Russia and the Middle East 265

France. The Soviet press thereupon linked together Italy and
Turkey as attempting to disturb the peace of the Balkans. Anti-
Soviet feeling in Turkey was stimulated by the Soviet invasion of
Finland, since Turkish theorists were aware of the distant con-
nexion, between the Finnish and Turkish languages. Following
the German publication of captured French documents in July
1940, the Soviet accused the Turkish government of conniving at
Anglo-French plans, now revealed, for bombing the Caucasian
oilfields and the pipeline to Batum, as a potential source of supply
to Germany. At the Hitler-Molotov meeting in November
1940 the Russians, according to the captured German minutes,
asked for the control of the Straits, as well as for the right to
expand 'south of Batum and Baku5.1 In March 1941, when Hitler
was on the point of invading Jugoslavia and Greece, Russia
assured the Turks of her neutrality. Her establishment in May of
diplomatic relations with Rashid Ali's government in Iraq, when
it was already in armed conflict with the British, who for their
part had warned the Russians of Hitler's preparations to invade
them, is an incident whose significance has not yet been clarified.

(5) The War, 1941-5
After the Anglo-Russian invasion of Persia in August 1941, the
northern zone which came under Russian military occupation was
withdrawn behind the now familiar 'iron curtain*: the Persian
government's authority ceased to be effective there, and British
and American officers found great difficulty in entering the Rus-
sian zone even on official business. The American Dr. A. C. Mills-
paugh, then Administrator-General of the Finances of Persia, has
accused the Soviet government of seeking a 'thorough-going and
exclusive domination over the entire country.. . . They intended
that Persia should be a puppet-state, and until that end was attained,
the Soviet government would not be interested in stability or good
government in Persia. Chaos served their purpose better than
order. They wanted the kind of government that could be pur-
chased, hoodwinked, or intimidated/2 In Tehran the Tudeh or
1 Nazi-Soviet Relations, 1939-1941. (U.S. State Department, 1948), 217 ff,
2 Americans in Persia (Washington, B.C., 1946).