270 A Short History of the Middle East
that the Democrats were taking over the administration, and that
they would not tolerate intervention from the government
gendarmes or anyone else. Then at night the armed Democrats
would enter the few key-buildings and take over. Sometimes
there would be a little shooting, and a few gendarmes or other
opponents killed. In the morning the mass of Democrats would
arrive, singing and with banners, and would take over. Through-
out, the Russians remained discreetly in the background/1 The
active Democrats, who with their supporters numbered only
about 10 per cent, of the population, advanced southwards on the
provincial capital of Tabriz. Its Persian garrison of 400 men was
confined to barracks by the Russian military authorities and
capitulated to the Democrats on 15 December. An autonomous
State of Azerbaijan was proclaimed under the leadership of
Pishevari. According to Moscow radio, it had been 'elected by a
free vote'. While it recognized private property as legitimate, it
undertook to confiscate and share out among the peasants the
^states of 'reactionary landlords who have fled the province'.
Credits would be made available to peasants to buy land from land-
lords 'willing to sell at reasonable prices'. The Persian government,
receiving no reply to its proposal to the Soviet government to
negotiate over Azerbaijan, appealed to the Security Council.
When the case came up on 28 January 1946 M. Vyshinsky stated
that the Persian government had broken off previous negotiations
early in December, and that Russia was now ready to continue
them. The Council accordingly resolved that the two parties
should inform it of the results of their negotiations. In the mean-
time, however, the seventy-two-year-old Persian Prime Minister,
who had been subject to increasing left-wing pressure to dismiss
a number of cabinet ministers and other officials who were alleged
to be under British influence, had resigned. The Majlis elected as
his successor, by the narrow margin of fifty-three votes to fifty-one,
Qavam as-Sultani, a wealthy owner of lands in Azerbaijan. When
he was previously Prime Minister early in 1942 there was reason
to believe that he took some steps towards 'reinsurance' with the
Germans; and now it was generally expected that, while taking a
strong line with any internal opposition, the cancient equivocator*2
would seek a reasonable compromise with the Russians. The
1 Jon Kimche, in Tribune, 18 January 1946.
2 Robert Stephens, Observer, 24 November 1946.