Iran–Russia relations

Relations between Russia and Persia (pre-1935 Iran), officially commenced in 1592, with the Safavids in power.

Since then, mutual relations have been turbulent often, and dormant at others.

History of Iran-Russia relations

Pre-Pahlavi era

Irano-Russian relations particularly picked up as a weakened Safavid empire gave way to the Qajarid dynasty in the mid-18th century. The first Persian Ambassador to Russia was Mirza Abolhassan Khan Ilchi Kabir. The Qajarid government was quickly absorbed with managing domestic turmoil, while rival colonial powers rapidly sought a stable foothold in the region. While the Portuguese, British, and Dutch competed for the south and southeast of Persia in the Persian Gulf, the Russian Empire largely was left unchallenged in the north as it plunged southward to establish dominance in Persia's northern territories.

Plagued with internal politics, the Qajarid government found itself incapable of rising to the challenge of facing, or even recognizing, its northern threat from Russia.

A weakened and bankrupted royal court, under Fath Ali Shah, was forced to sign the notorious Treaty of Gulistan in 1813, followed by the Treaty of Turkmenchay after efforts by Abbas Mirza failed to secure Persia's northern front.

With the Russian Empire continuously advancing south in the course of two wars against Persia, and the treaties of Turkmanchai and Golestan in the western frontiers, plus the unexpected death of Abbas Mirza in 1823, and the murder of Persia's Grand Vizier ("Mirza AbolQasem Qa'im Maqām"), Persia lost its traditional foothold in Central Asia to the Russian Tsarist armies. " [Nasser Takmil Homayoun. "Kharazm: What do I know about Iran?". 2004. ISBN 964-379-023-1 p.78] " The Russian armies occupied the Aral coast in 1849, Tashkent in 1864, Bukhara in 1867, Samarkand in 1868, and Khiva and Amudarya in 1873. The Treaty of Akhal, in which the Qajarid's were forced to cede Khwarazm, topped off Persian losses to the global emerging power of Imperial Russia.

By the end of the 19th century, the Russian Empire's dominance became so pronounced that Tabriz, Qazvin, and a host of other cities were occupied by Russia, and the central government in Tehran was left with no power to even select its own ministers without the approval of the Anglo-Russian consulates. Morgan Shuster, for example, had to resign under tremendous British and Russian pressure on the royal court. Shuster's book "The Strangling of Persia" [Morgan Shuster, "The Strangling of Persia: Story of the European Diplomacy and Oriental Intrigue That Resulted in the Denationalization of Twelve Million Mohammedans". ISBN 0-934211-06-X] is a recount of the details of these events, a harsh criticism of Britain and Imperial Russia.

These, and a series of climaxing events such as the Russian shelling of Mashad's Goharshad Mosque in 1911, and the shelling of the Persian National Assembly by the Russian Colonel V. Liakhov, led to a surge in widespread anti-Russian sentiments across the nation.

See a photo of a burial of a Russian road engineer in Qazvin here: [http://www.iranian.com/Kasraie/2005/October/Qazvin/20.html]

Pahlavi era

One result of the public outcry against the ubiquitous presence of Imperial Russia in Persia was the Constitutionalist movement of Gilan. The rebellion, headed by Mirza Kuchak Khan led to an eventual confrontation between the Iranian rebels and the Russian army, but was disrupted with the October Revolution in 1917.

Russian involvement however continued on with the establishment of the short-lived Persian Socialist Soviet Republic in 1920, followed by the Republic of Mahabad, the last effort by Soviet Russia to establish a communist republic in Iran.

In 1941, as the Second World War raged, Soviet Russia and Great Britain launched the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran, ignoring Iran's plea of neutrality.

In a revealing cable sent on July 6th 1945 by the "Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union", the local Soviet commander in Russian (northern) held Azerbaijan was instructed as such:

:"Begin preparatory work to form a national autonomous Azerbaijan district with broad powers within the Iranian state and simultaneously develop separatist movements in the provinces of Gilan, Mazandaran, Gorgan, and Khorasan"." [Decree of the CC CPSU Politburo 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". Translation provided by The Cold War International History Project at The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.]

The end of World War Two brought the start of American dominance in Iran's political arena, and with an anti-Soviet Cold War brewing, the United States quickly moved to convert Iran into an anti-communist block, thus ending Russia's influence on Iran for years to come.

Post 1979

During the Iran–Iraq War, the USSR supplied Saddam Hussein with large amounts of conventional arms. Ayatollah Khomeini deemed Islam principally incompatible with the communist ideals of the Soviet Union, leaving the secular Saddam as an ally of Moscow.

After the war, especially with the fall of the USSR, Tehran-Moscow relations witnessed a sudden increase in diplomatic and commercial relations, and Iran soon even began purchasing weapons from Russia.

By the mid 1990s, Russia had already agreed to continue work on developing Iran's Nuclear Program, with plans to finish constructing the nearly 20 year delayed Nuclear Reactor plant of Bushehr.

Current relations

In 2005, Russia was the seventh largest trading partner of Iran, with 5.33% of all exports to Iran originating from Russia. [ [http://www.payvand.com/news/06/may/1046.html The Cost of Economic Sanctions on Major Exporters to Iran] by Nader Habibi] Trade relations between the two exceed USD$1 billion. [ [http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/?NewsCode=20922&NewsKind=Business+%26+Economy Trade with Russia up] , IranMania.com, 2003-12-25]

As confrontation between the United States and the European Union on one side and Iran on the other escalates, Tehran is finding itself further pushed into an alliance with Beijing and Moscow. And Iran, like Russia, "views Turkey's regional ambitions and the possible spread of some form of pan-Turkic ideology with suspicion". [Herzig Edmund, "Iran and the former Soviet South", Royal Institute for International Affairs, 1995, ISBN 1-899658-04-1, p.9]

Russia and Iran also share a common interest in limiting the political influence of the United States in Central Asia. This common interest has led the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to extend to Iran observer status in 2005, and offer full membership in 2006. Iran's relations with the organization, which is dominated by Russia and China, represents the most extensive diplomatic ties Iran has shared since the 1979 revolution.

The solidity of Tehran-Moscow ties remains to be seen and tested however. Russia is increasingly becoming dependent on its economic relations with the West, and is thus gradually becoming vulnerable to western pressures in trying to curb its ties with Tehran. Iran has also expressed its unhappiness with the repeated delays by Russia in finishing the Bushehr Reactor project, as well as Russia's stance in the Caspian Sea dispute.

Unlike previous years in which Iran's air fleet were entirely western made, Iran's Air Force and civilian air fleet are increasingly becoming Russian built as the US and Europe continues to maintain sanctions on Iran. [See:
*BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4504434.stm
*http://www.payvand.com/news/04/mar/1195.html
*http://www.ainonline.com/Publications/dubai/2005/d1iranp41.htm]

References

Further reading

*Kazemzadeh, Firuz, "Russia and Britain in Persia, A study in Imperialism", 1968, Yale University Press.

ee also

*Foreign relations of Iran
*Iran-China relations
*Russo-Persian War, 1826-1828
*Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907 in which Persia was proposed to be partitioned

External links

* [http://www.worldpress.org/Mideast/1185.cfm World Press Review: Bear Hugs, Iran-Russian relations]