Abstract
Iran is a country that has been constantly exposed to various periodic famines due to: various geographical reasons, foreign invasions, lack of proper transportation routes, and etc. With the outbreak of World War I and the occupation of Iran, along with the drought, there were disturbances that complicated the situation. The main topic of the present article, focusing on the northern region of Khorasan as one of the areas affected by the famine of World War I and its consequences, is what caused or exacerbated the phenomenon and the development of famine and what happened afterward. Under these circumstances, what the Iranian government did to reduce the increase in famine and hunger or to overcome this situation is of absolute importance.
To conduct this research, unpublished archival documents have been used as the main source of existing studies that contain fresh and up-to-date information, given the lack of studies on the current topic, to answer the above questions.
The result indicates that in addition to the unjust actions of the Russians in disrupting and destroying the purchasing system of products in northern Khorasan, including agricultural and livestock products, other crucial factors such as low rainfall, hoarding of wheat and barley, excessive profiteering of grain sellers, inadequacy and irrationality of customs officials, the recklessness of government officials, and etc have been described as important factors and have caused famine in the years 1291-1297