Iran on the Eve and During the Great War in the Assessments of the Russian Diplomatic Corps (Letters to B. E. Nolde)

The article examines the views of two diplomats, F. Grunmann and V. F. Minorsky, on the Iranian state and society, as well as their ideas about the optimal course of Russian policy in this Middle Eastern state on the eve and during the First World War. Set out in letters to the famous international lawyer, jurist, statesman B. E. Nolde, their ideas allow us to see the existence of alternative positions in the Russian foreign Ministry in this era. Moreover, if in Grunmann’s letter one can see the manifestation of an “imperialist” approach based on hierarchical orientalist ideas, then in Minorsky’s texts a different position is manifested, based on practical knowledge of the region and the changes taking place in it. Anyway, both of them turned out to be in demand.