The Role Of Russia In Iran’s Constitutional Revolution

In the early 20th century, the world changed greatly. The world’s major capitalist countries went into the imperialist stage and the oppressed Asian nations steped into the so-called "Asia’s awakening period". Iran’s constitutional revolution in 1905-1911 took place in this international context. Constitutional revolution was the inchoation of Iran’s modern politics, and the constitution and parliament was first introduced to Iran in the revolution. What’s more, constitutional revolution was the development of Iranian nationalism, because it was against colonialism, however, it finally ended in failure. Revolution failure is not only due to Iran’s immature domestic conditions, but also attributed to foreign interference, especially the Russian intervention, and this is more important.Seeking for world hegemony had always been the goal of the tsarist Russia. Iran had abundant resources, and important strategic position, as a result, it was considered as an important step of entering the Indian Ocean and invading the south Asian by Russia. Since the 18th century, Russia had strived to control Iran by occupying its territory and political and economic penetration, so Iran was undergoing Russian oppression and enslavement. Russian had been trying to obstruct the development of the revolution since Iran’s constitutional revolution broke out, it even murdered revolution with Britain. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of Russian in Iran’s constitutional revolution. This paper argues that because of Russian own interest, it has played a great negative role in the revolution, especially Russian intervention pushed Iran’s revolution to defeat step by step. Iran’s constitutional revolution broke out due to the effect of the Russia; The interruption of the first session of parliament was encourged by Russia; Russian interference in the early years of the revolution in the second stage made the Iran’s parliament of reconstruction more weak; in the second session of parliament, Russia’s strong intervention eventually leaded to the end of Iran’s parliament.