ABSTRACT
The history of Firqi-yi Ijtimaʿiyun-i Amiyun-i Iraniyan (the Iranian Social Democrat Party) has conventionally been read in line with the development of Caucasian social democracy. The standard historiography on this subject maintains that the Russian Social Democrats, more precisely their Bolshevik element, set up the Himmat Organization in Baku with the intention of recruiting Muslim oil labourers to their ranks. Himmat leaders, in turn, founded the Ijtimaiyun-i Amiyun Party in order to politicize and organize migrant Iranians who constituted the bulk of unskilled workers in the Baku oilfields and worked as underdogs throughout Transcaucasia. Thus, it is assumed that the Ijtimaiyun-i Amiyun Party was indirectly connected to the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) and remained subject to its organizational/ideological imperatives. Yet the validity of the foregoing linear viewpoint is disputable. Historical evidence disproves the assertion that the RSDLP ever, officially, encouraged the formation of an independent section for ethno-national groups such as Caucasian Muslims. Although marginal organizational and personal ties did exist between Himmatites and Ijtimaiyun activists, the latter did not become subject to the organizational rules or ideological beliefs of the RSDLP. In fact, Ijtimaiyun branches developed their own type of organization and drew up a programme in accord with the exigencies of Iranian socio-economic conditions. Therefore, the history of the Firqi-yi Ijtimaiyun-i Amiyun requires a new evaluation.
