Khiabani revives the Tabriz Democrat organization

Mohammad Khiabani condemned the Russian ultimatum in an emergency Majlis session and defended Iranian sovereignty and self-determination. His speech opposed the cabinet’s willingness to accept foreign...

The cabinet and regent closed Iran’s Second Majlis and accepted Russian demands over financial adviser Morgan Shuster. Domestic executive action under external military pressure curtailed parliament’s...

Russian forces hanged Mirza Ali Theqat al-Islam in Tabriz. A reformist religious leader committed to constitutionalism, he became a victim of the military repression that accompanied Russian...

Russian troops shelled the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad and occupied its courtyard, killing pilgrims and damaging the complex. The attack exposed the violence of foreign intervention against a major...

Iran declared neutrality, but foreign armies operated on its territory. Russian military power remained a constraint on Iranian sovereignty.

The new Soviet government called for peace without annexations and rejected secret diplomacy. Its programme challenged the imperial practices that had constrained Iran.

A published Soviet appeal rejected the agreement dividing Iran into spheres and promised Russian troop withdrawal after hostilities. The promise raised hopes of recovering independence.

Article 10 of the Brest-Litovsk armistice recognized neutral Iran’s territorial inviolability and provided for Russian and Ottoman troop withdrawal. Iran’s situation entered the peace negotiations.

Trotsky informed Iran that Soviet Russia rejected the Anglo-Russian convention of 1907. Iran sought release from the arrangement that had allocated foreign spheres of influence.

An Iranian memorandum offered negotiations for treaties based on equality. Tehran sought to turn Russia’s revolutionary declarations into a different diplomatic relationship.