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The Contentious Historiography of the Gilan Republic in Iran: A Critical Exploration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Janet Afary
Janet Afary*
Affiliation:
Department of History, Purdue University
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Extract

The Rise and Demise of the 1920-21 Soviet Socialist Republic of Iran in Gilan played like an intense drama in modern Iranian history. It provided Iran with an example of a national liberation movement and a peasant-backed guerrilla force; it introduced to the country the founders of the Iranian Communist Party, exercising social authority and power in what they considered to be a liberation movement; it offered a brief experiment with socialism which ended tragically. Its principal leader, Mirza Kuchik Khan, combined an intense radical nationalism with a strong sense of politically engaged Shi'ism, thus providing Iranian opposition movements in the twentieth century with some of their archetypal characteristics. The defeat of the republic led to the death of Mirza Kuchik Khan (1880—1921) and the continued domination of Iran by Britain.

Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 28 , Issue 1-2 , Spring Winter 1995 , pp. 3 - 24
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 1995

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Footnotes

*

An early draft of this article was presented at the 1993 Middle East Studies Association annual meeting at Triangle Park, North Carolina. I am grateful for the very helpful comments by Reza Afshari, Kevin Anderson, John Foran, Pezhmann Dailami, and Farhad Kazemi.

References

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3. Fakhra'i, Ibrahim, Sardār-i jangal: Mīrzā Kuchik Khān (Tehran: Asiman Publications, 1365 Sh./1986), 52–3Google Scholar.

4. Ibid., 55.

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9. Former Prime Minister Amin al-Dawlah recounts this episode about his father in his memoirs. See Kayhān (London), 4 June 1991. See also Fakhra'i, Sardār-i jangal,87Google Scholar

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13. See the collection Jangal (Tehran: Mawla Press, 1360 Sh./1981).

14. Fakhra'i, Sardār-i jangal; Yeqikian, Shūravī. The very important period of spring and summer of 1920 was first discussed by Yeqikian in a series of articles entitled “Seventeen Months of Revolution in Gilan” in his journal Sitārah-yi Īrān in 1921 (later published as part of Shūravī). In these articles he introduced a number of key documents of the period, including exchanges between Kuchik Khan and Soviet leaders. Many of these documents were reproduced in Fakhra'i, Sardār-i jangal. Yeqikian, who lived in Rasht during the period of the Gilan Republic, was in regular contact with most of the key personalities of the episode. By this time he was a Menshevik and hence an opponent of the October 1917 Bolshevik revolution, and he presented a critical view of the Soviet authorities in Gilan. An astute observer, who was enamored neither of Kuchik Khan nor any other participant, Yeqikian was apparently consulted by all the contenders for power in Gilan, including British officials (to whom he secretly reported on the events in Iran) and the Soviets. His account begins with the establishment of the Gilan Republic in the spring of 1920 and ends with the return of Soviet forces to Rasht late in the summer of 1920.

15. Thus, Ahrar begins his biographical novel of Mirza Kuchik Khan with the following statement: “Half a century before the Cuban revolution, a revolution with the same characteristics took place in the green lands of northern Iran and another revolutionary called Mirza Kuchik led his bearded men to power” (Mardī az jangal [Tehran: ‘Ilmi Press, 1967], 1). See also Langarudi, Riza Rizazadah, ed., Yādgārnāmah-yi Fakhrā'i (Tehran: Nashr-i Naw, 1363 Sh./1984)Google Scholar; Kuchikpur, Sadiq, Nahżat-i jangal va awżd'-i farhangī-ijtimā ‘ī-yi Gīlān va Qazvīn, ed. Abu al-Qasimi, Muhammad Taqi Mir (Rasht: Gilakan Press, 1369 Sh./1990)Google Scholar; Adinah, Dustan-i, Buzurg mardī az ṭabar-i jangal: Yadnāmah-yi Ibrāhim Fakhrā'ī (Tehran: Talayah Press, 1368 Sh./1989)Google Scholar.

16. See Kasravi, Tārīkh-i hījdah sālah-yi Āẕarbāyjān (Tehran: Amir Kabir Press, 1357 Sh./1978), 2:817Google Scholar. For Fakhra'i's response see Sardār-i jangal, 439–40.

