THE CAUSES AND EXTENT OF THE FAMINE IN IRAN (1917–1919)

Abstract

The article examines the problem of the famine that arose in Iran during the World War I in the fall of 1917 and ended in the spring of 1919. This issue practically was not explored by both Soviet and Russian researchers. The author argues that the main reasons for the outbreak of the disaster included not only drought and crop failures that had occurred two years before the start of the famine proper, but also the presence of foreign troops on the Iran soil, as well as the rise of wheat prices, introduced by the British military authorities in Iran, who were buying wheat for the needs of the British army, fighting in Mesopotamia, the desire of large local landowners to cash in on such supplies and their reluctance to sell grain to the Iranian government, which did not have the opportunity to buy it at the same prices as the English foragers and agents. Later, one of the largest landowners of the country Ahmed Shah was accused of wheat speculation. The paper pays particular attention to the number of famine victims, since foreign authors define them in tens of thousands, while some Iranian researchers — up to 10 million people. When assessing the consequences of the tragedy, the author tries to use indirect data from the post-war restoration of the Iranian economy sources, including the rapid growth in the production and export of handmade carpets. The latter would have been impossible with the death of half of the country’s population, since carpet weaving requires many workers. In addition, child labor was widely used in this industry, and children are the most vulnerable category of the population in such disasters as famine and epidemics. The author estimates the demographic losses of Iran in the period under review at 1–1.5 million people but believes that besides the famine the causes included epidemics of Spanish flu and typhus that raged in the country in those years.