Effect of Caucasus political activities on emigrant Iranians in Baku during the 1905 Russian Revolution

One of the most important social phenomena in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Iran was labor migration to the south of Russian empire, especially toBaku and its surrounding areas. In the early years of the twenties century, wave of strikes, ethnic conflicts and the revolution of 1905 encompassed these areas. These events also affected the lives of thousands of migrant Iranians who were doing different, mostly unskilled, types of jobs in the Baku area. This article, using various documents and sources, attempts to illustrate the effects of those events on emigrant Iranian labor force and to evaluate the role played by the Russo- Caucasian revolutionary parties in establishing an Iranian political party. At first Iranian avoided political activities but, by the time the revolutionary movement spread in the Baku region, some Iranians became affected by liberal intellectuals, newspapers, political parties and revolutionary movement. A number of them like Haydar Khan Amo-oghli, Asadullah Ghaffarzadeh and … joined the Russian Political Parties and finally, a group of Iranian militants created their first political party called Ijtimaiyun-e Amiyun (Social Democrat).