17. See Fakhra'i, Sardār-i jangal, 431Google Scholar, 456. In one of his last interviews in 1980, Fakhra'i reiterated his position that Khan, Kuchik “was a follower of the school of democracy and a steadfast believer in socialism.” See Damūn 13 (Azar 1359 Sh./December 1980): 2 (Rasht)Google Scholar. This interview was part of two commemorative issues on the Jangal Movement.

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21. Dailami, “Bolsheviks,” 47Google Scholar.

22. See Jangal, 8 Safar 1336/24 November 1917.

23. Dailami, “Bolsheviks,” 47Google Scholar.

24. For a summary of these activities see Jubinah, Fakhtah, “Iqdāmāt-i farhangī, rifähī, va ‘umrānī dar nahzat-i jangal,” Gīlahvā 2, no. 15 (Aban-Azar 1361 Sh./November 1992): 6–8Google Scholar.

25. Dailami, “Bolsheviks,” 47–9Google Scholar. The Jangalis sometimes found an opportunity to reciprocate. In March 1918 the Jangalis sent 150 men to Russian Astara to aid the Bolsheviks who were outnumbered by the White Russians in the area.

26. Ibid., 49. For more information on the Baku Commune see Suny, Ronald G., The Baku Commune, 1917–1918: Class and Nationality in the Russian Revolution (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972)Google Scholar.

27. Lenczowski, Russia and the West, 55Google Scholar.

28. The new governor of Gilan, Taymurtash, who was appointed by Vusuq al-Dawlah, began indiscriminate arrests of many Gilani peasants on charges of collaboration with Kuchik Khan. This in turn weakened the movement, which was already decimated by military defeats and internal divisions.

29. Fakhra'i, Sardār-i jangal, 174Google Scholar.

30. Ibid., 178. 31. See Yeqikian, Shūravī, 47–8Google Scholar; Fatemi, Nasrollah Saifpour, Diplomatic History of Persia, 1917–1923 (New York: Russell F. Moore, 1952), 213Google Scholar; Fakhra'i, Sardār-i jangal, 245Google Scholar.

32. The correspondence appears in Yeqikian, Shūravī, 279–83Google Scholar.

33. For the minutes of these meetings see Second Congress of the Communist International, vols. 1–2 (London: New Park, 1977); see also Ravasani, Shahpur, Nahżat-i Mīrzā Kūchik Khān Jangalī va avvalīn jumhūrī-yi shawrā'ī dor Īrān (Tehran: Nashr-i Sham', 1368 Sh./1989), 195–217Google Scholar.

34. See Ri'isniya, Rahim, Ḥaydar ‘Amū Ughlū dor guẕar az tūfānhā (Tehran: Dunya Publications, 1360 Sh./198ljGoogle Scholar; Malik, Rahim Rizazadah, Chikīdah-yi inqilāb, Ḥaydar Khān ‘Amūghlī (Tehran, n.d.)Google Scholar; Ra'in, Isma'il, Haydar Khān ‘Amūghlī (Tehran: Javidan Press, 1352 Sh./1973)Google Scholar; idem, Asnād va khāṭirahhā-yi Ḥaydar Khān ‘Amū Ughlī (n.p., 1358 Sh./1979).

35. Ra'in, Ḥaydar Khān, 366Google Scholar. Ra'in seems to think that Haydar Khan was in Rasht for the 8 May 1921 agreement between him and Kuchik Khan. He was not. The agreement was signed by a proxy delegate. Most accounts seem to place Haydar Khan's actual entrance into Gilan in late July or August 1921. His late arrival probably also contributed to the defeat of the republic.

36. Rizazadah Malik, Chikīdah-yi inqilāb, 216Google Scholar.

37. Ibid., 240.

38. Ri'isniya, Ḥaydar Khān, 338–9Google Scholar.

39. Ibid., 346.

40. See Chaqueri, Cosroe, “Avetis Sultanzade: The Forgotten Revolutionary,” Iranian Studies (1984): 215–16CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

41. For a later analysis in English that summarizes many of these positions see Aqayev, S. L. and Plastun, V. N., “The Communist and National Liberation Movement in Iran in the 1920s” in Ulyanovsky, R. A., ed., The Comintern and the East: A Critique of the Critique (Moscow: Progress, 1981)Google Scholar. The views of more independent Marxists and many Iranian communists from the pre-Stalin era remain unknown to us. Future studies on the Gilan Republic with access to newly-released Soviet archives should shed considerable light on many issues.

