The Tudeh Party of Iran is an Iranian Marxist–Leninist party. Formed in 1941 with Soleiman Mirza Eskandari as its leader, the organization held significant influence in its early years and played an important role during Mohammad Mosaddegh's campaign to nationalize the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, as well as throughout his term as prime minister.Tudeh News, Statement of the Central Committee of the Tudeh Party of Iran, 2007. From the Iran crisis of 1946 onwards, Tudeh became a pro-Soviet organization and remained prepared to carry out the dictates of the Soviet leadership in Moscow, even if it meant sacrificing Iranian political independence and sovereignty. The crackdown that followed the 1953 coup against Mosaddegh is said to have "destroyed" the party,Abrahamian, Ervand, A History of Modern Iran, p.122Abrahamian, Tortured Confessions, (1999), p.92 although a small part of it survived. The party still exists but has remained much weaker on account of being banned in Iran and mass arrests by the Islamic Republic in 1982, as well as the executions of political prisoners in 1988. Tudeh identified itself as the historical successor of the Communist Party of Persia.
Ideological profile
The Tudeh Party is retroactively described in conflicting ways, sometimes as "Stalinist", or as a more traditional communist party that supported the Soviet Union while also adopting nationalism to appeal more to Iranians.The Nationalist-Religious Movement | Part 1: Patriots and Mosaddeghists by MUHAMMAD SAHIMI Tehran Bureau in Los Angeles| 28 June 2011 It is also sometimes described simply as "leftist" or even "left-leaning" by other sources.US Foreign Policy in Perspective: Clients, enemies and empire by David Sylvan and Stephen Majeski, Routledge, 2009, p.85
History
Birth of the communist movement in Iran The history of the communist movement in Iran dates back to the late 19th century, when Marxism was first introduced to the nation's intellectual and working classes as a result of the rapid growth of industry and the subsequent transformation of the country's economy from a feudalistic system into a capitalistic one. Being close to the Soviet Union and the Caucasus, northern Iran became the primary center of underground Marxist and social democrat political activity, and many such groups came into being over the years.
The Communist Party of Iran was founded in June 1920 in Bandar-e Anzali, in the province of Gilan, as a result of the first congress of Iranian social democrats. Haydar Khan Amo-oghli, who was one of the leaders of the Constitutional Revolution of Iran, became the national secretary of the new party. At the same time, Mirza Kuchik Khan, another major leader of the Constitutional Revolution and also the leader of the revolutionary Jungle "Jangali" Movement (Foresters' Movement), established the Socialist Soviet Republic of Gilan with the assistance of the Red Army of the Soviet Union.H. RamHormozi, Averting An Iranian Geopolitical Crisis: A Tale of Power Play for Dominance Between Colonial Powers, Tribal and Government Actors in the Pre and Post World War One Era (Victoria, BC, Canada: Friesen Press, 2016), 274.Arutiun Airapetian and Marcelo Gryckiewicz, Transcaucasian Banknotes (BoD – Books on Demand, 2009), 190.The British, who were a dominant influence in the Qajar court of Tehran, reportedly sent agents to infiltrate the Foresters Movement in a carefully prepared plot.
With the defeat of both the newly formed Soviet Republic of Gilan and the Communist Party, communist and social democrat activity once again went underground. In the early 1920s the Qajar dynasty finally collapsed, and Reza Shah ascended to the throne in 1925, establishing the Pahlavi dynasty. The new Shah introduced many reforms, such as limiting the power of the Shia clergy, but also in turn established an authoritarian dictatorship.
In 1929–30, the party organized strikes in an Isfahan textile mill, the Mazandaran railways, Mashhad carpet workshops, and most importantly, in the British-owned oil industry. The government cracked down heavily and circa 200 communists were arrested; 38 were incarcerated in Qasr Prison in Tehran. Along with the Stalin purges, which took a heavy toll on Iranian communist exiles living in the Soviet Union, these arrests meant the Communist Party of Iran "ceased to exist for all practical purposes outside the walls of Qasr."Abrahamian, Ervand, Tortured Confessions: Prisons and Public Recantations in Modern Iran by Ervand Abrahamian, (University of California Press, 1999) p. 28–29
Foundation of the Tudeh Party The British-Soviet Allied invasion of 1941–42 resulted in the end of Reza Shah's reign and his forced exile to South Africa. Many political prisoners subsequently received general amnesty by his son and successor Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and under this new atmosphere, nationalist and socialist groups once again flourished. Members of the Marxist "Group of the 53 members" comprised a portion of these political prisoners. In Iran's post-Reza Shah era, the latter became a component of Soviet strategy, interests, and plans. Following their release, some of the "Group of the 53 members" including Iraj Iskandari met with a Soviet representative at the residence of Soleiman Eskandari to form the Hezb-e Tudeh-ye Iran ("the Party of Iranian masses"), a Marxist–Leninist party appealing to the broad masses.Abrahamian, History of Modern Iran (2008) p. 107 They founded the Tudeh party on 29 September 1941, electing Soleiman Eskandari as party president.Tudeh Party, DOCUMENT CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE TUDEH PARTY OF IRAN ON THE OCCASION OF 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE TUDEH PARTY OF IRAN, 2016
Initially the party was intended to be "a liberal rather than a radical party", with a platform stressing the importance of "constitutional" and "individual rights", protecting "democracy" and "judicial integrity" from fascism, imperialism, and militarism. "At Soleiman Eskandari's urging", the party initially attempted to appeal to non-secular masses by barring women from membership, organizing Moharram processions, and designating "a special prayer room in its main clubhouse." This orientation did not last and the party moved "rapidly to the left" within months of its founding.Abrahamian, Tortured Confessions (1999), pp. 77–78
Early peak
In 1944, the party entered the 14th Majlis elections and eight of its candidates were elected. It also established the secret Tudeh Party Military Organization of Iran, or TPMO (Sazman-e Nezami-ye Hezb-e Tudeh-ye Iran) made up of officers in the military. The TPMO provided the party with intelligence and information from the military to protect it from the security forces and give it military strength, though historians believe the party had no plan at that time to use the TPMO to stage a coup.
