Coll 28/112A ‘Persia. Tabriz – Monthly despatches of internal situation in Azerbaijan & misc. reports.’ [‎611v] (1225/1237)

3. Major-General Novikoff returned to Tabriz from Tehran with his stall
on the 21st October and received me on the following day. He told me oi the
official agreement to allow the local Administration to restore Jaw and ordei
without hindrance on the part of the forces of occupation. I spol\e to him ot
the local sugar problem and faulty distribution, and he promised to remedy ^
matters. I also spoke of the continued searching and pillaging of P ri vate houses
here by Russian officers and soldiers, and the major-general replied that any
offenders caught were severely dealt with, some having been shot.
4. Nevertheless, only a few days after our interview four Russian soldiers
visited the house of a well-known family in Tabriz late at night, cowed the
occupants with revolvers and made off with 25,000 rials and a large quantity of
jewellery. The Soviet authorities traced them and recovered the jewellery, but
not the money; I have not heard whether they were punished or not. It is, m
fact, an anomalous state of affairs, since, whether individual officers may or may
not loot with impunity, the Red Army continues to carry off loot officially or
semi-officially without any apparent misgiving, or even concealment. As I have
repeatedly reported, occupied buildings, whether Government offices or private
houses, are practically emptied of their contents when the troops leave them. I
myself saw one day last week, an army bus of the old char-a-banc type being
driven leisurely by two Soviet soldiers along the main street towards the station,
laden with rolled-up Persian carpets, and it is reasonably certain that these had
not been bought and paid for. When the Governor-General gave a reception
yesterday in honour of the Shah’s birthday he had to collect furniture and carpets
from various sources, as the Russian highest military officers had not left a thing
when they vacated the governorate a fortnight before.
5. In addition to the formal reception mentioned (held in the morning), the
Governor-General gave an evening party in the Town Hall, which was attended
by the Russian G.O.C. and his staff, and by many members of the Baku theatrical
company. Few Persian ladies graced the party this year, as nearly all the leading
local families have left weeks ago for Tehran, as already reported. The Royal
toast was given by the Turkish Consul-General (doyen of the Consular Corps here)
and replied to by the Governor-General, but the Russian Major-General made no
speech. The atmosphere was a reasonably friendly one, but hardly cordial.
6. On the night of the 23rd/24th October large forces of Russian troops,
with their armoured cars and transport vehicles, left the town in the direction
of the Soviet frontier. Rumours had been circulating for some days that all the
troops were going to leave Tabriz (and even Azerbaijan), and when the rumble of
military vehicles continued long after midnight, the civil and police authorities
began to become seriously alarmed. The first thing they seem to have done was
to post police guards hurriedly on their own offices and residences, so acute was
their fear of an immediate outbreak of disorder or looting if the Russian forces
really were withdrawing. Next day, however, it was seen that the Soviet
headquarters and many troops were still here, and on the 25th fresh troops (mostly
cavalry and what looked like light artillery) arrived from the north, possibly from
the Caucasus itself. In reply to my previous questions on departures of troops
all that the Soviet Brigadier would say was that ‘ ‘ re-grouping ’ ’ was taking
place. An interesting version current in some circles in the town is that the
Russians have decided to remove entirely the Russo-Armenian regiments which
they brought from over the frontier in the first weeks of the occupation. They
thought these regiments, speaking the same Azerbaijan dialect as in Tabriz and
district, would do useful work for them among the local population besides merely
military duties, but they have been disappointed (so the version runs). The
Armenian minority here is not popular with the preponderant Moslem population,
and is accused of containing some of the worst elements, including many who
were in the U.S.S.R. until a few years ago, when they came here as penniless and
godless “ refugees ”—or spies. Some of the Soviet soldiers who visited private
houses at night and extorted money in company with civilian informers are
thought to be of the Armenian race. But what worried the Russian commanders
most, it is said, is that such Armenians in the Red Army could easily find civilian
clothes and temporary shelter with the co-reglionists here when they decided to
desert, and afterwards could travel easily to other parts of Persia, being practic
ally indistinguishable from local Armenians. Many of the latter, pro-German
in sentiment, believe and have convinced their cousins in Russian uniform that
desperate fighting will soon occur when the German armies reach the Caucasus