Cde. Kavtaradze.