Introduction

The primary goal of this work is to introduce Russian travelogues about Iran written in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as a new and untapped source of information about the history of Iran during this period. The travelogues also provide data on related topics, such as the history of Russian and British colonialism in Iran. A corollary of this research is to explain why the travelogues are biased against Iranians and how their biases distort the material presented.