Tudeh Party of Iran

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حزب توده ایران
Tudeh Party of Iran
Party leader Ali Chavari
Secretary General Mohammad Omidvar
founding October 2, 1941
Place of foundation Tehran , Iran
Headquarters Berlin
International connections International meeting of communist and workers' parties
Website tudehpartyiran.org

The Tudeh Party of Iran ( Persian حزب توده ایران Hezb-e Tūdeh-e Īrān ) is an Iranian Marxist-Leninist party that has existed since 1941. Her name translated means Party of the Masses of Iran or Party of the People of Iran . She was part of the opposition movement against Mohammad Reza Pahlavi , whichresultedin the Islamic Revolution of 1979. It hasbeen banned several times in Iran since 1949. Therefore, it is mainly active from exile .

Communist Party of Iran (KPI)

The history of the communist movement in Iran goes back to the late 19th century, when Marxism spread through a rapidly growing industry in western Europe and the associated transformation of feudal into capitalist structures. Especially in the north of Iran ( Iranian Azerbaijan ), in geographical proximity to Russia and Azerbaijan , active Marxist groups formed underground.

After the October Revolution in 1917 and the establishment of the Soviet Union , Iran was drawn into the ensuing Russian civil war. After the beginning of the First World War , British troops marched into Iran and remained stationed there beyond the end of the war. These troops marched from Iran to Baku to occupy the Russian oil fields, but were thrown back by the Red Army and pursued as far as Iran. Together with like-minded Mirza Kutschak Khan in Gilan, he founded his own independent movement, the Forest Movement ( Nehzat-e Dschangal ), which, supported by Communist Russia, proclaimed an Iranian Soviet Republic independent of the central government in Tehran in June 1920 . With the proclamation of the Iranian Soviet Republic, the Communist Party of Iran (KPI) was founded in June 1920 in Bandar Anzali , in the province of Gilan. Its general secretary was Heidar Amu Oghly , who had already participated in the Constitutional Revolution of Iran.

Not only the north of Iran, but also the northern neighbors of Iran had come under the influence of communist movements. The Red Army occupied the Democratic Republic of Georgia on February 11, 1921 and established a Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic . As early as April 27, 1920, the Red Army marched into Azerbaijan and replaced the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan with an Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic . The political opponents of the communists saw the danger that all of Iran would come under the influence of communist Russia. An Iranian Red Army was formed in Gilan and was supposed to march on Tehran.

The British troops ( NorPerForce ) stationed in the north of Iran did not succeed in stopping the advance of the Red Army. For this reason, the British government decided to withdraw its troops from Iran and build a new line of defense in Iraq. In northern Iran, an independent Iranian Red Army had been built with Soviet help. After the withdrawal of the British troops from Iran, the Persian Cossack Brigade was to lead the fight against the Iranian Red Army. On February 21, 1921 there was a coup against the government of Prime Minister Fathollah Akbar Sepahdar . The new Prime Minister was Seyyed Zia al Din Tabatabai , who entrusted the newly appointed Commander in Chief of the Persian Cossack Brigade and later Defense Minister Reza Khan with the organization of the military resistance against the impending takeover of power by the KPI. On May 25, 1921, Seyyed Zia al Din Tabatabai was deposed as Prime Minister under pressure from Ahmad Shah and Ahmad Qavam was appointed Prime Minister. Reza Khan remained Minister of Defense. In order to avoid an offensive by Iranian government troops, Mirza Kuchak Khan offered his surrender on the condition that the province of Gilan would be granted autonomy. Prime Minister Qavam and Reza Khan, however, did not accept this offer and smashed the Jangali movement and the Iranian Red Army.

Ban on KPIs

The military defeat of the communist movement also had consequences for the Communist Party of Iran. It increasingly moved its activities underground. 1925 was Qajar dynasty of the Pahlavi dynasty replaced. Reza Khan was elected by Parliament as the new Shah ( Reza Schah Pahlavi ). The reform program now beginning limited the power of the Shiite clergy and founded the modern nation-state of Iran. The Communist Party of Iran, which had become completely politically dependent on the Communist Party of the Soviet Union after Stalin came to power , was banned in 1931 by a law passed by the Iranian parliament.

