Soviet appeal promises an end to partition of Iran

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.

After Russia’s February Revolution weakened tsarist authority, Khiabani and colleagues revived the Tabriz Democrat party branch. Iranian activists used the opening to reorganize.

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

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.

Article 7 of the Brest-Litovsk peace treaty committed the parties to respect Iran’s political and economic independence and territorial integrity. Iran was affected without being a signatory.

Karakhan’s note announced the Soviet rejection of tsarist privileges in Iran. It became a reference point for the later friendship treaty.