Anzali is an old city in ancient, first settled by the Cadusii. Owing to their pleasant relationship with Cyrus the Great, King of Anshan (Persia), and their military cooperation in Cyrus’s founding of the Achaemenian Empire, the Cadusii adopted the name Anshan-e Pars (Ανσνάν in Greek), meaning “the Anshans of Persia”.
This word in Middle Persian is Anzalag; a variant Persian form is Anzalazh.[citation needed] Anzali Gulf was a safe harbour for trade ships and fishing boats. It was renamed to Pahlavi in 1935.In 1919, with the collapse of General Anton Denikin’s White Russian army, eighteen of his ships sought refuge in Anzali. On 18 May 1920, a Soviet flotilla of thirteen ships launched a surprise attack on Anzali, capturing the British garrison and the eighteen White Russian ships.
