Introduction:
The Early Stages
of Russo-Iranian Relations
Commercial and diplomatic contact between Iran and modern Russia
developed gradually from the second half of the fifteenth century,
paralleling the reemergence of a Russian state under Muscovite hege-
mony. The first major increase in trade occurred during the sixteenth
century, following Ivan the Terrible's conquest of Tatar-ruled Kazan
(1552) and Astrakhan (1556), which opened the Volga-Caspian route
between Muscovy and Iran. From that time until the latter half of
the seventeenth century, Muscovy was a commercial magnet for West-
ern merchants seeking Russian products (especially lumber, flax, and
furs) and luxuries from Iran (notably silk and Indian goods available
in Iranian markets). These luxury goods were also much sought after
by the Muscovite elite. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (who ruled from
1645 to 1676) was particularly fond of Iranian rugs, jewels, and silks,
as were many members of his court. The period of growing commer-
cial relations also saw the first diplomatic contacts, the most impor-
tant of which were the requests of several Georgian princes that Mus-
covy protect them from the Iranians and Ottomans, who competed
for suzerainty over the Caucasus.
Whatever the potential for increased Russo-Iranian contacts, Russia
was unable to turn the situation to greater advantage until it had
strengthened its own domestic and international situation. Before the
eighteenth century, Moscow of necessity had been preoccupied by
other concerns: the period of upheaval known as the Time of Trou-
bles in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries; the schism
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