Re-established as a Tudeh party

In the course of the Anglo-Soviet invasion of World War II , troops from Great Britain and the Soviet Union marched into officially neutral Iran in 1941 . Reza Shah was forced into exile in South Africa and his son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi succeeded him. Many political prisoners have been released. In this atmosphere, nationalist and socialist groups were reorganized. On October 2, 1941, the Tudeh Party was officially founded with financial and political support from the Soviet Union to continue the work of the previously banned KPI. One of the founding members was u. a. the writer Bozorg Alavi . Soleiman Mohsen Eskandari was elected its first chairman . Although the "mass party" was a communist party, it avoided making any reference to communism in its party name or program, as Iran continued to apply the 1931 law after all communist activity was banned.

From now on the party was growing steadily. Regional party organizations were formed in many places. Mainly in industrial areas in Azerbaijan , Isfahan , Gilan , Mazandaran and Khorasan . 120 delegates attended the first party meeting in Tehran in February 1942 . A provisional party program was passed, which focused on the fight against dictatorship and the advocacy of democracy and human rights. A provisional central committee was also elected, which led the party until its first official congress in 1944.

Entry into parliament

In 1944 the Tudeh party moved into the 14th Majles with 8 of their candidates . There she unreservedly supported the policy of the USSR. She founded the "Tudeh Party Military Organization" TPMO ( Sazman-e Nezami-ye Hezb-e Tudeh-ye Iran ), whose members were officers of the Iranian army. The Tudeh Party supported the separatist movements in northwestern Iran that led to the establishment of the Azerbaijani Autonomous Republic and the Kurdish People's Republic . In the 14th legislative period, the Tudeh party campaigned for the establishment of a Soviet-Iranian oil company based in Moscow for the extraction and sale of oil deposits in northern Iran. The company should be modeled on the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC).

After a majority in parliament voted against the Soviet-Iranian oil company in the 15th legislative period, the Tudeh party brought about the overthrow of Prime Minister Qavam. After the Iranian parliament rejected the Soviet Union's access to Iranian oil in the north, Tudeh MP Abbas Iskandari announced in a long speech in parliament that the Iranian oil industry would be nationalized under the leadership of Mohammad Mossadegh . During this time, a series of murders and terrorism began in Iran, which killed numerous journalists and politicians who were known to be opponents of the Tudeh party.

Building a mass organization

By 1946, the Tudeh Party had 26,000 members and had become an important factor in Iran's political landscape. The Tudeh Party had succeeded in winning over sections of the working class, students and intellectuals for their political goals of a classless society under their leadership. The main communist newspaper, Rahbar (Führer) , had a circulation of more than 100,000, three times that of the semi-official newspaper Ettela'at . The trade unions dominated by the Tudeh party had more than 275,000 members.

Prohibition of the Tudeh party

Parliamentary resolution to dissolve the Tudeh party on February 5, 1949

On Friday, February 4, 1949, there was a momentous attack on Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi . The assassin Fakhr Arai had fired several shots at the Shah, which injured him but were not fatal. On the same day there was a special session of parliament, in which Prime Minister Mohammad Sa'ed Maraghei made two government statements. In the first declaration he requested a state of emergency for the city of Tehran and the surrounding area and in the second he requested the dissolution of the Tudeh party. The government statement, read by Manutschehr Eghbal , read:

“For some years now, rotten traitors have been gathering in our country under the name Hesbeh Tudeh Iran. They seduced ordinary citizens with promises and tried day after day to create chaos and disorder. Your goal is to undermine the state foundations of our country. They accept any damage, injuries and persecution, murder and pillage, no matter how great, to divide up our land, just as they did in Mazadaran, Gilan and Azerbaijan some time ago. The reports we have before us show how they try to politically seduce ordinary citizens and spread communist ideology between young people and students in order to prepare the basis for a revolution. For this reason, in order to protect our country, ensure unity and independence, and prevent chaos and unrest, the government has decided to disband this anti-independence party and treason against whom there is sufficient evidence on the basis of the law to arrest and punish. "

At the meeting on February 5, 1949, the deputies approved the government's motion to dissolve the Tudeh party with immediate effect, without dissenting.

