The conventional European chronology of the First World War begins in 1914 and ends in 1918. For Iranians however, the war period lasted longer, at least within its own national frontiers. Following the Constitutional Revolution (1905-1909), in 1911 Russian military forces occupied the northern provinces of Iran and imposed an ultimatum on the government of Iran to observe the Russian interest in the country. This ultimatum concluded with the closure of the Second Parliament. The end of the war in Iran was also three years later than the Armistice in Europe: the last British troops withdrew from southern Iran, and the Russian Red Army from northern Iran in 1921.
On 11 Šaʿbān/8 September, at British insistence, a joint British and Russian deputation to the shah recommended the restoration of a Majles. The Russian motivation in making this request stemmed from concerns that Persian royalist forces might prove incapable of defeating the revolutionary camp in the long-run. Russia, therefore, regarded the re-establishment of some form of a Majles as a compromise measure averting the total collapse of the Persian autocracy (Ketāb-e nāranji, I, p. 276; Kazemzadeh, pp. 514-15). Grey was reacting to the mounting domestic criticism of his Persian policy, as well as seeking a speedy resolution of the Persian crisis which was diverting his attention away from more pressing European issues and threatening to impede smooth Anglo-Russian cooperation in the region. Moreover, it was hoped that a public pledge from the shah to restore the Majles would undermine the legitimacy of the revolutionary insurgency that had broken out in the northwestern city of Tabriz, led by Sattār Khan and Bāqer Khan (q.v.), and was keeping the Persian nationalist-constitutional movement alive and serving as a focal rallying point for British foreign-policy dissenters. British foreign-policy dissenters, for their part, were insistent that any reconvened Majles should consist of the former members, many of whom were now in hiding or exile, instead of a rubber-stamp parliament, and that the constitution of 1906 should be restored in toto (Cambridge, Browne Papers, Box 9, Lynch to Browne, 22 November 1908). Moreover, they demanded the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from northern Persia, where they were assisting the royalist forces in the Persian civil war.
[PDF] The Persian revolution of 1905-1909
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The landing of a detachment of British Bluejackets in the southern Persian port city of Bušehr on 10 April 1909, reportedly for pacifying marauder tribesmen who were disrupting British (Indian) trade on the southern roads, caused grave alarm among Persian nationalists, who feared the move signaled a preparatory stage in a definitive Anglo-Russian partition of Persia. The Bluejackets were eventually withdrawn on 22 May. Meanwhile, in late April, Russian forces entered Tabriz. The Russian occupation of Tabriz, and subsequent atrocities committed against suspected nationalists in that city, failed to terminate the Persian civil war. In June, the Baḵtiāri forces from the south, and the revolutionary detachment from the northern province of Gilān, staged a two-pronged march on the Persian capital. Both Britain and Russia warned the revolutionary forces to halt their advance (The Times, 28 June 1909, p. 5). Disregarding this warning, on 25 Jomādā II 1327/14 July 1909, the revolutionary forces entered the capital. Within two days, Moḥammad-ʿAli Shah abdicated the throne and took refuge at the Russian legation (to be succeeded by the teen-age crown prince Aḥmad). The nationalist/constitutional forces were now in control of the Persian capital, but Russian military presence in the north continued unabated.
During the Constitutional Revolution, it was one of the few cities in Iran open to novel ideas since it was the gateway into Iran from the Caucaus. The most progressive, famous diplomats came this province providing intellectual fuel for the movement, and like Taqizadeh were known for their revolutionary spirit.149 He believed that Iran needed to become European in order to progress, but later toned down this view.150 2ff7e9595c
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