'Persia. Handbooks prepared under the direction of the Historical Section of the Foreign Office - no 80' [‎25r] (56/164)

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Persia) NATIONAL MOVEMENT 43
British Government to leave Persia and return to
India; that almost simultaneously with the sending
of large bodies of fresh Russian troops into the
north of Persia, Indian troops were landed in the
south; that Russia prevented Sweden from sending
the additional 20 officers she had promised for the
gendarmerie; and on November 5, 1911, sent an
ultimatum to Persia demanding an apology for alleged
insults to Pokhitanoff, and, when this was accepted
(on November 23), sent a second still more severe ulti
matum demanding the dismissal of Mr. Morgan
Shuster.
This second ultimatum the Majlis rejected on the
following day. The bazaars were closed, and great
excitement prevailed in Teheran, the people crying
"Death or independence!" {Mary yd Istiqldll). So
far as the people of Tabriz and Resht were concerned,
it was death, for, though the Persian Government,
realising its impotence, submitted to the Russian
demands on December 23, 1911, fierce fighting had
already broken out in both these towns between the
Russian troops and the Persian volunteers. All re
sistance, however, was overcome in a week or ten days;
and in both places, but especially in Tabriz, terrible
reprisals were carried out by the Russians. On New
Year's Day, 1912, they publicly hanged eight leading
citizens of Tabriz, including the chief ecclesiastical
authority of the city, Thiqatu'l-Islam, the day of the
execution corresponding to the 'Ashiira, or lOth of
Muharram, the most solemn religious anniversary of the
Persians. This execution was followed by others, the
houses of the victims as well as several public buildings
being blown up with dynamite; and the Russians then
installed as a Governor the notorious •reactionary
Samad Khan Shuja/u'd-Dawla, 1 who for several months
maintained a reign of terror characterised by the most
shocking barbarities. Another later action of the
1 He was decorated by the Russian Government in October,
1914; fled from the Turks when they took Tabriz in January 1915;
and died unregretted in the following September.