No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Georgian Sources on the Iranian Constitutional Revolution (1905–1911): Sergo Gamdlishvili's Memoirs of the Gilan Resistance
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2022
Abstract
The essay of Sergo Gamdlishvili (1882–1910), a Georgian participant of the Gilan resistance, was published in Tbilisi in February–March of 1910. The source focuses on the Gilan resistance and provides insights and interesting details regarding the political attitudes, strategies, and collaboration of the Transcaucasian and Iranian revolutionaries from the end of 1908 through the summer of 1909. The source is also interesting material to study how the Iranian Constitutional Revolution was seen by its Caucasian participants, what they deemed to be major peculiarities of the Movement in different regions in Iran, and how they saw their role in these events.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © 2007 The International Society for Iranian Studies
References
1 Vlasa Mgeladze (Tria) (1868–1944): Georgian revolutionary, participant of the Russian Revolution and the Iranian Constitutional revolution. In 1918–1921, he was a member of the (Menshevik) government of the independent Georgian Republic. In 1921, after the occupation of Georgia by the Soviet Army, he immigrated to France. His report “Kavkazskie Social-Demokraty v Persidskoi Revoliutsii” was published in the Russian language in Paris in 1910. In 1911, the report was published again in Paris under the title, “La Caucase et la revolution persane;” see “Revue du Monde Musulman,” (Paris, 1911), 13, Kraus Reprint (Nedeln/Liechtenstein, 1974): 324–333.
2 The article was included by Amirkhizi in his book and entitled, “Ehsasat-i chand nafar gurji, naql az jaride-yi musavat tabriz;” see Amirkhizi, I., Qiyame Azarbayjan va Sattar Khan (Tehran, 1379), 285–286.Google Scholar The newspaper Musavat began publication on 3 October 1907 and was edited by Muhammad Riza Musavat, a member of the National Revolutionary Committee. The newspaper published statements of the Anjuman of Mujahidin and articles highly critical of the Shah. M.R. Musavat was persecuted. Afterwards, publication of the newspaper stopped as its editor was elected to the second Majlis.
3 The author of the article dedicated particular attention to depicting a local woman who was determined to join her husband and enroll in the Iranian resistance to support the Iranian constitutionalists. There was indeed a woman revolutionary—Gulchina Lortkipanidze—among the Georgian volunteers in Iran. Gulchina Lortkipanidze, also known to comrades as Leila (1881–1918), was born in the village Akhalbediseuli in Western Georgia. She went to Iran as a volunteer from the Batumi Social-democrat organization. She is characterized by fellow revolutionaries as a very brave and strong woman. After returning from Iran, she was arrested by the tsarist gendarmerie and sent to exile in Russia; see Kelenjeridze, A., Gurjebi (Tbilisi, 1975), 122–123.Google Scholar
4 An interesting characteristic of Tbilisi was that while being always in the vanguard of Georgia's aspirations for independence from its powerful Muslim neighbors, the city invariably embraced its cultural and economic ties with the Near East. Predominantly Christian, but traditionally multi-confessional and always very tolerant, the environment of Tbilisi had created most favorable conditions for the development of other religious communities including, of course, the Muslims. Both the Shiite and Sunni communities had their own religious leaders and mosques in the city (currently only one mosque functions in Tbilisi.). Persian and Arabic languages were taught in the Muslim school of Tbilisi, which still functioned in the early 1900s. As for the correlation of the Shiites and Sunnis, it varied throughout the centuries; but generally, there were seemingly more Shiites than Sunnis in Tbilisi; see I. Gocheleishvili, “On the Inter-confessional Relations in the XIX Century Tbilisi,” unpublished report, La Tiflis dell'Ottocento: Storia e Cultura, INTAS International conference (Universita Ca'Foscari, Venezia, June 2003). Perhaps one of the reflections of the special nature of Tbilisi's centuries-old relations with the Muslim world is the fact that, according to one of the Shia traditions of Imam Ali, the God had chosen three cities of Kufa, Qum, and Tiflis, among others; see Beradze, G., “One Scene from the Medieval History of Tbilisi,” in Studies in the Humanities, XXXII (Tokyo, 1997), 136.Google Scholar The “Palace of Joy” and the “Rival of Paradise,” as it was called by the Iranians, Tbilisi captured the attention and imagination of many Persian poets, writers, and rulers even after it became a part of the Russian Empire; see G. Beradze, “Dar as-Surur, Some Peculiarities of Islam in the Nineteenth-century Tbilisi,” unpublished report, La Tiflis dell'Ottocento: Storia e Cultura, INTAS International conference (Universita Ca'Foscari, Venezia, June 2003); see also N. Ter-Oganov, “Two Iranian Authors on Tbilisi: Majd os-Saltaneh and Yahya Dowlatabadi,” La Guorgie entre la Perseet l'Europe, (Sous la direction de Florence Hellot-Bellier et Irene Natchkebia) (Paris, 2006): 208, on the qasidah, “Praise of Tbilisi” by Safi Khalkhal). Under the Russian tsarist rule