Leon Trotsky: Russo-Persian Pourparlers

[From the (British) Daily Review of the Foreign Press, 11 January, 1918, p. 559. Proceedings of the Brest-Litovsk Peace Conference. Washington 1918, p. 48 f.]

The Russian wireless circulates the following (5 January):

The Assistant to the Commissary for Foreign Affairs had addressed to the Minister for Persia under date 1 January, 1918, the following letter:

“In the name of the Commissary of the People for Foreign Affairs, I have to inform you that by virtue of the treaty concluded by Russia with Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, and Bulgaria at Brest on December 15, in accordance with Article 12 of the Treaty, “ the contracting parties immediately after having signed the present armistice treaty agree to enter into peace negotiations and declare themselves ready to withdraw their troops from Persia. In order to elaborate the details of the evacuation, as well as to carry out the principles above indicated, the Russian and Ottoman Commanders in Chief will enter into pourparlers without delay with the Persian Government. In consequence the Council of Commissaries of the people expresses its consent immediately to open up negotiations with Persia for the withdrawal of their troops from Persian territory on condition that the Turkish Government observe the Treaty and is waiting for the Persian Government to take the corresponding steps to this end.

(Signed) Polivanoff.

The Assistant to the Commissary for Foreign Affairs.”

I have just received from the Charge d’Affaires of Persia in Petrograd the following note:

“I hereby believe it my duty to state that the Persian Government, having been informed in due course of the contents of Article 12 of the Armistice Treaty concluded in the town of Brest on 15 December of this year, of which the text is reproduced above, has authorized me to enter into pourparlers for the evacuation of the troops within the Persian boundaries with the competent Russian Authority provided with powers to that effect, and that in accordance with a dispatch received from the Government at Teheran by the Persian Legation at Petrograd similar instructions have at the-same time been sent to the Persian Ambassador at Constantinople to enter into negotiations with the Ottoman Government regarding the evacuation of Persian territory by Turkish troops.

In communicating the above, the undersigned requests that he be informed as soon as possible of the day and hour when pourparlers on the evacuation of the Russian troops from Persia may commence.

(Signed) M. Assad Khan.

Petrograd.”

It is believed necessary:

(1) To elaborate as general plan of evacuation of Persia by Russian troops as soon as possible, and to propose to Turkey, through the intermediary of the Persian Government direct through the Turkish Legation-(delegation?) at Brest-Litovsk to coordinate the plan of evacuation of Turkish troops with that of the Russian troops.

(2) To commence immediately the evacuation of the units which, by their separation from the main body, have no importance from the military point of view, and which have merely served as the instrument of occupation of Persian territory.

(3) To recall from Persia our military mission which was there in the capacity of instructors of the Cossack Brigade.

(4) To appoint immediately with the Russian authorities in Persia commissaries who would explain to the units spread throughout Persia the political condition of Russia and the aim of our new international policy, based upon the rights of each nation, independent of its strength or weakness.

The duties of these commissaries would be to take such measures as would avoid the Persian population becoming Ihe victim of any violent offense on the part of the less conscious elements of the army.

(5) It is necessary to take measures so that the provisioning of the Russian Army, during the time that it still remains in Persia, will weigh as lightly as possible on the masses of the poor population of Persia.

I would request you, without delay, to take the measures which you intend to adopt in the sense indicated. This question demands the greatest speed in the settlement, so that the acts of violence which Tsarism and the bourgeois Governments of Russia have committed against the Persian people may be brought to an end as soon as possible.

(Signed) L. Trotsky,

Commissary of the People for Foreign Affairs.