Telegram, Stalin to LENIN and the TsEKA [Central Committee]

MOSCOW, only to LENIN and the TsEKA [Central Committee]

Vladikavkaz, 16 November

Matters in Persia: First, it is finally clear that Kuchuk-Khan, being with us, was at the same time in correspondence with the Shah’s government; however, he thought that we had already become aware of his relations with the Shah’s government, fled into the forest, and there [Ehsanullah], an honest person deserving of trust, is occupying Kuchuk-Khan’s place in Rasht; in the event of the conclusion of peace with the Shah’s government [Ehsanullah] requests that amnesty be pronounced to the Persians fighting in our ranks, but [that] he himself be given an opportunity to leave for Russia (he has a secondary education and speaks French). Kuchuk-Khan’s delegates in Moscow ought to be shown the door as suspicious people. Second, the composition of the Iranian Communist Party CC had to be revamped; the old Persian revolutionary Zeydar-Khan and the Persian Baku workers have been brought in instead of Sultan-Zade and some other members. A directive has been issued to shift the center of work to Tabriz, as the most revolutionary province. Third, only a bourgeois revolution, relying on the middle classes with the slogan “Kick the English out of Persia” is possible in Persia,, forming a single republican Persian state now broken into independent khanates with numerous customs cordons [kordony], the convening of the Majlis (the founding place) with general and equal suffrage, the formation of a national army (where sovietists [SIC] should be approved first of all), and an improvement of the peasants’ situation at the expense of the khans. Appropriate instructions have been given to the Iranian Communists. Nº 176/s.

STALIN

16 November 17-5

yeg.

[the handwritten original follows, followed by “[rst]. 208 16 November 17-5 [illegible word/name]” with a telegram tape glued below: “The military [voyen - SIC] received your note. Politk Perepepilisina???? [SIC]”