when the Muslim religious institutions in the Transcaucasia were subject to the state, the Sunnis and Shiites had two separate administrative bodies in Transcaucasia. Both of them were located in Tbilisi; see Bayat, M., Iran's First Revolution: Shiism and Constitutional revolution of 1905–1909 (New York, 1991), 73.Google Scholar On the Muslim community of Tbilisi, see Beradze, G., “Zur Geschichte de Emirats von Tbilissi,” in Orientalist II, (Tbilisi, 2003–2004), 36–51Google Scholar; Asatrian, G., Margarian, H., “The Muslim community of Tiflis (Eighth-Nineteenth Centuries), Iran and Caucasus 8, no. 1 (2004): 29–52Google Scholar; and G., Gotsiridze, Musulmanskii Prazdnik Mukharram v Tbilisi (Tbilisi, 1988)Google Scholar; Anchabadze, Yu., Volkova, N., Staryi Tbilisi. Gorod i Gorozhane (Moscow, 1990), 36–37, 38, 45–46, 248–249Google Scholar, etc. The development and role of the Iranian community in Tbilisi reflected lately in the reports made on the conferences in Tbilisi (Georgia) and Venice (Italy) as a part of the international research project “Tbilisi in the Nineteenth Century: History and Culture;” M. Aleksidze, “Iranians in the Nineteenth Century Tbilisi: Fazel-Khan Garrusi;” G. Asatrian, “The Muslim Community of Tbilisi in the Eighteenth-Nineteenth Centuries;” I. Gocheleishvili, “On the Ethnic Processes in the Nineteenth Century Tbilisi” (Tbilisi in the Nineteenth Century: History and Culture, International Conference, Tbilisi, June 2002); M. Aleksidze, “Iranian Inhabitants and Their Culture in the Nineteenth Century Tbilisi” (Tbilisi in the Nineteenth Century: History and Culture, Round Table, G. Tsereteli Institute of Oriental Studies, Chubinashvili Institute of History of Georgian Art, Tbilisi, January, 2002); M. Aleksidze, “Islam and Cross-confessional Processes in the Nineteenth Century Tbilisi;” I. Gochelsihvili, “From the History of Inter-confessional Relations in the Nineteenth Century Tbilisi” (La Tiflis dell'Ottocento:Storia e Cultura, INTAS International Conference, Universita Ca'Foscari, Venezia, June 2003).
5 N. Ter-Oganov, “Two Iranian Authors on Tbilisi: Majd os-Saltaneh and Yahya Dowlatabadi,” 209.
6 The name of the district derived from the word “seyyed.” According to one of the existing opinions, this name emerged because of the great number of Seyyeds among the inhabitants of this district during the Middle Ages, and eventually it was substituted for the original name of the area; see Beridze, T., dzveli tbilisis gareubnis istoria (Tbilisi, 1977), 73Google Scholar–75. Although there are different opinions regarding this matter, see R. Burchuladze, “dzveli tbilisis toponiimidan (“kharpukhi,” “seydabadi”), axlo agmosavleti da sakartvelo, III (2002): 210–213.
7 A large collection of writings by the nineteenth-century Iranian authors is preserved in the K. Kekelidze Institute of Manuscripts in Tbilisi. This collection includes poems, diaries, treatises, letters, as well as works (Safarname) of Iranian travelers of the time who visited and described Tbilisi; see N. Ter-Oganov, “Two Iranian Authors on Tbilisi: Majd os-Saltaneh and Yahya Dowlatabadi,” 207–216. Shafi Sultan Bek, Fazil Khan Garrusi, and Mirza Fath-Ali Akhundzade died in Tbilisi and were buried on the Muslim cemetery. The home-museum of M.F. Akhundzade is still open for visitors in the old district of Tbilisi; see M. Aleksidze, Fazel-Khan Garrusi and Tbilisi, Iran and the Caucasus, Research Papers of the Caucasian Centre for Iranian Studies 7, no. 1–2 (2003):125–132; Dzh. Dzhafarov, M.-F. Akhundov, Kritiko-Biograficheskii Ocherk (Moscow, 1962), 202.
8 After the incorporation of Georgia into the Russian Empire, in conditions of reduced customs tariffs, European businesses saw Tbilisi as the most important base for the intrusion into the Iranian market. Especially active were the French who regarded Tbilisi as a main road for French goods to reach Iran, bypassing Turkey; see G. Sanikidze, “Tbilisi: A Transit Road for the European Goods in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century (according to French sources)” in Tbilisi in the Nineteenth Century. History and Culture. Round Table (Tbilisi, 2002), 25–26. Many Frenchmen visited Tbilisi during this time and gave description of the “French comfort of Tiflis” with “coaches, three-four storey clean, well organized houses, broad paved street, gas illuminations” and “perfectly maintained hotels” which “were somehow similar to l'hotel du Louvre and Grand-Hotel in Paris;” see I. Natchkebia, “Tbilisi in the 1870s According to P. Larousse Grand Dictionnaire universal du XIXe siecle,” in Tbilisi in the Nineteenth Century. History and Culture. Round Table (Tbilisi, 2002), 22–23.
9 The census was carried out in 1897 as part of the general census in the Russian Empire; see N. Ter-Oganov, “Two Iranian Authors on Tbilisi: Majd os-Saltaneh and Yahya Dowlatabadi,” 210.
10 The school was founded by the Iranian charitable organization “Etefaq” in Tbilisi with the help of Iran's Consulate-General in Tbilisi and the ambassador of Iran Mirza Hasan Khan Moshir od-Dowleh; see N. Ter-Oganov, “Two Iranian Authors on Tbilisi: Majd os-Saltaneh and Yahya Dowlatabadi,” 214. At some point, the school had up to 120 Iranian students. The school continued to function after the establishment of the communist rule in Georgia until 1931.
