Fabian Boital, pioneer of Persian railway projects

The study discusses the competition among great powers for railway concessions in Persia, with a particular focus on the involvement of French entrepreneur Fabian Boital. The author shows the intensity of the struggle to obtain railway concessions in Persia and traces the fate of F. Boital’s projects after he built the first railway in that country. The research is based on correspondence between the russian mission in Tehran and St. Petersburg, as well as analytical reports from the “Persian desk” in the Archive of Foreign Policy of the russian empire. The author concludes that Boiatal’s success was due to the small scale of his project - the Tehran to Shah Abdul Azim railway, which was only about 10 kilometers long. Key factors included his collaboration with russian capitalist Lazar Solomonovich Polyakov, as well as the Persian monarch Naser al-din Shah’s strong desire to have at least some form of railway in his country. Another contributing factor was that the concession was granted in the name of an anonymous Belgian company. However, when Boital, along with Polyakov, attempted to secure a concession for a slightly larger project - the Tehran to Feshand railway (80 km) and an extension of the Shah Abdul Azim line by an additional 20-30 km - they encountered fierce resistance from the British mission, which ultimately led to the project’s failure. This outcome vividly illustrates the intensity of the Anglo-russian rivalry for control over railway concessions in Persia.