'Military report on Tehran and adjacent Provinces of North-West Persia (including the Caspian Littoral)' [‎32v] (69/610)

52
in a difficult position. There was some uncertainty as to the
reception he would receive in Baku, where the Bolshevik party
had gained ground ; and Kuchik Khan, the leader of the Jangali
movement in Gilan, was distinctly hostile and refused to allow
him to embark at Enzali. He was forced to abandon, for the
time being the object of his mission, and returned to Kazvln.
Jangcih's Kuchik 1 Khan,—an adventurer of peasant origin, who had
their origin, fought for the Constitution and been implicated in less creditable
growth and disturbances—had headed the Jangali movement in 1915 at
attitude in 1918 . instigation of the Turks. His earlier efforts were directed against
the Russian line of communications in Gilan, and caused so
much annoyance to the Russians that, after the failure of
Persian expeditions, they attacked the band with Russian
troops and succeeded in temporarily scattering them. Their
leader, however, escaped and gradually collected a larger fol
lowing, and since the debacle of his old enemies, the Russians,
after the revolution, had become a formidable power. He now
directed the affairs of the Jangali movement from his head
quarters at Kasma, some 18 miles west of Rasht; had a firm
hold over Gilan ; was extending his influence into Mazandaran,
Kazvin, Zinjan and Ardabil; was in touch with the revolutionary
party in Azarbaijan ; and was becoming a real menace to the
Shah’s Government.
His fundamental objects were opposition to the Russians
and redress of the wrongs endured by the peasantry at the hands
of unjust landlords and an oppressive government. Latterly
he had inclined, under the influence of German and Turkish
emissaries, toward the pan-Islamic policy of a great Muham
madan State embracing Caucasus and Transcaspia.
Under the same influence he now became anti-British, and
in the beginning of March imprisoned the British Vice-Consul
and the Manager of the Rasht branch of the Imperial Bank of
Persia. He defended this action on the ground that Sulaiman-
Mirza, a noted ultra democrat, had been arrested by the British
in Persian territory; and he demanded the release of this man
before giving up his prisoners. This demand was ignored as
Sulaiman Mirza had been detected in plotting with the Turks,
and had been seized, on February 8th, in enemy ground on the
Turkish frontier near Khaniqin. The Rasht prisoners were soon
allowed to return to their houses, and were fairly well treated,
under surveillance, until they secured freedom, in June, on the
entry into Rasht of Bicherakoff’s men, but Captain Noel, a
1 For an account of the origin, growth and subsequent history of the Jan-
gali movement see the sketch of Gilan history in para. 5 below, pages 76-85.