11 The popular journal “Molla Nasreddin” was published by Jalil Mamed-Qulizade in Tbilisi from 1906 to 1912, and its issues were spread in various cities of Georgia. Thus, S. Javid points out that the Tsarist governor of Batumi (Western Georgia) had issued a special order to confiscate and destroy all issues of the journal in the city; see S. Javid, Fadakaran-i faramush shudah-i azadi (Tehran, 1980), 82, 89–90. The publication of the journal continued even when Mamed-Qulizade had temporarily left Tbilisi in 1912–1914. About press houses “Geirat” and “Sharq;” see N. Ter-Oganov, “Two Iranian Authors on Tbilisi: Majd os-Saltaneh and Yahya Dowlatabadi,” 210.
12 The importance of Baku in the Caucasus and the influence of the Baku oil industry on the economy of the Russian Empire is vividly reflected in words of the Minister of Trade and Industry of Russian Empire who stated once that “Baku is somewhat like a button of an electric bell; once some circumstances press on it, the alarm spreads throughout the whole Russia; see Dzhaparidze, P.A., Izbrannye stat'i, rechi i pis'ma. 1905–1918 gg. (Moscow, 1958), 71.Google Scholar The statement was made with regard to the decrease of oil production in Baku, frequent strikes of workers, and subsequent increase of oil prices in the Russian Empire.
13 Kelenjeridze, A., Sergo Ordzhonikidze-Jhurnalist (Tbilisi, 1969), 5.Google Scholar
14 By the turn of the twentieth century, there were estimated 100,000 Iranian subjects in Russia. They were traveling to various places in Russia: Caucasus, Central Asia, Volga, and Don regions, etc. By 1913, the estimated number was already about 500,000. The majority of them were peasants and workers. See. Afary, J., The Iranian Constitutional Revolution, 1906–1911, Grassroots Democracy, Social Democracy and the Origins of Feminism (New York, 1996), 22Google Scholar; and Chipashvili, G., Sergo Gamdlishvili (sergo gurji) da misi iranuli dgiurebi (Tbilisi, 1983), 6.Google Scholar About migration of the Iranians to Caucasus, Central Asia, and Russia, also see Kirmani, N., Tarikh-i bidari-yi Iranian (Tehran, 1983), 1:105–106.Google Scholar
15 Akhali Skhivi, 3, Feb.6, 1910.
16 In his memoirs, Sergo Gagoshidze describes one of the meetings of the Iranian merchants operating in Tbilisi that was dedicated to the organization of assistance to the Iranian constitutionalists; see Kelenjeridze, A., Gurjebi, 49–50.Google ScholarSergo Gagoshidze (d.1968)—Georgian revolutionary and participant of the Tabriz resistance. Before leaving the Russian tsarist army, he served as an assistant commander of the artillery company in Fort Stepanovka in Western Georgia. He traveled to Iran from Tbilisi and joined the Tabriz resistance. After returning to Georgia, he was almost apprehended by the Tsarist police for participation in the events in Iran; see Kelenjeridze, A., Gurjebi, 123Google Scholar, 47, 61–62. See Sergo Gagoshidze's memoirs in Kelenjeridze, A., Gurjebi, 47–63.Google Scholar
17 Afary, J., The Iranian Constitutional Revolution, 81.Google Scholar
18 The Alaverdi copper plant was a property of a French company, and its office was located in Paris. The majority of the workers in the plants and the mines were Iranians, mostly from Iran's Azerbaijan. There were also 500 Greek, 300 Armenian, and 200 Ossetian and Georgian workers. The total number of workers on this plant was estimated 4,000; see Aliev, S., “K voprosu o sviaziakh Bakinskogo i Tiflisskogo komitetov RSDRP s iranskimi revoliutsionerami v 1903–1905 gg.,” in Slavnye stranitsy bor'by i pobed (Baku, 1965), 194.Google Scholar
19 Demands included a raise in pay by twenty percent, the introduction of a seven-hour work day, etc.; see S. Aliev, “K voprosu o sviaziakh Bakinskogo i Tiflisskogo komitetov RSDRP s iranskimi revoliutsionerami v 1903–1905 gg.,” 195.
20 S. Aliev, “K voprosu o sviaziakh Bakinskogo i Tiflisskogo komitetov RSDRP s iranskimi revoliutsionerami v 1903–1905 gg.,” 196.
21 S. Aliev, “K voprosu o sviaziakh Bakinskogo i Tiflisskogo komitetov RSDRP s iranskimi revoliutsionerami v 1903–1905 gg.,” 196.
22 After the strike, all Iranian protesters were placed in cargo cars and sent by train to the Iranian border (S. Aliev, “K voprosu o sviaziakh Bakinskogo i Tiflisskogo komitetov RSDRP s iranskimi revoliutsionerami v 1903–1905 gg.,”196; Afary, J., The Iranian Constitutional Revolution, 22Google Scholar).
23 The Russian authorities started to use the press as a propagandistic tool from the very beginning of their political domination in the region. They started the distribution of the Russian newspapers in Georgia along with the prohibition of use of Georgian language in the educational institutions of the country. This, however, did not succeed, as the local population was neglectful towards the Russian press. The following was an attempt by the Russian authorities to publish their newspaper in the Georgian language, but it too failed to gain a large number of readers.
