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Mustafa Barzani’s Soviet exile: popular myths vs. evidence in Russian archives (Part I)
 
PIIS086919080029951-3-1
DOI10.31857/S086919080029951-3
Publication type Article
Status Published
Authors
Nodar Mossaki 
Occupation: Senior researcher
Affiliation: Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Address: Moscow, Moscow, Rozhdestvenka str., 12
Lana M. Ravandi-Fadai
Occupation: Senior Researcher; Associate Professor
Affiliation:
Institute of Oriental Studies
Russian State University for the Humanities
HSE University
Address: Russian Federation, Moscow
Journal nameVostok. Afro-Aziatskie obshchestva: istoriia i sovremennost
EditionIssue 2
Pages96-108
Abstract

The article examines the case file of the Kurdish leader Mustafa Barzani, preserved in the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (RGASPI). The dossier was opened in 1953, when Barzani began studying at the Higher Party School (HPS) under the Central Committee (CC) of the CPSU and was compiled by the International Department of the CC of the CPSU. In addition to a large collection of press materials, primary sources such as Soviet internal reports, transcripts of conversations, surveillance records, and personal correspondence bring to light previously unknown episodes in the biography of the renowned Kurdish leader, including detailed information about his residence in Moscow in 1953-1958, training at the HPS, meetings with friends and associates, and maneuvering to maintain his leadership while in exile from Kurdistan. The dossier materials are also critically compared with information presented in already published literature about this period of Barzani’s life. The article also provides information about employees of the International Department who were involved in relations with the Kurdish leader. Archive materials allow us to reassess elements of the Barzani legend, such as his purported rank as an officer in the Soviet Army, and to better understand Soviet policymakers, who did not view Barzani as ideological ally and yet chose to continue supporting him. Although Barzani was driven by nationalist rather than Marxist goals, he was neither anti-communist nor anti-Soviet. The documents demonstrate time and again Barzani’s unwavering adherence to the national idea and his resolve to return to Kurdistan to continue the struggle. 

KeywordsMustafa Barzani, Barzanis, Kurds, Iraqi Kurdistan, Mahabad Republic, Barzani’s exile, Soviet policy
Received12.02.2024
Publication date05.05.2024
Number of characters40815
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Table of contents

INTRODUCTION
MUSTAFA BARZANI’S STUDIES IN MOSCOW, HIS CASE FILE (DOSSIER) IN THE COMMUNIST PARTY’S ARCHIVE AND THE INDIVIDUALS WHO ACCESSED IT
REPUTED PROMOTION TO THE RANK OF SOVIET GENERAL
CONVERSATIONS
1

INTRODUCTION
2 Mustafa Barzani has been called the father of modern Kurdish nationalism1 and even a “legendary super-hero” [van Bruinessen, 1992, p. 316]. The New York Times declared him “the heart and brains behind the rebellion of the Kurds.” [Schmidt, 1962, p. 1]. His struggle is inextricably associated with the “first Kurdish republic”, the Mahabad Republic (1946), which in the Kurdish collective consciousness embodies their aspirations for independence, well preceding the era of the “Kurdish Revolution” in Iraq in the 1960s and the present semi-independent position of Iraqi Kurdistan.2 His legacy continues in the most literal way, as the rulers of South Kurdistan are his direct descendants.3 1. Without discussing the genesis of Kurdish nationalism, we would like to quote the words of Martin van Bruinessen that it was the “military and political successes of Mullah Mustafa Barzani”, and not “nationalist propaganda by intellectuals” that made Kurdish nationalism a mass movement [van Bruinessen, 1992, p. 316].

2. Mustafa Barzani’s role is perceived somewhat differently in the Sulaymaniyah Region, a zone under the influence of the PUK (Patriotic Union of Kurdistan), but his place in Kurdish history is nonetheless difficult to overestimate.

3. The first president of Kurdistan (2005–2017), Masoud Barzani, was his son. The second president of Kurdistan (from 2019) Nechirvan Barzani, who was the prime minister of Kurdistan for a long time, is his grandson and married to his granddaughter. Another grandson of Mustafa Barzani, Masrour, has been the prime minister of Kurdistan since 2019.
3 After the Second World War, Barzani was forced to take refuge in the USSR. The conditions of the Kurdish leader’s sudden arrival on foreign soil are described by Soviet intelligence officer Pavel Sudoplatov:
4 In 1947, after a military engagement with the Shah’s forces, armed Kurdish detachments commanded by Mullah Mustafa Barzani crossed our border with Iran and entered the territory of [Soviet] Azerbaijan…
5 Barzani’s military detachments numbered up to 2,000 fighters,4 accompanied by as many family members. Soviet officials at first placed the Kurds in an internment camp, but in 1947 Abakumov5 ordered me to open negotiations with Barzani and offer him and his people political asylum and temporary resettlement in the agricultural regions of Uzbekistan near Tashkent [Sudoplatov, 1997, p. 432]. 4. Really the number of men with Barzani was 500.