At the same time, Tudeh took a strong stand in favor of women's rights, starting in 1943. This included advocating for equal pay for equal work, two months of maternity leave for female workers and otherwise standing for women's social rights, working with those who had been fighting for these goals for years and were socialist.Women and Islam: Women's Movements in Muslim Societies, ed. Haideh Moghissi, p. 92–94. Even so, issues of reproduction, sexuality, and other elements within family life were not discussed.
From this point on the party grew immensely and became a major force in Iranian politics. By early 1945, the party had managed to create the first mass organization in Iran's history. Police records later revealed it had an estimated 2,200 hard-core members – 700 of them in Tehran – "10,000s of sympathizers in its youth and women's organizations, and 100,000s of sympathizers in its labor and craft unions."Abrahamian, Tortured Confessions, (1999) p. 81 Its main newspaper, Rahbar (Leader), boasted a circulation of more than 100,000 – triple that of the "semi-official newspaper" Ettela'at. British ambassador Reader Bullard called it the only coherent political force in the country, and The New York Times reckoned it and its allies could win as much as 40% of the vote in a fair election.Ettela'at, 24 September 1979, quoted in Abrahamian, History of Modern Iran (2008) pp. 108–09
This period has been called the height of the party's intellectual influence which came in large part from the prestige and propaganda of the Soviet Union as "the world's most progressive nation." Few intellectuals "dared oppose" the party "even if they did not join." Marking the end of the "near hegemony of the party over intellectual life" in Iran was the resignation from the party of celebrated writer Jalal Al-e-Ahmad to form a socialist splinter group – Third Force – in protest against the Tudeh's "nakedly pro-Soviet" policies.Mottahedeh, Roy, The Mantle of the Prophet: Religion and Politics in Iran, One World, Oxford, 1985, 2000, p. 290
Tarnishing the appeal of the Tudeh in 1944–1946 were Soviet demands for a petroleum concession in northern Iran and the Soviet sponsoring of ethnic revolts in Kurdestan and Azerbaijan. Despite the fact that Tudeh deputies in the Majles had previously vigorously demanded the nationalization of the whole petroleum industry, the Tudeh party supported granting the Soviet petroleum industry in Iran its wishes on grounds of "socialist solidarity", "internationalism," and "anti-imperialism."Abrahamian, Tortured Confessions (1999) p. 82
From the Iran crisis of 1946 onwards, Tudeh became a pro-Soviet organization and remained prepared to carry out the dictates of the Kremlin, even if it meant sacrificing Iranian political independence and sovereignty. Based on increasingly available archival material from Russia, Iranologist Soli Shahvar contends that this was true much earlier—dating back to the Tudeh Party's inception, not just during the Fourteenth Majlis election campaign.
International Cold War context During this time the rest of the international communist movement was also thriving. The communist world expanded dramatically in the decade following World War II with Eastern Europe, China, North Korea, and Vietnam all becoming states dominated by their respective communist parties, usually via military victory. In the United States, Iran was seen as the holder of reserves of petroleum with "vital strategic" value to western countries,Byrne, p. 213 and as part of "a Northern Tier" of countries (along with Greece and Turkey) that constituted a geopolitical "first line of defense" for the Mediterranean and for Asia,Byrne, p. 214 To counter the activities of the USSR, the CIA established Operation TPBEDAMN in the late 1940s, funded at $1 million a year. It prepared both "disguised (`gray` propaganda) or deliberately misrepresented black propaganda" in the form of "newspaper articles, cartoons, leaflets, and books" which it translated into Persian, most of which "portrayed the Soviet Union and the Tudeh as anti-Iranian or anti-Islamic, described the harsh reality of life in the Soviet Union, or explained the Tudeh's close relationship with the Soviets and its popular-front strategy."Gasiorowski writing in Mohammad Mosaddeq and the 1953 Coup in Iran, Edited by Mark J. Gasiorowski and Malcolm Byrne, Syracuse University Press, 2004, p. 243 In addition, it paid "right-wing nationalist organizations" and some Shia religious figures. Its agents provoked "violent acts" and blamed them on the communists, and hired "thugs to break up Tudeh rallies."Byrne writing in Mohammad Mosaddeq and the 1953 Coup in Iran, Edited by Mark j. Gasiorowski and Malcolm Byrne, Syracuse University Press, 2004, p.217
Nonetheless, for three months in 1946, the Cabinet included three ministers who were Tudeh members and the party was able to fill the streets of Tehran and Abadan "with tens of thousands of enthusiastic demonstrators" for May Day in 1946.Kinzer, All the Shah's Men, 2003, p. 65
1949 crackdown