‘Ae Lenin, ae farishta-e-rehmat
Kun qadam ranja zood be-zehmat
Tukham chashm man aashiyana tast
Hen ba farma keh khana khana-e-tast’
‘Lenin, O Angel of Mercy
Come quickly, without any formality
Your place is in the pupil of my eye
Come that this home is your own’
(Ode to Lenin by Iranian poet Aref Qazvini, 1917)
Walter Benjamin once said that if the enemy wins, even the dead shall not be safe. When counter-revolution succeeds so thoroughly, on a local and global scale, the memories of what once had been a great revolutionary uprising in a small defenceless place are erased, and that erasure gets reflected in even Left-wing writings of a later time.
Amidst the chronicles of revolutionary initiatives immediately after the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, and, not least, of modern Middle Eastern revolutions, from Iran and Berlin, Munich, Budapest, Turkey in 1919 and the Turin Soviets of 1919-20, the revolution in what can broadly be termed ‘Gilan’ in northwestern Iran occupies a normally marginal – when not almost wholly unrecognised – place.
Separated from the mainstream of West Asian politics in the period immediately after World War I and the establishment of the first workers state in Moscow, and framed by regional and internal concerns that few observers, even those from elsewhere in the Middle East, analysed, the events that spanned 16 months, from the establishment of the Republic of Gilan a hundred years ago today on June 5, 1920 to its destruction by the central government in Tehran in October of the following year, were of immense importance both in the history of the modern Middle East, but also in the annals of 20th century radical upheavals – and of revolutions themselves.
Iran’s Gilan province, with its capital Rasht, shown here in a Russian map.
Much of this history may remain obscure, for lack of reliable documentary and other evidence. Many of those involved are now silent, dead, or reincorporated into local states. The memory of these radical months may mean little to younger generations, but, both to restore historical accuracy about this period of modern Iranian history, and to draw out the lessons of that time, a retrospective analysis of this revolution is certainly called for.
The fact is that Gilan remains of immense importance today. In fact, none of the tasks which this revolution set itself – and few of the issues it was intended to resolve – have been settled. Issues such as the relations between socialist and nationalist forces, between secular and religious oppositions, between regional and national forces, and, not least, between Iran and its northern neighbour, the place of the agrarian question in the revolutionary struggle, the forms of class alliance appropriate in colonial and semi-colonial countries, the links between anti-imperialism and socially revolutionary struggles, the problem of converting a regional revolt into a nation-wide movement, the relationship to Islam and to the Muslim clergy and perhaps most importantly, the relationship between the revolutionary struggle in one country and the policies of an already established revolutionary state – all of these issues, posed first in dramatic form in the June 1920 upheaval in Gilan, remain on the agenda of 21st century Iran.
Much as contemporary authorities and public opinion may seek to escape from the memory and legacy of that first explosion in Gilan, the agenda it posed, pertinent and unfulfilled, lives on. It is part of the historical roots of the current unrest in Iran.
These observations may serve to provide a corrective to the prevalent ahistorical accounts of Iran rife in the mainstream media today, which rest on simplifications about (Shiite) Islam, oil, Iranian resistance to reform and the like – portraying Iran as some sort of Orientalist fairyland, part beauteous and part dangerous, caught in some sort of time warp, each imam armed with multiple weapons, each ayatollah and group at everyone else’s throat.
The most elementary obligation of history is, as Herodotus put it, “to ensure that great and marvellous events are not forgotten”. More recently, the English radical historian E.P. Thompson wrote that it was a duty “to rescue the past from the immense condescension of the present”. Both of these wise and enduring observations apply to the Iran of today.
As it did for other parts of Asia, the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 emboldened freedom-seekers in Iran. Edward Browne, author of Literary History of Persia writes:
“The socialist revolution of Russia was the dawn of a new chapter in the history of humanity. This revolution had a deep impact especially on the fortune of the country of Iran and on its political and economic conditions. In fact this revolution was one of the causes of influencing the independence of Iran and its internal and external politics. The Russian Revolution actually proved to be the reason for the security of Iranian independence. Had this revolution not occurred, nobody can say what calamities Iran would have to bear and there would not even be a trace of Iran and Turkey today.”