24 There were many different newspapers of various political orientations and ideologies even within a non-government press. See Bendianishvili, L., “Iranis 1905–1911 ts. burzhuaziul-demokratiuli revolutsia da kartuli demokratiuli presa,” Sakartvelos mecnierebata akademiis matsne, 3 (1989): 101.Google Scholar
25 The editors in Tbilisi had not even notified the censorship and police ministries about the founding of a new newspaper until after the first issues were published; see Gocheleishvili, I., “First Georgian Newspaper—Sakartvelos Gazeti,” Perspective 4 (2002): 46.Google Scholar
26 Afary, J., The Iranian Constitutional Revolution, 237Google Scholar; M., Bayat, Iran's First Revolution: Shiism and Constitutional Revolution of 1905–1909: 252Google Scholar; Berberian, Houri, Armenians and the Iranian Constitutional Revolution of 1905–1911, The Love for Freedom has No Fatherland (Boulder, 2001), 142–143Google Scholar; Cosroe, Chaqueri, The Armenians of Iran, The Paradoxical Role of a Minority in a Dominant Culture (Cambridge, 1998), 89, 103Google Scholar; Guidor, Arsen, “The Hnchakist Party and the Revolutionary Movement in Persia (1908–1911),” in The Armenians of Iran (Cambridge, 1998), 303–304Google Scholar; Vasso A. Khachaturian to Georgi V. Plekhanov (November 1908), The Armenians of Iran (Cambridge, 1998), 325; and Archavir Tchilinkirian, “Persian Revolution (1909–1910),” in The Armenians of Iran (Cambridge, 1998), 233. About the arrival of the Transcaucasian revolutionaries in Tabriz; see also Vijuyah, M., Tarikh-i inqilab-i Azarbayjan va balva-yi Tabriz (Tehran, 1976), 116.Google Scholar
27 Chaqueri, C., The Armenians of Iran, 89.Google Scholar
28 Kelenjeridze, A., Gurjebi, 26.Google Scholar Mikheil Bogdanov- Mariashkin (revolutionary nickname Misha-Uria)—Jewish revolutionary, member of the Georgian volunteer corps in Gilan. He was born in 1889 in Tbilisi. M. Bogdanov-Marishakin became actively involved in revolutionary activities in Georgia in 1904. In 1906, he immigrated to New York, but soon returned to Tbilisi. In 1908, together with group of Georgian revolutionaries, he went to Gilan. M. Bogdanov-Marishakin initially was “Eser,” and went to Iran together with several other “Esers.” M. Bogdanov-Marishakin survived the revolution in Iran and settled in Moscow. (Kelenjeridze, A., Gurjebi, 103Google Scholar–104). See M Bogdanov-Mariashkin's memoirs in Kelenjeridze, A., Gurjebi, 27–62.Google Scholar
Eser—abbreviation (SR) used throughout the Russian Empire for members of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party that was founded in 1901. Although Esers opposed the Tsarist regime, their political platform differed from that of the Social-democrats—both Menshevik and Bolshevik—(SRP) as well. The SRP played an active role in 1905 Russian Revolution. This party was banned by Bolsheviks after 1918. Among the Georgian revolutionaries, Grigol (Grisha) Emkhvari was of “Eser” convictions.
Grigol Emkhvari (Emukhvaria) (1887–1908)—Georgian revolutionary, participant of the Tabriz resistance. He was born in Western Georgia to a family of a local nobility. He studied first in Tbilisi Gymnasia, then left to Russia—first to Sankt-Petersburg and then to Novosibirks—to continue his studies. During his studies at university, he abandoned his nobility privileges, joined the revolutionaries, and in 1908 went to Iran to support the constitutional resistance. He fell in combat in Tabriz at age 21. See Kelenjeridze, A., Gurjebi, 78.Google Scholar
29 Kelenjeridze, A., Gurjebi, 24.Google Scholar Vano Karapetov (1883–1943)—Armenian revolutionary, member of “Gurji” corps in Iran. He was a native of Akhaltsikhe in Southern Georgia. He became actively involved in revolutionary activities in early 1900. In 1906, he joined the Bolsheviks. In 1908, he went to Iran together with Georgian volunteers. He survived the revolution in Iran, returned to Tbilisi, and continued collaboration with the Bolsheviks. In 1918–1921, he fought against the government of the Georgian Republic and was among the creators of the Red Guard corps in Georgia for which he was deported from the country. In 1921, he returned to Tbilisi together with the Red Army and settled there.
30 About connections of the Tbilisi and Baku Social-democrat groups, see S. M. Aliev, “K voprosu o sviaziakh Bakinskogo i Tiflisskogo komitetov RSDRP s iranskimi revoliutsionerami v 1903–1911 gg.,”189–213.
31 M. Iskanderov, Bakinskaia Partiinaia Organizatsia,” in Slavnye stranisty bor'by i pobed (Baku, 1965), 122; S.M. Aliev, “K voprosu o sviaziakh Bakinskogo i Tiflisskogo komitetov RSDRP s iranskimi revoliutsionerami v 1903–1911 gg.,”193.
32 Because of the persecution by the Tsarist secret services, a large volume of Social-democratic literature designated for Russia was published by the Russian Social-Democrat Labor Party and its affiliates in various places in Europe. It was then transported to Iran and from there secretly brought by the revolutionaries across the border to Baku.
33 “Himmat” was established in Baku in 1904 and was active among the Muslim nationalities of the region. It was affiliated with the Baku committee of the Russian Social-Democrat Labor Party and had branches in Tbilisi, Ganjah, and other cities in Transcaucasia; see Afary, J., The Iranian Constitutional Revolution, 81.Google Scholar
34 N. Makharadze, Iskrovskie organizatsyi v Gruzii v period II s'ezda RSDRP,” in Slavnye stranisty bor'by i pobed (Baku, 1965), 154.
