Abstract: The article examines the views and ideas that circulated among the Russian state elite during the Great War era in relation to the desired reshaping of the Middle East region (primarily Qajar Iran) in accordance with the interests of the state. The 1907 Agreement did not definitively resolve either the contradictions between the Russian Empire and Britain in the region, or the Persian question as it. The pre-war years were marked by an intensification of “peaceful penetration” in the Russian sphere of influence, which generated additional friction. The outbreak of the global conflict seemed to open a window of opportunity for the transformation of the region, including those related to the emergence of new forms of penetration, such as resettlement and active involvement in the discussion and implementation of the policy of the Resettlement Department and the authorities of Turkestan. By the end of 1916, this even led to the issue of shifting the political border in the region to the east of the Caspian Sea. However, the revolutionary events of February 1917 in Petrograd led to a paradigm shift. The new authorities, who rhetorically dissociated themselves from the approaches and practices of the “Ancien Régime”, sought to find their own Middle Eastern policy options, inevitably driven by situational and personnel inertia, on the one hand, but also by the search for new formats and approaches, on the other.

Key words: Russia, Iran, Great Britain, W. von Klemm, V.F. Minorsky, the Russian Revolution