No wonder, on the 10th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, one of Iran’s distinguished writers, the poet Farrokhi Yazdi could recite a ghazal in praise of the revolution in Moscow, where he had been invited. This ghazal was published very conspicuously by a Moscow newspaper along with the translation:
‘At the workers’ celebration
When I sought an omen for revolution
I saw the present and future of the revolution is fruitful
On Iran’s behalf, to the leaders and workers of the revolution, I am grateful’
The Bolshevik Party, which stood, right from the beginning, for the total independence of colonised and semi-colonised countries, rejected the agreement between (Tsarist) Russia and Britain of 1907 for the division of Persia. In February 1921, the Soviet-Iranian treaty saw Iranian debts cancelled and Russian assets in Iran like the railways and telegraph given over to Iranian control without payment.
If the Soviet Union was bent on respecting Iranian sovereignty, the British doubled down on their attempts to control the country. In Tehran, the government of Vossug-ed-Dowleh danced to the tune of British advisors, who were appointed guardians of various departments.
In August 1919, the British sent the shah, Ahmad Shah, abroad and made an agreement with Vossug-ed-Dowleh by which Iran attained the same status which Egypt and Iraq had; but there were grand protests against this agreement in Tehran, Tabriz, Rasht and other places with slogans against the British and Vossug.
Mirza Kuchak Khan. Photo: Wikimedia
The reaction to the Anglo-Persian Agreement was extreme in the provinces of Gilan and Azerbaijan. In Gilan, a nationalist group had been active from 1916 under the leadership of Mirza Kuchak Khan. This group which was composed of poor peasants and farm-labourers, had been fighting hidden in the jungles of Gilan, and owing to this connection called itself ‘Jangali’. They also took out a newspaper by the name of Jangali. Mirza Kuchak Khan was born in Rasht, the capital of Gilan. He had been trained in armed struggle in Baku and Tiflis. He was no socialist, rather a claimant of the unity of Islam but had been associated with the Bolsheviks from even before 1917.
When the Jangalis saw that the government in Tehran was now just a slave of the British, they captured Rasht on June 4, 1920 under the leadership of Mirza Kuchak Khan, Ehsanullah Khan and Khalu Qurban. There they created an organization named Enqilab-e-Surkh (Red Revolution) and declared the independence of Gilan. Meanwhile, Haydar Khan Amoughlu along with 50 comrades joined the Jangalis. On June 20, the congress of the Adalat (Justice) Party (the pioneering socialist organization in Iran) was held in Rasht, in which 48 representatives of Gilan participated. In the same congress, the name of the Adalat Party was changed to the Communist Party of Iran.
The democratic government of Gilan was a united front of patriots and communists. The president of this government was Yeghikian and the commissar of war was Mirza Kuchak Khan. The manifesto which the new government published was moderate given the circumstances, focusing on the preservation of Iran’s safety and independence, war with British imperialism, the advent of a democratic government in the country, the revocation of all imperialist agreements, equal rights for all nations, curtailment of the property of landowners and the preservation of the life and property of common Iranians.
Trouble developed when the group of Sayyed Jafar Pishevari (formerly of the Adalat Party) which had come from Baku and was unaware of the local conditions, became a victim of left-wing extremism. In the intoxication of victory, they ignored the demands of the united front and a split ensued. Mirza Kuchak Khan returned to the jungle in September 1920 after being offended and began to conspire with the British. Ehsanullah Khan was appointed president of the commissariat and the commissar for foreign affairs and Pishevari became commissar of information in the new government.
The government in Rasht raised the cry of socialist revolution in the heat of extremism although this slogan was very premature because the battle with imperialism and feudalism was still going on and the mind of the Iranian people was not agreeable to accepting socialism. Land was deemed to be national property rather than being distributed among the poor cultivators. Private trade was prohibited. Institutions for domestic industry were closed. The mullahs began to be treated with harshness and no discrimination was made even between rich and poor mullahs. The revolution received a great setback due to the extremist actions of the government and the government of Gilan lost the trust of the people.