35 Although Tbilisi, Batumi, and Baku Social-democrat organizations were composed of local Social-democrats and their cells, they were coordinated by the Russian Social-Democrat Labor Party (RSDLP) and constituted its branches. Part of the Georgian Social-democrats, led by N. Zhordania—leader of the Georgian Mensheviks and head of the Democratic Republic of Georgia (1918–1921)—however, posed and actively promoted the idea of granting the Caucasian Social-democrat organizations an “autonomy” from the RSDLP, as they believed this would create the opportunity to address adequately the peculiarities and specifics of the local political and social environment in the Caucasus. Generally, after the split between the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks in 1903, the latter were very strong in Transcaucasia.
36 Chipashvili, G., Sergo Gamdlishvili da misi iranuli dgiurebi, 41.Google Scholar
37 Afary, J., The Iranian Constitutional Revolution, 238.Google Scholar
38 Kelenjeridze, A., Gurjebi, 24.Google Scholar Dashnaktsutiun (Hay Heghapokhakan Dashnaktsutiun—the Armenian Revolutionary Federation) was founded in Tbilisi in 1890. Later, they carried their activities to Iran, but a group representation still existed in Tbilisi. From its basis in Caucasus, the military corps of Dashnaks, composed mostly of the Russian subject Armenians, was carrying out a paramilitary expedition to the Armenian populated parts of the Ottoman Turkey. Many of these Dashnak operatives, including Yeprem, were apprehended by the Russian authorities and sent to exile in Russia. However, some of them, together with Yeprem, managed to escape from the exile and settled in Iran. Later, when the Constitutional revolution in Iran started, the Dashnaks, led by Yeprem, joined it. Yeprem's background in Caucasus, his exile to Russia, and his escape to Iran are reflected in A., Amuriyan, Hamasah-i Yiprim (Tehran, 1976).Google Scholar
39 A. Japaridze's memoir, 89. Apolon Japaridze—Georgian revolutionary, participant of Gilan resistance. His alias was Mikhail (Misha) Tratiants, although he used various identities throughout his revolutionary activities. A. Japaridze was born in 1888 in the Racha province of Georgia to a family of a local nobility. In 1905, he joined the Social-democrat party in Tbilisi. In 1908, together with other Georgian revolutionaries, he went to Gilan to participate in the resistance. He was wounded three times during the battles in Iran. A. Japaridze survived the revolution in Iran and, after returning to Georgia, settled in Tbilisi. Bogdanov-Mariashkin characterizes him as a very reliable and very humble person, because of which the comrades in resistance called him “Patara Misha” (Little Misha—geo.); see Kelenjeridze, A., Gurjebi, 72.Google Scholar A. Japaridze's Iranian memoirs were published in Georgian in 1970 as a supplement to Chipashvili, G., v.i., lenini da iraneli khalkhis ganmantavisuplebeli brdzola (Tbilisi, 1970), 89–98.Google Scholar
40 Vasso A. Khachaturian to Georgi V. Plekhanov (November 1908), 324.
41 Kasravi, Ahmad, Tarikh-i Mashrutah-i Iran (Tehran, 1939), 179.Google Scholar
42 Archavir Tchilinkirian, “Persian Revolution (1909–1910),” 233.
43 Kelenjeridze, A., Gurjebi, 20.Google Scholar
44 Sergo Gagoshidze relates in his memoirs about one of the meetings that took place at this house (Kelenjeridze, A., Gurjebi, 49Google Scholar). The place was located in the “Tatar market square” of Tbilisi, on the modern-day Leselidze street. Chipashvili, G., Sergo Gamdlishvili da misi iranuli dgiurebi, 41.Google Scholar
45 Kelenjeridze, A., Gurjebi, 49.Google Scholar
46 Afary, J., The Iranian Constitutional Revolution, 238Google Scholar; Chipashvili, G., Sergo Gamdlishvili da misi iranuli dgiurebi, 41.Google Scholar
47 Tria, V., Kavkazskie Social-Demokraty v Persidskoi Revoliutsii, (Paris, 1910), 9–10.Google Scholar
48 Giorgi Zaridze (nickname—Sedraka)—A Georgian revolutionary originally from the village of Shindisi (or nearby Tabakhmela) in Eastern Georgia. A. Japaridze, who knew him personally, describes Giorgi as tall and hefty man with big moustache. Giorgi worked as a metalworker at the Tbilisi water-supply company; see Kelenjeridze, A., Gurjebi, 137.Google Scholar Kako Korinteli—A Georgian revolutionary, native of Tbilisi. He was a young man of medium statue and worked as a metalworker in Tbilisi. Both Korinteli and Zaridze were sent by the Tbilisi Social-democrat committee to Baku and Gilan to coordinate delivery of assistance to the Iranian resisters. Both were executed by the Tsarist authorities in 1910.
