Coll 28/112A ‘Persia. Tabriz – Monthly despatches of internal situation in Azerbaijan & misc. reports.’ [‎601v] (1205/1237)

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two peasants were reported killed. Last week an affray was said to have occurred
in a village near Mianeh, where the villagers refused to surrender the usual quota
of wheat and produce to the landowner and gendarmes accompanying him.
Whatever the denials, the fact remains that the local prison is full, and almost
every time I go out I see wretched and ragged wights being hauled to gaol by ihe ^^
police. As I surmised in my last report, the greedy landowner ‘ arbabs, who
were the first to run away and hide in terror in August, are now returning when
they hear that Persian gendarmerie have restored order in a district. A suitable
bribe to the right official and they are given an escort of armed police to re-enter
their villages, frighten their miserable tenants and exact even more than in
former years. When J spoke of this to a leading official, he replied : What
do you expect ? In spite of all promises, the police and gendarmerie are
still receiving the same miserable salary as before—6 to 8 tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. (about 10s.)
a month, on which to keep a wife and family, and as the official incre
ment is not forthcoming they have to make a living wage in the same way as
before.” As I have told some leading Persians, there is little point in their
complaining to me of insidious Bolshevik propaganda among the people, while
some of them foment hatred and social unrest in this manner, just as their
unprincipled merchants, by hoarding and profiteering in staple commodities,
create bad feeling in the towns. But there is, of course, another side to the story,
in that the inhabitants of certain villages are ready to refuse to give their dues
either to the landowner or to the representatives of the Government itself, and,
in fact, have in some places written bold letters to the Governor-General to say so,
threatening armed resistance to any attempt to collect grain quotas or taxes. In
some cases it is alleged that junior Russian officers have encouraged the attitude
of revolt. The provincial Government’s task is therefore not an easy one.
4. I have already reported stories of Russian intrigues among the Kurds
of Azerbaijan. Recently more parties of such Kurds, somewhat deliberately
flaunting their tribal costumes, have been entertained in Tabriz by Soviet political
officers, taken to cinemas and theatres and shown Russian troops in barracks.
The leading cicerones are two Soviet officers named Alieff and Mirosknoff, both
obviously Moslems from Russian Azerbaijan. I have it on reliable authority that
about nine Kurdish chieftains in the Saqqiz-Sauj Bulagh area had arranged to
meet British officers a week ago at Bukan; someone told the Soviet Political
Bureau, who immediately sent their officers to collect the chieftains, including
two who had arrived early in Bukan. The Kurds were practically bundled into
cars under a show of Soviet kindness and hospitality, and taken to Tabriz. Two
were acquaintances of mine and tried to get into touch with me, feeling uncom
fortable in such unwonted Communist intimacy, but were unable to do so. Within
a day or two they were whisked off for a week’s trip to see the wonders of Baku,
and have not yet returned. In the old days the imperialist Russians used to try
and cultivate the Kurds in the hope of support in case of need in Azerbaijan,
but it is hard to see what hopes the Communist ideologists can have of such a
completely individualist, fanatically tribal and bigotedlv religious race of men.
I rallied the Russian Acting G.O.C. mildly on this subject, and he replied
stolidly that if the Soviet officers were moving among the Kurds (for once I was
not met with a denial) it was solely in the interests of general law and order.
Later on I learnt that the Russians had also taken some of the chiefs of the well-
known Shahsavan tribe to Eastern Azerbaijan on the cultural visit to Baku. They
must be very proud of something or other there, as a fortnight ago they collected
a so-called representative group of eight Tabriz citizens, including a doctor, a
journalist, a musician, and engineer and so on, and took them to Baku, whence
they have only just returned. They even invited Government officials without
consulting the Governor-General first, although they afterwards rectified this
slip.
5. A few days ago the Turkish Consul-General told me that some of his
community had learnt that they were marked down for death by gunmen hired
by the local Soviet Political Bureau or Ogpu, and he was very nervous of the effect
that such political murders would have on Turkish opinion. Although I saw the
point, I did not altogether believe his fears, but only a few hours afterwards one
of the victims was, in fact, found shot dead with six bullets in the street outside
his house. This was a certain Yusef Ali Bey, a man aged 65, who had been a
notable at Baku before 1917 and had fled from the Bolsheviks and lived for
twenty years in Turkey and Persia. My Turkish colleague came to see me next
day and was most apprehensive of what might happen in Angora if the further