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Bezsonov, Boris Vasilyevich. Russkie pereselentsy v Severnoi Persii [i.e. Russian settlers in Northern Persia] Petrograd: Publishing of the Migration Administration of the Main Administration of Land Management and Agriculture, 1915.

#RA54

1915

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[3], 90 p., 26 leaves of ill., 1 folding map; 26 x 18 cm.

Elegant publisher's binding with gold embossing on the front cover and a black embossing of the Russian two-headed eagle. Coloured paper on the endpapers. A clean, beautiful copy.

Very rare with three paper copies in US Libraries, according to Worldcat: UC Berkeley, Stanford, Michigan.  Photographs by the author. 

The important work is documenting one of the last colonizing efforts by the Russian Empire: Russian settlers in the North of Persia. In 1907 the convention between the United Kingdom and Russia relating to Persia, Afghanistan, and Tibet was signed, that marked the end of ’The Great Game’. The Convention ended the long dispute over Persia between the two parties. Great Britain promised to stay out of northern Persia, and Russia recognized southern Persia as part of the British sphere of influence. As a result, the colonists were sent to the region and at the time of writing a few thousand people were actively settling in and working on this new southern frontier of the Empire. 

Bessonov Boris Vasilyevich (1862-1934) was a Russian artist, landscape painter, writer.  He studied at Moscow University and simultaneously attended classes at the School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, where his teacher was A. K. Savrasov.A friend of V. G. Perov (Perov painted his portrait in 1869, and in 1871 depicted him as a "skeptic" in the painting "Hunters at Rest").

In 1880, B. Bessonov became an official in the Ministry of Agriculture, served in the Nizhny Novgorod province, and traveled a lot around Russia on duty, and was engaged in painting. In 1907-1908, together with the Vologda governor A. N. Khvostov, he made two long, difficult and distant journeys around the Komi region. Based on the results of the expeditions, the purpose of which was to explore Ukhta oil and future waterways to Siberia, he published two books that have not lost their relevance and historical interest to this day. In 1909, he again traveled around the Northern Urals. Based on the results of this trip, Bessonov also published two works in which he argued for the possibility of connecting the Ob and Pechora basins through the Ilych River valley. In 1914, the resettlement administration published three volumes of "Asian Russia", on the pages of which was published the work of Boris Vasilyevich on the creation of the Amur Cossack army, its administrative structure, and land use of the Cossacks.

After that Bessonov has travelled to Persia to examine the state of the land and Russian settlers in the region. Most of the book is dedicated to the south shore of the Caspian Sea – it’s agricultural characteristics, what could be grown there, the cotton production and the means to expand it. A separate chapter takes the reader to Astrabad (Gorgan), its markets, diseases, carpet industry, the visit to shakh residence. The auls and the dwellings of the countryside habitants are described in another chapter in detail, giving the specifics on the villages in the region, the Turkmen population and the land distribution in Persia. The last chapter is dedicated to the overview of Russian and German settlments in the province, the relationships and the prospects.

This is how Bessonov describes the settlement Sengimarmar, originally colonized by the Russians from Saratov: 'The lands leased by the Saratov residents are in very favorable conditions: the proximity of the mountains, the large amount of moisture they provide, and the close presence of swamps, into which ancient reservoirs have turned, make it possible to obtain excellent harvests of grain and grass, and in many places, probably, of dry cotton. Particularly favorable is the rich steppe in the new extension from the Kemalkhan tract, located in the immediate vicinity of the mountains; judging by the wealth of wild vegetation in this area, it can be assumed that this particular area will form the future granary of the Saratov settlement. Water for the necessary partial irrigation is obtained from ancient karizes, preserved almost in good condition, in sufficient quantity; if their system is brought into full order, it should be in abundance. In general, on the land of the Saratov settlement there are many remnants of the old times of Persia's prosperity; huge reservoirs, entire systems of now flooded irrigation ditches and abandoned kyarizes, the remains of cemeteries on a mound in the steppe and, especially interesting in terms of their state of preservation, one called Sengimmarmar, in the forest separating the steppe on which the village stands from the new extension. The settlement is currently in the process of being organized: houses are being erected, land is being plowed, roads are being built, etc., and it makes a very favorable impression, but its negative side is the extreme mixture of its constituent elements: Orthodox, Old Believers, Molokans, Judaizing Molokans, Baptists, Seventh-day Adventists, etc., all have their representatives here, and although they consider themselves tolerant, in reality they still treat followers of other sects differently than their fellow believers, and this cannot but affect the strength of the partnership and will probably eventually lead to its disintegration, if it does not come to the usual end of all such partnerships earlier’.

In 1915, Bessonov's book "Russian settlers in Northern Persia" was published, and in 1917 one more book, based on his trip - "Northern provinces of Persia". 

Author concludes in the end, that the only way the region could survive if it’d be integrated into Russia: ‘It’s needed for this land for Russia to stay firm on this ground for good’.

Item #RA54
Price: $3500.00

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