49 Tria, V., Kavkazskie Social-Demokraty v Persidskoi Revoliutsii, 10.Google Scholar
50 Kelejeridze, A., Gurjebi, 23Google Scholar
51 Afary, J., The Iranian Constitutional Revolution, 238Google Scholar; Chipashvili, G., Sergo gurji da misi iranuli dgiurebi, 9.Google Scholar
52 Gurji Sergo, “Sparsetis Modzraobis Istoriidan,” Akhali Skhivi 3, 6 February (Tbilisi, 1910).
53 Chipashvili, Giorgi, Sergo Gamdlishvili da misi iranuli dgiurebi, 9.Google Scholar
54 Vasso A. Khachaturian to Georgi V. Plekhanov (November 1908), 325.
55 Chipashvili, Giorgi, Sergo Gamdlishvili da misi iranuli dgiurebi, 42.Google Scholar
56 A. Japaridze's memoirs, 90.
57 Kelenjeridze, A., Sergo Orjonikidze-Jhurnalist, 12.Google Scholar Vladimer (Lado) Dumbadze—Georgian revolutionary, participant of the Tabriz resistance. He was born in the 1880s in the village of Shemokmedi in Guria (Western Georgia) to a family of local nobility. After graduating from the Kutaisi Gymnasia, he became involved in anti-tsarist activities. He participated in the local resistance corps that fought against the Russian punitive expedition in Georgia and was involved in the production of bombs and explosives in underground laboratories. From Georgia, V. Dumbadze moved to Baku and form there went to Iran. He fell in combat near Tabriz at the age of twenty-four and was buried at the Armenian church in Tabriz, where the Georgian revolutionaries had their “fraternal” common grave; see Kelenjeridze, Gurjebi, 81.
Valiko Bakradze (revolutionary alias—“Zhelezni”) (1886–1908)—Georgian revolutionary, participant of the Tabirz resistance. He was a native of the village of Darkveti in Western Georgia. In 1906, he lived in Baku and from there went to Iran to join the Tabriz resistance. V. Bakradze fell in combat near Tabriz at the age of twenty-two and was buried in Georgians' fraternal grave next to the Armenian church in Tabriz; see Kelenjeridze, Sergo Orjinikdze-Jhurnalist, 11; Gurjebi, 73).
Viktor Nasaridze (1885–1951)—Georgian revolutionary, participant of the Tabriz resistance. He was a native of the village of Krikhi (Ambrolauri county in Western Georgia). V. Nasaridze was skilled in making bombs and explosives and participated in underground activities in Tbilisi. In 1908 he arrived in Baku where he met V. Bakradze and V. Dumbadze and together with them went to Iran. After participating in the Tabriz resistance, he safely returned to Georgia, but was arrested by the Tsarist authorities and sent to exile. Eventually he returned to his native Ambrolauri; see Kelenjeridze, A., Gurjebi, 90Google Scholar, 92.
Lazare Gachechiladze—Georgian revolutionary, participant of Tabriz resistance. He was from the village of Tseva in Western Georgia. After 1905, because of his revolutionary activities, he lived in exile in Russia, from where moved to Baku and settled there. In 1908, together with thirty other Georgians, he went to Iran. He fought in the Tabriz resistance and died there; see Kelenjeridze, A., Gurjebi, 97Google Scholar, 99.
58 S. Aliev, “K voprosu o sviaziakh Bakinskogo i Tiflisskogo komitetov RSDRP s iranskimi revoliutsionerami v 1903–1905 gg.,” 206.
59 Tria, V., Kavkazskie Social-Demokraty v Persidskoi Revoliutsii, 9–10.Google Scholar
60 Kasravi, Ahmad, Tarikh-i Mashrutah-i Iran, 179.Google Scholar
61 A. Japaridze's memoirs, 90.
62 Ibrahim, Fakhra'i, Gilan dar Junbish-i Mashrutiyat (Tehran, 1977), 116.Google Scholar
63 P. Strelianov (Kalabukhov), Neizvestnyi Pokhod, Kazaki v Persii v 1909–1914 gg. (Moscow, 2001), 25.
64 As the Russian customs tightened security, the search of the cargo and the passengers going to Iran was conducted twice—on the Russian as well as on the Iranian side in Anzali where Russian customs were stationed. Some suspected Caucasian revolutionaries were arrested and executed right in the port; see Chipashvili, G., Sergo Gamdlishvili da misi iranuli dgiurebi, 41Google Scholar; Javid, S., Junbish-i mashrtutah-i iran (Tehran, 1968), 76.Google Scholar In this regard, S. Javid also mentions the arrest of one of the Azerbaijani revolutionaries who was arrested by the Tsarist police operatives and died as a result of torture at the questioning (Javid, S., Junbish-i mashrtutah-i iran, 76Google Scholar). In Anzali and Baku, the police discovered and confiscated batches of arms designated for the Iranian resistance (Chipashvili, G., Sergo Gamdlishvili da misi iranuli dgiurebi, 41Google Scholar). Bogdanov-Mariashkin, who assisted the transportation of supplies and men in Astara, describes in his memoirs how they were subjected to almost daily inspections, sudden searches of the place, and close watch by local police agents; see M. Bogdanov-Mariashkin's memoirs, 29–30. But the revolutionaries managed to break through the security curtain using multiple identities, false documents, and registration of fictitious offices to secure the delivery of assistance to Gilan and Azerbaijan. Preventive and punitive measures taken by the Russian gendarmerie and police led to certain results, but failed to completely stop the assistance.
65 Mgeladze, Vlasa, “Sparsuli revolutsia,” in Mogonebani 3 (Paris, 1974).Google Scholar This “Memoir” became available even to the broad community of the Georgian scholars only several years ago when it was brought to Georgia as part of the Georgian immigration archives carefully preserved by the Georgian immigrants in Europe since the time of Georgia's occupation by the Soviet army.
