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Ротштейн Ф. А. и первые шаги советской дипломатии в Иране (1921-22 гг.)
Soviet-Iranian diplomatic relationships, which are rooted in Ivan the Terrible time, have experienced a number of turning periods in their development. So at the turn of the 1920s when the foundations of Soviet-Iranian relationships were laid, the collisions of ideological dogmata and practice, searching for new methods and tools of diplomacy and using of existing ones were happening. In the conditions of the formation of the Moscow’s foreign policy strategy, searching for new forms of political and economic relations with Eastern countries, rapidly changing internal situations in both Soviet Russia and Iran, the first Soviet diplomatic representatives were not mere the doers of directives but the actors of forming intergovernmental relations. Theodore Aronovich Rothstein became the first diplomatic representative of new Russia officially recognized by Tehran, whose strong character and the own appraisal of the political situation influenced on the formation of the intergovernmental relationships at that crucial time - the time that largely determined trends of Soviet-Iranian relationships in succeeding years.
Rothstein’s work in Iran as a Soviet plenipotentiary was taking place in the time of ending of that period of relationships between Bolsheviks and Iranian revolutionaries, which had started not long before the Constitutional revolution of 1905-11. Russian social-democrats, having been a revolutionary and anti-system party in tsarist Russia, actively supported revolutionists in neighboring Iran. Having won the civil war and found themselves in a new internal and external political situation, the Bolshevik leadership preferred to revise their previous opinions and supported the political forces in the neighboring country, which, in their opinion, aimed at establishing a strong and centralized state.
The collapse of the Soviet republic in Gilan and the destruction of the Jangali movement happened with Rothstein’s assistance – the events that became the important steps toward achieving the supreme power of the state by relatively little-known war minister and commander of the Cossack Division Reza Khan. During that period the Soviet-Iranian Treaty was ratified and the Moscow’s attitude to the problem of north oil was changed. Moreover with his participation the foundation of the «National Block» (the conductor of the Communist International strategy of the «anti-imperialist united front») and the system of relationships of the Soviet representatives with the representatives of the Iranian political elite were laid.
Taking the higher authorities’ decisions into account, Rothstein was able to insist on his own point of view and wasn’t afraid of the conflicts with high-ranking Bolshevik officials – the position which made him many enemies and assisted his resignation in the end.