Russians in Iran
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Iranian Russians are Russians living in Iran or Iranians of Russian descent. Russians populate various regions, but mostly in those regions which had been under direct Russian military occupation in the past, thus in Russia's sphere of influence. This was an indirect result of the outcome of the last Russo-Persian Wars. Nowadays there are Russians located in the southern regions of the country as well (such as Bushehr), where many of them work as technicians and nuclear experts, on for example the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant. Although the community has shrunk significantly since the Second World War, the following Iran crisis of 1946 and the
Iranian Revolution The Iranian Revolution ( fa, انقلاب ایران, Enqelâb-e Irân, ), also known as the Islamic Revolution ( fa, انقلاب اسلامی, Enqelâb-e Eslâmī), was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynas ...
, Russians are known to be living in Iran since the time of the Safavids.


History

Russians in Iran (Persia) have a long history dating back many centuries. However, the first mass-immigration of Russians into Iran occurred in the early 20th century when hundreds of thousands of White émigrés had to flee from the Bolsheviks. Most of them landed in the north Iranian provinces of Gilan and Mazandaran, but also in the northwest and northeast, in
Iranian Azerbaijan Azerbaijan or Azarbaijan ( fa, آذربایجان, ''Āzarbāijān'' ; az-Arab, آذربایجان, ''Āzerbāyjān'' ), also known as Iranian Azerbaijan, is a historical region in northwestern Iran that borders Iraq, Turkey, the Nakhchivan ...
and
Khorasan Khorasan may refer to: * Greater Khorasan, a historical region which lies mostly in modern-day northern/northwestern Afghanistan, northeastern Iran, southern Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan * Khorasan Province, a pre-2004 province of Ira ...
, where communities of their descendants still live. The Russian community kept increasing in the northern provinces of the country, as a result of the Russian sphere of influence which was established since the Russo-Persian War of 1826-28. This influence ended some decades later with the crisis of 1946. Russia's influence in northern Iran was paramount from the signing of the
Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907 The Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907 (russian: Англо-Русская Конвенция 1907 г., translit=Anglo-Russkaya Konventsiya 1907 g.), or Convention between the United Kingdom and Russia relating to Persia, Afghanistan, and Tibet (; ...
until the outbreak of World War I in 1914. During this time period, it stationed troops in Iran's Gilan, Azerbajian and Khorasan provinces, and its diplomatic offices (consulates) in these parts wieleded considerable power. These consulates dominated the local Iranian administration and in some circumstances even collected local taxes. Starting in the same year as the Anglo-Russian Convention, unpremeditated Russian colonization commenced in Mazandaran and Astarabad provinces. Then, in 1912, Russian foreign policy officially adopted the plan to colonize northern Iran. At the outbreak of World War I, there were most likely some 4,000 Russian settlers in Astarabad and Mazandaran, whereas in northeastern Iran the Russians had founded a minimum of 15 Russian villages. During the reign of Nicholas II of Russia, Russian occupational troops played a major role in the attempted Tsarist suppression of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution. In the dawn of the outbreak of World War I, Russian occupational forces occupied Qajar Iran's Azerbaijan province as well as the entire north and north-east of the country, and amounted to circa twenty thousand. Following the start of the
Persian Campaign Persian expedition or Persian campaign may refer to: * Persian campaign (Alexander the Great) (334–333 BC) *Julian's Persian expedition (363) * Persian expedition of Stepan Razin (1699) * Persian campaign of Peter the Great (1722–1723) * Pers ...
of World War I, the number of Russian troops in Iran moderately grew to some eighty or ninety thousand. In the 1920s-1930s, the Soviet secret service (
Cheka The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission ( rus, Всероссийская чрезвычайная комиссия, r=Vserossiyskaya chrezvychaynaya komissiya, p=fsʲɪrɐˈsʲijskəjə tɕrʲɪzvɨˈtɕæjnəjə kɐˈmʲisʲɪjə), abbreviated ...
-
OGPU The Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU; russian: Объединённое государственное политическое управление) was the intelligence and state security service and secret police of the Soviet Union f ...
- NKVD) carried out clandestine operations on Iranian soil as it tried to eliminate White émigrées that had moved to Iran.


