Prospects of cotton growing in the Caspian provinces of Iran in the assessments of officials of the Russian Empire on the eve and during the First World War

Abstract

The article is devoted to the assessment of the prospects for the development of cotton growing in the Astarabad and Mazanderan provinces of Qajar Iran by the statesmen of the Russian Empire on the eve and during the First World War. The pre-war years were characterized by the intensification of Russian policy in the region. Among other things, with the active participation of the consulate in Astarabad, the formation of large Russian land ownership in the Caspian provinces and the development of peasant resettlement in the region is taking place. Cotton was considered as one of the main promising crops for breeding in the established farms, while it was the most interesting from the point of view of solving Russia’s strategic tasks to ensure the country’s resource independence. This problem is one of the little-studied in the existing historiography. On the basis of archival and published sources, the views of officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Resettlement Department on the problem of cotton growing are investigated. It is shown that due to the favorable climatic conditions of the region and its natural resources, the prospects for cotton cultivation for the Russian market looked promising. The connection in the ideas of the officials of the Resettlement Department of the success of cotton growing with the development of Russian peasant resettlement, the influence of the ideas of the "civilizing mission" of Russia on their considerations is also noted.