Haydar Khan Amoughlu. Photo: Wikimedia
In October 1920, Haydar Khan Amoughlu was elected the new leader of the Communist party in place of Pishevari, and immediately had the campaign against the maulvis stopped and in order to restore the united front. He re-appointed Mirza Kuchak Khan as head of government and commissar of revenue, and himself took charge of the office of commissar of foreign affairs. When Mirza Kuchak Khan was asked to return to Rasht, he wrote to Amoughlu to come and meet him so that they can discuss the disagreements between them. But when the latter went for the meeting along with many of his comrades in September 1921, Kuchak Khan had them murdered. When news of these events reached Reza Khan, the army commander, he attacked Rasht. There was a general massacre of revolutionaries in Rasht and Enzeli. Mirza Kuchak Khan fled and died in the jungles. Legend has it that his head was sent to Tehran. Jafar Pishevari took refuge in Baku. Thus the Persian Soviet Socialist Republic, also known as the Soviet Republic of Gilan, came to an end.
In 1922, Mirza Kuchak’s old comrade, Khalu Qurban, along with Abolqasem Lahouti attempted an armed struggle once again and even captured a few government offices in Tabriz but this rebellion lasted for ten days. Lahouti and Khalu Qurban left Iran to reach the Soviet Union.
I began this piece with an ode to Lenin by Aref Qazvini. It seems appropriate to end this piece with a dirge to Lenin written by Lahouti, Qavini’s great contemporary poet who permanently settled in the Soviet Union and died there. It is titled Lenin Lives and was written in 1925, probably as a tribute on Lenin’s first death anniversary:
‘On all the roads leading to the republic’s dwelling
A human crowd was flowing, swelling
Day was not day, night did not remain night
A force of men, women, children in worried plight
The proceeding feet, in the raining snow, in the fibre-entering wrathful cold
Kept moving forward
The earth too was melancholy
The steps of the walkers too were sorrow-heavy
Even to mention it was to invite a calamity…
All were astonished
With the waves of sorrow they were afflicted
Frozen in the cups of the cold eyes, the tears collected
This was the attack of death, the spirit of life was irritated
Though it was moulded into anger, the pain exacerbated.
The beloved’s affliction
The heart of darkness was wet with perspiration
In the homes was raised a noise as if on the Day of Resurrection
And in the proceeding steps was that heat of rebellion
That the Messenger of Death himself was worried with apprehension.
Houses were empty, homes desolate
An old man was left in his home for all that
When he saw, upon becoming awake
The home is empty, worried, he came out to investigate
He saw a strange scene
He was thinking sitting at the door, something strange it must have been
All were running away, falling hence and rising thence
What was the occurrence?
Suddenly there was silence
The cry of the horn echoed, the cannon roared its utterance
And that old man sitting silent, with throbbing heart, and fear in abundance.
There as if a century passed, those five moments of silence
Standing head bowed in reverence
The whole world in Lenin’s remembrance
Death stepping forward to gather to itself, even the silence
When a traveler involved the old man in interrogation
‘What is all this commotion?’
The answer left him heart-broken
‘Have you no information?
Then pay attention
Lenin has risen from the world, what a confusion.’
When he heard
From his heart, a cold sigh issued
He fell
In front of his eyes darkness spread
The tears began to spill blood
Grief darkened his countenance
When he raised his glance
He saw the party workers
Making lines in distinct orders
Moving with courage and determination
Emerging in the air is the flag which is crimson
Too much affliction
But this beautiful scene gave him a resolution
The mourning tunes in reverberation
Again, the caravans of armies in unison
Line by line they emerged, carrying their standards with the decoration
From the mills and workshops, the comrades stepped out in anticipation
In Lenin’s direction
As if a river of determination
All move towards Lenin’s direction
Under the red flag’s protection.
When he saw the flag of the party
The old man rose energetically
His waist straightened readily
Resolve ran in his heart from artery to artery
From afar then came the noise of the Internationale
Beloved tunes certainly
Which gave the heart such strength
As if blood in a corpse running like life across its length
He saw the young
Hope of the future became strong
The heart’s proclaimer
‘No’, he let out a clamour
‘Lenin will never die
He lives
He will live as determination forever
In the hearts with fervour.’
Note: All translations are by the writer.
*Raza Naeem is a social scientist and an award-winning translator currently based in Lahore. He has been trained in political economy from the University of Leeds in the UK and in Middle Eastern history and anthropology from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, USA. He is also the president of the Progressive Writers Association (PWA) in Lahore. He may be reached at razanaeem@hotmail.com.