66 “Gurji”was a pseudonym of an anonymous correspondent of the newspaper Ali, and his reports from Tabriz were published in the 1908 November–December issues of this newspaper. I am currently in the process of compiling and translating the accounts of the above mentioned revolutionaries, and, hopefully, they will soon be published along with some photo material, comments, and introduction.
67 For example, the newspaper Ali had its special correspondent in Iran whose reports were published in November–December of 1908 and whose issues were usually signed by a pseudonym “Mgzavri” (Traveler) or “Gurji” (Georgian). Another Tbilisi newspaper, Chveni Kvali, in 1908 published reports of its correspondent in Iran that were signed by pseudonym “Artemius.” In 1908, the newspaper Amirani also published reports from its correspondent in Iran.
68 Gurji Sergo, “Sparsetis Modzraobis Istoriidan,” Akhali Skhivi 3 (6 Feb.); 6 (10 Feb.); 8 (12 Feb.); 9 (13 Feb.); 11 (16 Feb.); 14 (19 Feb.); 17 (22 Feb.); 24 (4 March); 28 (9 March); 35 (17 March) (Tbilisi, 1910).
69 Akhali Skhivi, 3 (6 Feb. 1910).
70 Chipashvili, G., Sergo Gamdlishvili da misi iranuli dgiurebi, 14–29.Google Scholar
71 Kelenjeridze, A., Gurjebi, 109.Google Scholar
72 G. Chipashvili, Sergo Gamdlishvili da misi iranuli dgiurebi, 30.
73 Chipashvili, G., “Iz Istorii Internatsional'noi Deiatel'nosti Zakavkazskikh Revoliutsionerov v Irane,” Sakartvelos metsnierebata akademiis matsne 4 (1981): 27.Google Scholar
74 Chipashvili, G., Sergo Gamdlishvili da misi dgiurebi, 30.Google Scholar
75 G. Chipashvili, “Iz Istorii Internatsional'noi Deiatel'nosti Zakavkazskikh Revoliutsionerov v Irane,” 28.
76 Chipashvili, G., Sergo Gamdlishvili da misi iranuli dgiurebi, 30–31.Google Scholar
77 A.N. Guliev, “Vseobshaia Stachka v Baku v Iule 1903 g.–Nachalo Letnikh Zabastovok v Zakavkaz'e i na iuge Rossii,” in Slavnye stranitsy bor'by i pobed, ed. A.N. Guliev (Baku, 1965), 115. Tbilisi and Baku worker groups had experiences of collaboration and mutual support. In 1903, when Baku workers went on a general strike, the Tbilisi worker groups held a strike of solidarity with Baku in Tbilisi.
78 G. Chipashvili, “Iz Istorii Internatsional'noi Deiatel'nosti Zakavkazskikh Revoliutsionerov v Irane,” 28.
79 G. Chipashvili, “Iz Istorii Internatsional'noi Deiatel'nosti Zakavkazskikh Revoliutsionerov v Irane,” 28.
80 Chipashvili, G., Sergo Gamdlishvili da misi iranuli dgiurebi, 167.Google Scholar
81 A. Japaridze's memoirs, 90.
82 Valiko Gurji (Batumeli Valiko)—A Georgian revolutionary and native of Batumi. A. Japaridze mentions him as an actual commander of the Caucasian group in Rasht; see A. Japaridze's memoirs, 92. He was one of the most active and prominent members of the Georgian corps in Gilan; see also A., Guidor, “The Hnchakist Party and the Revolutionary Movement in Persia (1908–1911),” in The Armenians of Iran (Cambridge, 1998), 304.Google Scholar During the takeover of Rasht, Valiko Gurji was a member of the military staff and together with Mu'iz as-Sultan he led the van-guard group during this operation.
83 G. Chipashvili points out that the execution took place on 18 November 1910; see Chipashvili, G., Sergo Gamdlishvili da misi iranuli dgiurebi, 32.Google Scholar On the other hand, A. Kelenjeridze provides a different date: 24 November; see Kelenjeridze, A., Gurjebi, 109Google Scholar; and Kelenjeridze, A., Sergo Ordzhonikidze-Jhurnalist, 12.Google Scholar
84 Kelendzeridze, A. Sergo Ordzhonikidze– zhurnalist (Tbilisi, 1969), 24–33, 41–84.
85 Interestingly, S. Orjonikidze had published some of his letters in the newspaper Akhali Skhivi which also published S. Gamdlishvili's diary. Although S. Ordzhonikidze's revolutionary alias was indeed “Gurji Sergo,” for his newspaper articles, however, he used different pseudonyms: “Kldispireli” and “Sergo Kldisdzireli” (see V.S. Kirillov and A. Ya. Sverdlov, G.K. Ordzonikidze (Sergo). Biografia (Moscow, 1962), 41; and G. Chipashvili, “Iz Istorii Internatsionalnoi Deiatelnosti Zakavkazskikh Revolutsionerov v Irane,” 18. The pseudonym derives from the name of the area near the village of Goresha in Western Georgia where S. Orjonikidze was born.
86 S. Ordzhonikidze was arrested in Baku where he was a member of the Baku committee of the Russian Social-Democrat Labor Party. He was deprived of his noble rank, imprisoned from 1907 until February 1909, and then sent into exile in a remote Russian village of Potoskoe where he arrived in May–June 1909; see Kirillov, V.S. and Sverdlov, A.Ya., G.K. Ordzhonikidze (Sergo). Biografia, 31–36.Google Scholar Therefore, he could not have participated in the takeover of Rasht or have written a diary based on first-hand knowledge of that event. S. Ordzhonikidze arrived in Rasht in the autumn of 1909 and met A. Japaridze there; see V.S. Kirillov and A.Ya. Sverdlov, G.K. Ordzhonikidze (Sergo). Biografia, 40.
