War and Peace in Qajar Persia: Implications Past and ... - Oguzlar.az

70 Stephanie Croninrevolution was able to achieve its objectives largely peacefully. After therevolution, the Russians lost control completely and the Iranian officers formeda military council to take control of the Brigade.Nonetheless the constitutional regime was unable to grasp this opportunityto rid itself of the hated Russian military mission. The Russianauthorities regained the initiative and, at what was a critical moment for theBrigade, both internally and vis-à-vis the wider political situation, a new commandantarrived. In September 1906, one month after Mozzafar-edin Shahsigned the proclamation convening a Constituent National Assembly,Colonel Liakhov took over the Brigade. He was determined to re-assert Russiancontrol and succeeded in abolishing the military council and in weedingout Iranian officers opposed to Russian influence. In this he encounteredconsiderable difficulty as, besides resistance within the Brigade itself, theleading ulama, government ministers and the Majles all continued to makeefforts to curb his power.The constitutional regime soon paid the price for allowing Russian officersto remain in control of the Brigade. In June 1908 Liakhov and the Cossacksunder his command made a decisive intervention into the domestic politicalconflict, bombarded and suppressed the Majles, and overthrew the constitutionalgovernment on the orders of the new shah, Muhammad Ali (1907–1909),and his royalist and Russian supporters. Liakhov himself became militarygovernor of Tehran, but his ascendancy was brief. After the capture of thecapital by constitutionalist armies in 1909, the Russian officers and the Brigadewere again eclipsed, to re-emerge again only after the Russian governmentin 1911 forced a second closure of the Majles. In the context of the generaldefeat suffered by Iranian constitutionalism in 1911, the Brigade was oncemore consolidated into an instrument of royalism and foreign control.The Swedish military mission and the GovernmentGendarmerieBy the beginning of the twentieth century all the broad schemes of militarymodernization under missions of foreign officers had all ended in failure, whilethe establishment of the Cossack Brigade under the Russian military missionhad created a new problem of loss of authority without solving the oldproblem of a lack of effective military strength. By the constitutional period,the issue of sovereignty had become paramount and the state-buildingagenda had passed from the shah and his high ministers to a new generationrepresenting new social forces. Iranian constitutionalists argued stronglyin favour of the creation of a force which could defend Iran’s borders andindependence, maintain internal security, collect taxes and uphold theauthority of the constitutional authorities. In government pronouncements,Majles debates, programmes of political parties and the press, the need fora strong national army was constantly reiterated.