Coll 28/112A ‘Persia. Tabriz – Monthly despatches of internal situation in Azerbaijan & misc. reports.’ [‎208r] (418/1237)

O - >i O*. -' W • , i-, - l axi • A'h©r« hav« been no overt oviet ac%%fltir*£ r
—; ,,apartance durli% the period uuder review,and no Ire&h^ »iga» oi*^' /.
uireot interlereno^ In the intermil aiieirs of aeroaijan* ; ;
ha& been learned since writing thw* last diary that-.the noticee
/osted by the Huasiaa 'Town Uo.jaandant,ordering the cleaniogt' cjCi;iabrH
street* (elary ho. 2i paragraph 331} were all removed the morning atter
tiiej were posted, and only the leraiaa Governor-Ueaeral * a notice in
pr^iioally identical terms allowed to stand. It is believed that they
w:. removed on tne advice of the vioviet Gonsul-ueneral#
ine Xrano-aoviet cultural Society continues to give free film shows
to 'iabrla voricere* Although it has displayed little other activity lately,
it Is evidently feeling the need lor funds, dn December I4th.,ft concert of
naerhai^an music was held for its benefit in the fabriz theatre. The
price of tickets was dials 500*
G39. .'n „y oF kUh Atui/U, . rroceseiona ol flagellants
oegait in Earaghe arid some other towns from the first of ^uharramfbut
there were no demonstrations in iabria before the 3th. bn the 9th.,a
number of snail processions paraded the city,but It was not until the
tenth (w-ecember 26th.) that the population turned out in force. It is said
that the Imam Hussein has not been commemorated with such feeling in debris
for the last twenty years, fhere were exhibitions of pious flagellation
and fervent carving ol crowns in every quarter of the city. The crowds of
men and woman were large,but everything seems to have passed off peaceably
and in a holiday spirit.
A service,intended particularly for the Persian military,was held
at one of the principal mosques,and was attended by the Governor-General,
tne command a at of iersian Troop* and very maiiy other officials and notable*
An address was delivered by oatarzadeh,a young Tabriz *ch *ol-teacher who
is usually called Upon to giv^ the ecaipany the benefit of hie eloquence
on such occasions, his *pa*oa was interpreted by some of those present,
including the Gaawandmnt of Troop*,as a dig at the Tudeh Tarty, in that he
madw pointed reference* to the nece**ity for obeying constituted authority,
for placing patriotism before party and sectarian interest©,etc. The
Gomnandant remarried,# little oftimistldally perh&ps»that what Tabriz
necaeu was more religion* occasions,to take the people’s minds* off
ilitie*.
a40. / .There has been only one public meeting la Tabriz
in the period under review. A certain am>unt of activity is going on in
the smaller towns and village*,but so far,few reliable report* of the
effect* of visits by Tudeh agitators are available. It is not likely that
they are making much headway,for there is too little ©oasaunity of interest
between the pe sants and the industrial workers of the city. But there is
no doubt that the party can win a certain amount of support if it takes
up strongly such typical peasant grievances aa the distributioa of land
snd the op, ression ol the gendarmerie. There is all too much evidence
that the peasants have genuine cause for com/Taint in both the** matters*
some landlord* miiiimize the threat to their security and rents implied by
this c&aip*iga,aud affirm cojaf‘id*ntly that their tenant* will not listen
to demagogues. Ahmed Isfahan!,a leader of tne ,orkera 1 Union,for example,
was said by one of the biggest landowners of Az&rsnahr to have been run out
of thfct village by tne peasant* he earn* to oarsague. On the other hand,
v it is known th, t the Tudeh * arty is etrsmger in kezaleh,where tae
population 1* mostly of the peasant class,or near it,than it is
proportionately in Tabriz.
On. December loth., tue ireedom front or. eni**d e dsmongtratiou in
Tabriz on the occasion of the fortieth Boy after tne burial of the man
killed by police lire in the disturoanoe of nctober 30th. A procession
formed up in the town,and swelled,by the time it reached the ceiaetery,to
about 2, /DO people. There was no clash with the police,but there were a
few scufflea among the demonstrators themselves,and one man had hi* eye
blacked as an adherent of ..eyyid Ala* The workers’leaders,Birya and
.Aimed Isfahan!,and two less known >rutorB,maarafat and adagsni,addressed
/the