5. Viktor Semyonovich Abakumov, Minister of State Security for the USSR from 1946 to 1951.
6 Thus began the Kurdish leader’s 11 years of Soviet exile, arguably the least studied and most mythologized period of his life. His reported rise to the rank of Soviet general during this time has become an integral part of the Kurdish national myth. Barzani’s time in the USSR is actively promoted by the leaders of Iraqi Kurdistan to emphasize the “historic” nature of Kurdish relations with Russia and other countries. This article examines the persisting legends surrounding Barzani’s Soviet exile against the records preserved in the archives of the Russian Federation and strives for a soberer assessment of the nature and impact of the leader’s Soviet period. This article also presents a detailed account the rich holdings in Barzani’s Soviet case file which remain unstudied.
7 Also leveraged here are published works by Barzani’s son Masoud Barzani [Barzani, 2005; 2003], Pavel Sudoplatov [Sudoplatov, 1997, p. 423–430], Yevgeny Primakov [Primakov, 2006, p 325], and Ordikhane Dzhalil (in Kurdish Ordixanê Celîl) [Dzhalil, 2003, p. 45-51], who recounts his personal meetings with the Kurdish leader. Olga Zhigalina’s book [Zhigalina, 2013] contains little new information and is based primarily the work of Masoud Barzani.
8 Barzani’s long stay in the Soviet Union may be divided into three parts: 1) roughly a year in Azerbaijan (first in Nakhchivan, then near Baku) beginning in mid-1947, 2) in Uzbekistan, until Stalin’s death in 1953, 3) in Moscow until October 1958.
9

MUSTAFA BARZANI’S STUDIES IN MOSCOW, HIS CASE FILE (DOSSIER) IN THE COMMUNIST PARTY’S ARCHIVE AND THE INDIVIDUALS WHO ACCESSED IT
10 We will begin with the last period, as many of the most persistent myths concern this time. When Mustafa Barzani came to Moscow after Stalin’s death in 1953,6 he was sent to study at the Higher Party School (HPS) under the Central Committee (CC) of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), a special educational institution.7 The HPS trained senior staff members and only accepted applicants already possessing a higher education. The duration of study varied from 2 to 3 years at different periods. The school was located at Miusskaya Square, only 500 meters from Barzani’s residence.8 6. Here we will not repeat the story, which is well-known in the literature and has become a kind of legend, about Mustafa Barzani’s appearance at the Spassky Gates of the Kremlin. See [Barzani, 2005, p. 178; Primakov, 2006, p. 325].

7. In 1978 Higher Party School was merged with the Academy of the Social Sciences.

8. 50/52 Novoslobodskaya ulitsa, apartment 125.
11 Documents produced by the Communist Party and its corresponding educational institutions were stored in the Central Party archive, which in 1991–1999 was known as the Russian Center for Recording and Studying Contemporary History, after which it acquired its present name: The Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv sotsial'no-politicheskoi istorii (RGASPI)).
12 This is the archive that houses the personal case file of Mustafa Barzani (Mamedov), containing 296 pages (listy)9. The dossier was opened in October 1953 [RGASPI-Barzani, p. 294]. With the exception of one form from 1968, the listy are numbered from newer materials to older ones (i.e. numeration starts with materials of TASS from 1964 and ends with documents from 1953). This dossier was compiled by the International Department (ID) of the CC of the CPSU. The dossier is classified as “top secret.” 9. [Dossier] Mustafa Barzani (Mamedov), in RGASPI, Fond (Fund) 495, Opis’ (Inv.) 216, Delo (Case) 141, 296 Ll. (pp.) (further – RGASPI-Barzani).
13 We should note that it is not possible to examine in detail here the entire personal dossier of Mustafa Barzani, although many materials contained therein shed light on the strategy and dynamics of world powers in relation to the Kurdish issue and the region generally. Our task has been to leverage documents hitherto not engaged by international scholarship in order to analyze certain aspects of Barzani’s Soviet period.

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