Valuable agricultural lands were located in the immediate proximity of Russia and were seen as underdeveloped and at the same time naturally gravitating towards Russia. Interestingly, in northern Iran Russian colonization preceded military conquest, unlike in most of Central Asia and the Caucasus. The information on the Russian settlements in northern Iran found in the travelogues is scarce and fragmented. In 1914, G. K. Mogilev, who had traveled to Iran, published a book entitled Persian Lands60 to provide some information for and give practical advice to those interested in migrating to Iran or working or trading there. Since foreign subjects were formally not allowed to purchase land in Iran and the landowning patterns there were in general intricate, he pays special attention to the issues of land purchase or land leasing.
In 1915, B. Bezsonov, a member of the Council of the Department of Press, went to northern Iran on the assignment of the Department of Migration at the Ministry of Agriculture, and published the results of his trip in a work entitled Russian Migrants in Northern Persia. 62 He provides detailed information on such topics as the geographic and natural conditions in the Astarabad province, health conditions, trade, roads, ownership of land and the local Persian and Turcoman populations there. He talks about Russian villages and even gives the population of each village; for example, Rozhdesvenskii village consisted of 10 families with 50 people.63 He goes on to detail the history of each settlement, its economy and problems. A map of the Russian settlements is attached. The book was published in 1915, during World War I, when Russia was one of the forces occupying Iran. Russian colonial administration tried to take advantage of the situation and speed up the colonization of the lands occupied in the Astarabad province. Bezsonov expresses his hopes for “new political perspectives” in connection with the war to expand the Russian colonization of northern Iran. He openly talks about settlers as pioneers who will help to turn northern Iran into a Russian border province and further elaborates on the future of this potentially wealthy area which, he avers, can only be developed and brought to progress and prosperity by Russians.
Another travel account dealing with Russian emigrants to northern Iran is that written by N. Solovkin who in the early twentieth century spent five years serving on the southern coast of the Caspian Sea and published his account in 1916. He talks about Russian emigrants to Persian Turkmenia, to the Province of Astarabad and other Caspian provinces. Solovkin describes the unhealthy climate, which often proved fatal to the migrants. He also gives the names of some new Russian villages, such as Saratovskii, Pokrovskii, and Kreshchenskii on the River Gurgan. The complicated process of leasing lands is another important issue treated in Solovkin’s account. In regard to the Russian (eastern) sector of Enzeli, Solovkin notes that the population was growing steadily and that the proportion of relatively well-educated emigrants was significant among office employees and merchants, which made the foundation of a school, a library and other educational institutions necessary.
The Russian colonization of Iran failed because of the February Revolution and the Bolshevik coup of 1917 in Russia. The Russian imperial policy of colonization was ended and the settlers were abandoned in Iran.
Russian military aims and activities in Iran