87 G. Chipashvili, “Iz istorii internatsional'noi deiatel'nosti zakavkazskikh revoliutsionerov v Irane,” 25. Russkoe Slovo—A Russian daily newspaper founded in 1895 and published in Moscow. Officially, it was a non-partisan newspaper, although it showed a leaning toward the moderate-liberal views. In 1917, Russkoe Slovo was banned by the Soviet authorities, but released several issues in 1918 having changed its name to Novoe Slovo and Nashe Slovo.
88 A.Kelenjeridze, Gurjebi, 110.
89 A.Kelenjeridze,Gurjebi, 110.
90 Gurji Sergo, “Sparsetis Modzraobis Istoriidan,” Akhali Skhivi 35 (17 March 1910).
91 Gurji Sergo, “Sparsetis Modzraobis Istoriidan,” Akhali Skhivi 3 (6 Feb.1910).
94 Gurji Sergo, “Sparsetis Modzraobis Istoriidan,” Akhali Skhivi 8 (12 Feb.1910).
92 Gurji Sergo, “Sparsetis Modzraobis Istoriidan,” Akhali Skhivi 3 (6 Feb. 1910).
93 A. Japaridze's memoirs, 92–93; M. Bogdamov-Mariashkin's memoirs, 33.
95 Gurji Sergo, “Sparsetis Modzraobis Istoriidan,” Akhali Skhivi 6 (10 Feb.1910).
96 Gurji Sergo, “Sparsetis Modzraobis Istoriidan,” Akhali Skhivi 6 (10 Feb. 1910).
97 Gurji Sergo, “Sparsetis Modzraobis Istoriidan,” Akhali Skhivi 8 (12 Feb. 1910).
98 Gurji Sergo, “Sparsetis Modzraobis Istoriidan,” Akhali Skhivi 3 (6 Feb. 1910).
99 Gurji Sergo, “Sparsetis Modzraobis Istoriidan,” Akhali Skhivi 3 (6 Feb. 1910).
100 Gurji Sergo, “Sparsetis Modzraobis Istoriidan,” Akhali Skhivi 3 (6 Feb. 1910).
101 Akhali Skhivi 3 (6 Feb. 1910).
102 Akhali Skhivi 35 (17 March 1910).
103 Gurji Sergo, “Sparsetis Modzraobis Istoriidan,” Akhali Skhivi 3 (6 Feb.1910).
104 Gurji Sergo, “Sparsetis Modzraobis Istoriidan,” Akhali Skhivi 3 (6 Feb.1910).
105 Kasravi, A., Tarikh-i Mashrutah-i Iran, 251.Google Scholar
106 Kelenjeridze, A., Sergo Ordzhonijikdze-Jhurnalist, 64.Google Scholar Generally, it appears from the diary that the Georgian corps in Gilan tried to act with all possible tactfulness and cautiousness regarding possible consequences of their activities. After the takeover of Rasht, the revolutionaries launched searches and arrests of the reactionaries in the town, but the Georgian corps refused to participate in the searches of the houses, arrests, street patrolling or any other punitive actions, as they believed that such actions on part of foreigners could cause undesirable and negative consequences; see Akhali Skhivi 8 (12 Feb. 1910).
107 See the text of the declaration in Vlasa Mgeladze, “Sparsuli revolutsia,” Mogonebani: 104. Also see Katsitadze, G., “Germaniis pozitsiebi iranis 1906–1911 tslebis revolutsiis dros,” Perspective-XXI IV (2002): 67.Google Scholar One of the complications that V. Mgeladze is speaking about might have been the occupation of Tabriz by the Russian army. The Russian command demanded the Tabrizi mujahidin to stop supporting the Transcaucasian revolutionaries who helped the resistance and threatened with punitive measures against Sattar Khan's follower if they did not comply. One of the insiders of the Gilan resistance, M. Bogdanov-Mariashkin, points out that the Tabrizi mujahidin had to agree to the Russians' demands; therefore, the Georgian revolutionaries had to leave Iran promptly in order not to become a tool of blackmailing for the Russian military in Tabriz (see M. Bogdanov-Mariashkin's memoir, 45). On the dynamics of the relations between the constitutionalists and the Russian troops in Tabriz, see J.D. Clark, Constitutionalists and Cossacks: The Constitutional Movement and Russian Intervention in Tabriz 1907–1911,” Iranian Studies 39, no. 2 (2006): 199–225; see also Strelianov, P. (Kalabukhov), Neizvestnyi Pokhod, Kazaki v Persii v 1909–1914 gg. (Moscow, 2001).Google Scholar
108 Gurji Sergo, “Sparsetis Modzraobis Istoriidan,” Akhali Skhivi 3 (6 Feb. 1910).
109 The Georgians considered their assistance to the Iranian Constitutional revolution an act of the fraternal and international solidarity with the Iranian people, and, thus, they considered themselves the internationalists. On one of the meetings between the resistance groups in Rasht, the leader of the Georgian group said, “We, Georgians, have come here, to Persia, not as Georgians. We have come here as internationalists.” See Sergo, Gurji, “Sparsetis Modzraobis Istoriidan, ” Akhali Skhivi 14 (19 Feb. 1910).Google Scholar