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Coll 28/112A ‘Persia. Tabriz – Monthly despatches of internal situation in Azerbaijan & misc. reports.’ [612r] (1226/1237)
The record is made up of 1 file (615 folios). It was created in 16 Dec 1941-6 Mar 1946. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
3
and Persia^—and so desertions were becoming far too numerous. Hence the
arrival of fresh Russian regiments, it is explained.
7. Whatever the facts, the nervousness of the local authorities at the thought
of the complete evacuation of Tabriz by the Russian forces is not altogther
unfounded. The police are not yet in a position to control the lawless elements
as effectively as the sight of Russian bayonets still does. During the last two
months there has been a good deal of thieving, pilfering and pick-pocketing among
the idle and unemployed, respect for the Persian Administration which collapsed
so ignominiously has not been restored, and there are several local demagogues
waiting for a chance to attack and possibly oust the Tehran-controlled local
Government which at present they are doing their best to discredit. It is quite
probable that if the Soviet forces suddenly left, looting of food, and other, shops
by the riff-raff would begin, followed by racial attacks on the detested and
allegedly Russophile Armenian inhabitants, and then by pseudo-political attacks
on local Government offices and buildings as an expression of discontent with
Tehran. Any such disorders in Tabriz might easily spread like wildfire among
the villages and small towns of all Azerbaijan, where there is still no sign of
official administration, although the gendarmerie are now beginning to reorganise
their former system of posts and patrols. The Russian troops, however, are not
leaving as feared, and a military review is believed to be planned for the
7th November, the anniversary of the revolution.
8. I have now heard of one Persian official in Azerbaijan who remained at
his post when all others fled on the 25th August. He was the chief of police at
Maragha, a small town 80 miles south-west of Tabriz, and said it was his
duty to remain. According to my informant on the spot, he was visited at his
private house by the Soviet detachment which occupied the town and shot dead
with a machine gun, his body being left outside until next day.
9. No Iraqi consular officer has yet arrived to replace the consul killed here
over two months ago, and it is said by one Iraqi merchant in touch with the
legation that three officials in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs at Bagdad have
resigned or threatened to resign rather than come to Tabriz.
I have, &c.
F. A. G. COOK.
About this item
- Content
Reports and correspondence concerning the internal situation in Azerbaijan and Tabriz during the region’s occupation by Soviet military forces, part of the Anglo-Soviet occupation of Persia [Iran] in the Second World War. The file chiefly comprises reports, submitted on a monthly (and later fortnightly) basis by the British Consul-General at Tabriz, reporting on events in Azerbaijan and Tabriz. Reports up to July 1942 are printed, while subsequent reports are typewritten. The typewritten reports are organised under subheadings that vary from one report to the next, but generally cover: weather; agriculture, locust movements, food supply and reports of hoarding; consular tours; the activities of consular colleagues and counterparts; local government, local politics, and elections; Kurdish affairs, including events at Rezaieh [Orūmīyeh]; Armenian affairs; public order; the activities of the Persian, Russian and United States military; trade, commerce and labour; transport and communications, including convoys, and the activities of the United Kingdom Commercial Corporation (UKCC); propaganda. From late 1944 onwards the reports increasingly focus on rising political and social unrest in Azerbaijan, which would eventually culminate in the Iran-Azerbaijan crisis of 1946. These later reports focus on the emergence and activities of new political parties (including the Tudeh Party and the Democratic Party), new political newspapers, and Soviet activities in Azerbaijan.
The file also includes: correspondence sent by the British Ambassador in Tehran, Reader William Bullard, forwarding the Tabriz Consul’s reports with comments to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs; note sheets covering numerous reports, giving a précis of the report’s contents; the translation of a report by the Persian Minister for War, secretly obtained by British sources, describing military and political conditions at Rezaieh, dated 17 May 1942 (ff 560-564); a report of a visit to Rezaieh in February 1945, compiled by the British Consul-General at Tabriz (ff 147-154).
The file includes a divider, which gives a list of correspondence references contained in the file by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.
- Extent and format
- 1 file (615 folios)
- Arrangement
The papers are arranged in approximate chronological order from the rear to the front of the file.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 617; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio.
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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Coll 28/112A ‘Persia. Tabriz – Monthly despatches of internal situation in Azerbaijan & misc. reports.’ [612r] (1226/1237), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/12/3524, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100069965570.0x00001b> [accessed 24 June 2026]
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- IOR/L/PS/12/3524
- Title
- Coll 28/112A ‘Persia. Tabriz – Monthly despatches of internal situation in Azerbaijan & misc. reports.’
- Pages
- front, front-i, 1ar, 2r:69v, 71r:136v, 138r:150v, 150ar:150av, 151r:194v, 196r:197v, 199r:300v, 302r:420v, 424r:560v, 565r:575v, 577r:581r, 583r:616v, back-i, back
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence