Mir Jafar Bagirov and the Claim of Leadership Over All of Azerbaijan

The series of programs titled "Faction," broadcast by Radio Farda coinciding with the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the autonomous government in Iranian Azerbaijan, is dedicated to examining this historical event. This is the fifth episode of this series. (In the previous episode, we saw that in the early months of the Soviet Union's entry into World War II, this country, along with Britain, occupied Iran, and from the very beginning, some politicians of the Soviet Azerbaijan Republic decided to use this situation as an opportunity to disintegrate Iran and annex Iranian Azerbaijan to the Soviet Union. However, these efforts failed due to the special wartime conditions.) During the occupation of Iran by the Soviet Union, two political developments in Iran and the Soviet Union played a serious role in laying the groundwork for post-war changes: first, due to this occupation, an important Soviet-affiliated party was established in Iran. Secondly, coinciding with the rise of local nationalism in the Soviet Union, Mir Jafar Bagirov, the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan, found himself in a position to document the unique and valuable title of "Leadership over all of Greater Azerbaijan" in his name. The establishment of the Tudeh Party The occupation of Iran by the Soviet Union and Britain had another significant outcome besides the fall of Reza Shah and his exile from the country: prisons were opened. Political prisoners, who were generally leftist opponents of Reza Shah, were released from prison. At this time, the political atmosphere of the country was suddenly transformed, and an exciting period of meetings and political activities began. The publication of popular newspapers, relative freedom of expression, and the birth of new parties, one after another, were among the unique features seen in the weeks and months following September 20 in Iran. One of the oldest and most complex political parties in the history of Iran was born during these days: the Tudeh Party. The 53 individuals who formed a study group centered around Taghi Arani, who had been imprisoned for years, after being released from prison and despite their spiritual leader, Taghi Arani, having passed away in prison, managed to establish this party with the encouragement and support of the Soviet Union; an action that could potentially be displeasing to the older members of the Iranian Communist Party who had more experience. Why did the Soviets decide to establish a new party instead of reviving the Iranian Communist Party? Touraj Atabaki believes that alongside the general Soviet policy of forming anti-fascist fronts by establishing broad-based mass parties of communists and other progressive political forces, a specific reason led them to abandon the Iranian Communist Party. He states: "We have documents that show that the Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union prepared a report before the occupation of Iran about how to activate the Iranian Communist Party when the Soviets entered Iran and utilize the support of this party. Here lies a very bitter point. When subsequent sessions of the Politburo received a report from the Iranian Communist Party, one member of the Politburo said that we cannot activate the Iranian Communist Party because there are no members of this party left. According to him, a few members of the Iranian Communist Party were in prison in Iran, and the rest had been executed in the Soviet Union." Touraj Atabaki is an Iranian scholar in the Netherlands who has conducted extensive research on the history of Azerbaijan. In other words, at this time, most of the prominent Iranian communists had been killed during the purges of the 1930s under Stalin, and the only ones who survived were those who had been imprisoned during Reza Shah's regime instead of fleeing to the Soviet Union! Nationalism's License in the Soviet Union From this point until the end of World War II, Iran remained occupied by Allied forces, and the British turned Iran into one of the vital arteries supplying aid to the Soviet Union. Simultaneously, for the first time since the formation of the Soviet Union, local nationalism was allowed to breathe. As Touraj Atabaki states, the reason for this was the Soviet Union's urgent need for military forces and sufficient morale for this difficult war. He says: "From the revolution until World War II, many nationalist activists were eliminated on charges of nationalism, whether they were Georgian, Azerbaijani, Kyrgyz, or others. But when we reach World War II, we encounter a nationalist discourse. Gradually, we see posters being printed that say Mother Russia is in danger, and her children must come to support her. Or in the republics, we see that the people of these republics are asked to follow the path of their fathers and defend their national and ethnic honor. The same happened in the Soviet Azerbaijan Republic, where historical figures from the region were highlighted, and the issue of defending Azerbaijani honor was promoted. At this time, Bagirov also implicitly spoke of the unification of Azerbaijan, stating that since they share a language, they must unite, and Iranian Azerbaijan should become part of Soviet Azerbaijan. Considering that the number of Azerbaijanis living in Iran was significantly greater than those in the Soviet Azerbaijan, the annexation of Iranian Azerbaijan to the Soviet Union could enhance Bagirov's personal status and strengthen his position within the entire Soviet Union system. Thus, propaganda in this regard was carried out, and for example, in the field of literature, poems were composed that narrated the separation between the two Azerbaijans, saying that we are sitting here in Baku, and our hearts beat in Tabriz, and so on. Who is this Mir Jafar Bagirov who at this time harbored the claim of leadership over Azerbaijan on both sides of the Aras? Abbas Milani from Stanford University describes this pivotal figure in the history of Azerbaijan Republic as follows: "Based on the documents that remain, Bagirov was a very dogmatic, tyrannical, and opportunistic person. He was a very good factional player in party affairs. Bagirov managed to ally with Beria [the head of the Soviet secret police] during the Azerbaijan crisis and somewhat impose his views." Abbas Milani states that Bagirov was a very dogmatic, tyrannical, and opportunistic person. What Abbas Milani says about Bagirov is a view that is somewhat confirmed in many documents related to him. At the same time, according to Majid Tafreshi, a historian in London, Bagirov was one of those politicians who had a completely pragmatic and results-oriented outlook to achieve their goals. Tafreshi states: "Bagirov was a security officer. A mixture of the authoritarian and bullying policies of the Tsarist regime with Bolshevik and Stalinist expansionist ideas, with a Machiavellian spirit to the extent that he adhered to no moral principles to advance his goals. At the same time, he was completely subordinate to the opinions of the central government in Moscow. He used his local allies in Azerbaijan (both in the Soviet Union and in Iran) as tools and was not loyal to any of them." However, Bagirov was considered the number one person in the Soviet Azerbaijan Republic for two decades and only thought of Iranian Azerbaijan during the years of occupation and World War II. The reason for this is that, according to Jamil Hasanli, an Azerbaijani historian and professor in this country, Bagirov was always obedient to Moscow and had no specific plans or ideas regarding Iranian Azerbaijan until the occupation of Iran by the Soviets. In fact, the expansionist policies sparked in his mind and those of other leaders of the Azerbaijan Republic when they saw themselves militarily dominant over Iranian Azerbaijan and simultaneously received clear signals from Moscow that practically constituted a license for interference in Iranian affairs. Hasanli states: "Bagirov was appointed by Stalin as the head of the Council of People's Commissars of Soviet Azerbaijan in 1932. During this period, he studied at the Red Professors' Party Institute in Moscow. A year later, he became the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan and remained the leader of Soviet Azerbaijan until 1953. Bagirov's view of Iranian Azerbaijan during the 1920s and 1930s was not independent of the Soviet government's perspective, which adhered to the February 1921 treaty and refrained from interfering in Iranian affairs. Although Bagirov knew many people from Iranian Azerbaijan, he had no specific plans regarding Iranian Azerbaijan during these years." At the beginning of the Soviet entry into Iran, the efforts of Bagirov's group, with Moscow's hint, were quickly halted. Until the day when the great bear of Europe finally managed to show its first fist to the war machine of fascism and stop German soldiers at Stalingrad. From here, even before Hitler shot himself in the head and the war ended, the Russians were preparing for the post-war tomorrow; a tomorrow that seemed very bright, powerful, and glorious for the Soviet Union after victory in World War II... (In the next episode, we will see how and why obtaining oil concessions from northern Iran became important for the Soviets. Was oil the only motive for the subsequent Soviet actions in Iran?)