Russian Orthodoxy

The once numerous Russian Orthodox community in Iran has shrunken over the years. They are mostly the descendants of Russian émigrés and the permanently accredited staff of diplomatic and trade missions. Tehran's Orthodox Community traces its history to the late 16th century.
St. Nicholas Church, Tehran St. Nicholas Orthodox Church is a Russian Orthodox church in Tehran, Iran. History At the end of the 16th century a monk Nicephorus, founded the first Russian parish on the land of Persia. A Russian spiritual mission was operating in Iran by t ...
was built the 1940s on donations from Russian émigrés. It was designed by émigré architect and Iranian Army officer Nikolai Makarov. As soon as the crosses appeared on its cupolas, the half-finished church opened its doors to parishioners. There were several Orthodox priests in Tehran before the 1979 Islamic Revolution. In the early 1980s, all of them were expelled. It was not until the late 1990s that the St. Nicholas Church received its new head priest. Hieromonk Alexander Zarkeshev was appointed by the Moscow Patriarchate to serve in Tehran.


See also

* Russian diaspora * White émigré * Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Urmia *
St. Nicholas Church, Tehran St. Nicholas Orthodox Church is a Russian Orthodox church in Tehran, Iran. History At the end of the 16th century a monk Nicephorus, founded the first Russian parish on the land of Persia. A Russian spiritual mission was operating in Iran by t ...
*
Russian Church, Qazvin Cantor (or Kantur) Church ( fa, Kelisā ye Kantur, script=Latn) ( fa, کلیسای کانتور), is a Russian Orthodox church in Qazvin, Iran. History and design The church was built in 1905 for the Russians engineers hired for road constructio ...
*''
Urmia Orthodokseta Urmia Orthodokseta ("Orthodox Urmia"; russian: Православная Урмия, translit=Pravoslavnaya Urmia) was a magazine published every month (with one interruption) from 1904 to 1914 in Urmia, Qajar Iran by the Russian Ecclesiastical Mi ...
'' * Iran-Russia relations * Russo-Persian Wars *
Iranians in Russia Iranian Russians or Persian Russians ( fa, ایرانیان روسیه; russian: Иранцы в России) are Iranians in the Russian Federation, and are Russian citizens or permanent residents of (partial) Iranian national background. Ira ...
*
Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907 The Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907 (russian: Англо-Русская Конвенция 1907 г., translit=Anglo-Russkaya Konventsiya 1907 g.), or Convention between the United Kingdom and Russia relating to Persia, Afghanistan, and Tibet (; ...
*
1908 bombardment of the Majlis The 1908 bombardment of the Majlis of Iran took place on 23 June 1908 in Tehran, during the Iranian Constitutional Revolution, when the Persian Cossack forces, commanded by Vladimir Liakhov and other Russian officers, bombarded and suppressed t ...
*
Persian Campaign Persian expedition or Persian campaign may refer to: * Persian campaign (Alexander the Great) (334–333 BC) *Julian's Persian expedition (363) * Persian expedition of Stepan Razin (1699) * Persian campaign of Peter the Great (1722–1723) * Pers ...
* Persian Socialist Soviet Republic * Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran * Iran crisis of 1946 *
1953 Iranian coup d'état The 1953 Iranian coup d'état, known in Iran as the 28 Mordad coup d'état ( fa, کودتای ۲۸ مرداد), was the overthrow of the democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh in favor of strengthening the monarchical rule of ...
* Project Dark Gene *
Russians in post-Soviet states After the dissolution of the Soviet Union (USSR) in December 1991, about 25 million ethnic Russians in post-Soviet states found themselves living outside of Russia. All former Soviet citizens had a time window within which they could transfer the ...


References


Further reading

* {{Russian diaspora Ethnic groups in Iran Russian diaspora in Iran Iran–Russia relations Iranian people of Russian descent