Remembering the Red Republic of Gilan - II

The democratic government of Gilan was a united front of patriots and communists. The president of this government was Gregor Yeghikian and the Commissar of War was Mirza Kuchak Khan.

In the beginning, the manifesto which the new government published was perhaps too moderate, given the circumstances. Its caution can be seen from the main points: 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.

But 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 began to do as they pleased. Due to this reason, the united front split. Mirza Kuchak Khan returned to the jungle in September 1920 after being offended, and began to conspire with the British. Ehsanullah Khan was appointed the President of the Commissariat and the Commissar for Foreign Affairs and Pishevari became the Commissar of Information in the new government.

The government in Rasht raised the cry of socialist revolution in the heat of extremism. But 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 at this stage.

The government in Rasht raised the cry of socialist revolution in the heat of extremism. But this slogan was very premature

Nevertheless, in the zone controlled by the revolutionaries, the lands were 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. The revolutionaries of Gilan lost the trust of the people.

Then the Communist Party felt that the revolutionaries had erred too far. And in 1920 Haydar Khan Amoughlu was elected as the new leader of the party in place of Pishevari. He immediately had the campaign against the maulvis stopped and in order to restore the united front, re-appointed Mirza Kuchak Khan as the head of government and the Commissar of Revenue, and himself took charge of the office of Commissar of Foreign Affairs. When Mirza Kuchak Khan was sent the message to return to Rasht, he wrote to Haydar Khan Amoughlu to come and meet him so that they could discuss the disagreements between them.

But when Haydar Khan Amoughlu went to the jungle along with many of his comrades, they were all murdered by Kuchak Khan. When news of these events reached Reza Khan, the army commander, he attacked Rasht in October 1921. There was a general massacre of revolutionaries in Rasht and Enzeli.

How the Bolsheviks abandoned Tsarist Russia’s imperialism in Iran

“My ‘Persian tale’? There were a few hundred of us ragged Russians down there. One day we had a telegram from the Central Committee: Cut your losses, revolution in Iran now off. But for that we would have got to Tehran.” (Yakov Blumkin, Comintern envoy, quoted in Victor Serge, Memoirs of a Revolutionary, London, 1963, p256.)

Mirza Kuchak Khan was also killed and his head was sent to Tehran. Jafar Pishevari took refuge in Baku. Thus the Soviet Socialist 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 of 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 yet 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”

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.