Coll 28/112A ‘Persia. Tabriz – Monthly despatches of internal situation in Azerbaijan & misc. reports.’ [‎128r] (256/1237)

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both Eastern and Western Azerbaijan the methods of intimidation used have
included assault and threats of murder.
12. It has been said in a previous appreciation that the Tudeh party’s appeal
had no ideological content. As regards its usual propaganda among the workers
and peasants, this remains true, but it would be wrong to think of all the party
leaders in Azerbaijan merely as Russian-paid tools without any principles of their
own. While immediate self-interest may be, as in any other Eastern political
party, the chief motive, some of the leaders, like Shabistary and Isfahani, have a
grasp of Communist theory, and the party has attracted a number of young men
who are probably genuinely intent on social reform. Among them there is
Mohamed Mohamedluyi Abbasi, who has already translated some of the shorter
works of Marx and Lenin into Persian. It is not in any case to be expected that
any attempt would be made to preach theoretical communism to such an ignorant
and backward proletariat as this. The party seems to have chosen in practice the
shrewder way of trying to make the economic and social life of the province
conform to a pattern derived, however remotely, from Socialist theory: the
organisation of the various trades within the Workers’ Union, the consequent
raising of wages and imposing of conditions of work, the control and correction
of employers, the adoption by party officials to some extent of police and judicial
functions, and the project of operaiing bankrupt factories by and for the workers
(as yet only a project) may all be seen as part of this pattern.
13. The Freedom Front-cum-Tudeh party with Russian encouragement and
protection (as being the most useful auxiliary of Soviet policy in the province) has
been able to cast its net very wide. It has members from every stratum of the
population : loafers and bravos of Tabriz, porters, factory An East India Company trading post. -workers, peasants,
craftsmen, shopkeepers, students, journalists, even merchants and landlords as
well as political adventurers of all kinds. Its organisation is muddled and its
policies ill-defined, yet there are increasing signs that it is becoming self-conscious
and is trying to bring some order and discipline into its ranks, perhaps, as recent
proclamations would indicate, by the expulsion of the gangster element. It has,
moreover, adopted recently a more patriotic attitude, and even its worst enemies
admit that it talks sound sense on a number of local problems. Set against the
corruption and incompetence of the local government and the profiteering of the
wealthy its influence is not wholly evil.
14. Trade Union Movement .—Most of what has been said of the Freedom
Front applies to the Trade Union Movement. But the union faces a problem of
its own. It has been largely successful in its legitimate struggle for better rates
of pay and working conditions, only to find that the beginning of the industrial
slump in Azerbaijan is threatening unemployment on a large scale. The weapons
which the union developed to wrest advantages from the factory An East India Company trading post. owners when
things were going ’well—strikes and intimidation of individual owners—are
useless against intangible economic forces. A factory An East India Company trading post. owner may still be
imprisoned by union officials, but that does not solve the problem of where to find
the money to pay the workers.. There is some talk of the workers taking over the
factories themselves, but the same factors that make it impossible for the owners
to run them will, of course, continue to operate, and there is every sign that the
workers’ exasperation will find the obvious outlet of violence. Meanwhile the last
six months have seen a steady extension of the influence and membership of the
Workers’ Union : trades‘previously unorganised, such as the porters, have been
drawn into the fold, rates of wages have been fixed at higher levels, and the
union’s authority made pretty well absolute. There have been one or two feeble
attempts to set up rival unions, but these have been crushed as soon as announced.
Such Government machinery as did in theory exist for the settlement of trade
disputes—the Chamber of Industry and the industrial powers of the Farmander
—seems to have fallen out of use entirely. Only in the matter of the Union of
Civil Servants has the Government reacted : orders have apparently been received
from Tehran that any Government servant joining this union will be dismissed.
But it is most improbable that these orders will be carried out here.
15. Kurdish Affairs .—Little has been heard during the period under review
of the Kurdish autonomy movement, Gazi Mohamed, who is generally thought to
be its champion in Azerbaijan, has been absent most of the time in Tehran. There
have nevertheless been a few rumours of increasing membership of the “ J.K.”
(Young Kurd) Society, and of Russian interest in it. The operations conducted by
Sartip°Hushmand Afshar against Hama Rashid at Baneh in September-October
had few repercussions in this Consular District, though the subsequent tour of
Khalil Fahimi, Minister with .Portfolio, provided an opportunity for both the
“ J.K.” Society and individual chiefs to put their point of view before the Persian