42. Ibid., 316.

43. Most studies in English, German, and Persian by independent Iranian scholars have also shifted much of the blame for the defeat of the Gilan Republic onto Sultanzadah. While Shahpur Ravasani, as we shall see later, equally blames Soviet authorities and Sultanzadah for the defeat, Reza Ghods goes further, placing the blame for the events of the summer of 1920 almost entirely on the émigré members of the Iranian Communist Party as well as Gilani peasants, while ignoring the role of Soviet officials in Gilan in this period (Iran in the Twentieth Century, 79). See also Ravasani, Nahżat, 173–80Google Scholar.

44. Chaqueri, C., ed., Asnād-i tārīkhī-yi junbish-i kārgarī, susyāl dimukrāsī, va kumunīst-i Īrān (Tehran: Padzahr, n.d.)Google Scholar, esp. vols. 2 and 4. See also idem, Avetis Sultanzade: The Forgotten Revolutionary Theoretician (Tehran: Padzahr, 1364 Sh./1985).

45. Chaqueri, Asnād 4:25Google Scholar.

46. So far we have very little information on Abukov (or Obukh, as Russian sources indicate) or his intriguing wife Bulalah, both of whom were active in Gilan in this period and lost their lives after their return to the Caucasus.

47. See the “Fifth Session” in The Second Congress of the Communist International, 134–5.

48. For a discussion of some of these actions see Gilak, Muhammad ‘Ali, Tārīkh-i inqilāb-i jangal (Rasht: Gilakan Press, 1371 Sh./1992)Google Scholar. In his Écrits économiques Sultanzadah rejects the accusations that there were any wrongdoings by coup leaders or ICP members that summer. See Chaqueri, C., L'Union Sovietique et les tentatives de Soviets en Iran (Tehran: L'Institut Sultanzade pour la Recherche Ouvriére, 1983), 52–3Google Scholar.

49. See Nettl, J. P., The Soviet Achievement (Harcourt & Brace, 1967), 286Google Scholar; Pipes, Richard, The Formation of the Soviet Union (Harvard University Press, 1964), 230Google Scholar.

50. See Lewin, Moshe, Lenin's Last Struggle (New York: Random House, 1968)Google Scholar.

51. Serge, Victor and Trotsky, Natalia Sedova, The Life and Death of Leon Trotsky (New York: Basic Books, 1975), 167Google Scholar; Serge, Victor, Memoirs of a Revolutionary, 1901–1941 (Oxford University Press, 1967), 256Google Scholar.

52. Ravasani's doctoral dissertation in German was only partly translated into Persian in his Nahzat.

53. Ibid., 257.

54. Quoted in ibid., 246.

55. This two-track approach went beyond the routine policy of the Soviet Union, whereby the government pursued a more conciliatory line towards bourgeois governments while the Comintern assumed a more confrontational line. For more details on this conflict see Ravasani, Nahżat, 240–63Google Scholar.

56. See various reports in Damūn and Gīlahvā (1979–94). See also Kazemi, Farhad, “Peasant Uprisings in Twentieth-Century Iran, Iraq, and Turkey” in idem, ed.. Peasants and Politics in the Modern Middle East (Miami: Florida International University Press, 1991), 105–8Google Scholar. Kazemi shows how various radical movements in Gilan since the 1920s have named themselves after the Jangalis. See also Girugan, Hamid, Ḥamāsah-yi Mīrzā Kūchik Khān (Tehran: Ministry of Islamic Guidance, 1364 Sh./1985)Google Scholar, a government publication.

57. Giranmayah, ‘Ali, ‘“Jumhūrī-yi Gilan’ ya ‘Jumhüri-yi Īrān',” Gīlahvā 2, no. 9 (Khurdad 1373 Sh./April-May 1994): 6–7Google Scholar.

58. See Jubinah, “Iqdāmāt,” 6–8Google Scholar.

59. Gilak, Tārīkh.