The party was disbanded, party members arrested and brought to justice. The party did not cease its activities, however, but continued to work underground, as the KPI had done before. In October 1949, former members of the Tudeh party such as Maleki founded the National Front Iran under the leadership of Mohammad Mossadegh, following the example of the National Front of the GDR , in order to give members of the banned Tudeh party the possibility of open political activity and participation to allow parliamentary elections. The “Concept of the National Front”, which was political according to Soviet guidelines, was presented by Wilhelm Florin as early as 1944 at a working meeting of the KPD in exile . In the National Front, all social groups should be able to influence socio-political processes. In fact, however, the National Front was a means of disciplining Iranian opposition parties and consolidating the supremacy of the Tudeh activists.

Support to the Mossadegh government

The Putsch against Mossadegh: Soldiers of the Iranian Army in Front of the Parliament Building in Tehran (August 19, 1953)

On May 8, 1951, Mohammad Mossadegh, previously appointed by the Shah, was confirmed as Prime Minister by the Iranian parliament. From then on, the Tudeh party officially resumed its work because the Mossadegh government did not pursue the ban. The day before its parliamentary approval, the Tudeh party had already sent an open letter to Mossadegh demanding the release of all political prisoners, the lifting of the ban on communist activities and the admission of all political parties. Although the Tudeh party became a key ally of Mossadegh in the coming months, it remained officially banned. In its self-portrayal, the Tudeh party claims “all of its strengths and possibilities for the defense, Dr. Mossadeghs started and practical approaches to the formation of a popular front to preserve the movement created ”. It also says:

"Unfortunately, Dr. Mossadegh never paid attention to the warnings of the TPI and with exaggerated trust in the people around him who then betrayed him, he did not show the willingness to shake hands with us at the crucial moments in the fight against oppression and colonialism. "

When the political end of the Mossadegh government was looming in the summer of 1953, the leadership of the Tudeh party wrote an open letter to Mossadegh on July 20, 1953, in which they denounced all agreements on military and technical assistance by the USA and the breakdown of the demanded diplomatic relations with the US. The following day, a mass demonstration organized by the Tudeh Party, with an estimated 40,000 participants, took place to press for the severance of relations with the United States. On August 9, 1953, the Soviet Union asked if a negotiating team could come to Iran to offer Mossadegh economic aid and the return of eleven tons of gold that the Soviet Union had taken with it from Iran when its troops withdrew after the end of World War II.

On August 19, 1953, Mossadegh was overthrown as part of Operation Ajax with the help of the Iranian army and the British and American secret services ( MI6 , CIA ). From then on, the Tudeh Party faced massive persecution. The executives were initially imprisoned, but most of them were released after three years. Ordinary members of the Tudeh party lost their jobs or were also imprisoned.

In 1954, an underground military organization of the Tudeh Party was exposed. 40 militant party supporters were executed, 14 tortured to death and 200 imprisoned for life. At the same time various disagreements and problems emerged within the party organization. Among other things, parts of the party leadership were accused of treason and ignorance of Marxism-Leninism .

The secret service SAVAK , founded in 1957, proved to be an efficient and feared tool of political persecution. From then on, the Tudeh party operated exclusively underground and was in constant confrontation with the SAVAK. In addition to the repression of SAVAK, the Tudeh party also struggled with its reputation. Rumors and half-truths about the party circulated. There was talk of "Moscow spies", "preachers of atheism ", "enemies of Iran and the Koran ". In addition, half-hearted supporters are said to have been executed by party members. The central committee of the Tudeh party finally left Iran and went to the GDR in East Berlin . General Secretary at this time was Reza Radmanesh . A radio station was operated from Berlin that could be received in Iran.

On May 14, 1957, Iran and the Soviet Union signed an agreement with which the border disputes that had existed since the end of World War II could be settled. After this positive development in relations between the Soviet Union and Iran, the Tudeh party saw new opportunities for political participation. From June 25 to July 17, 1957, the Central Committee of the Tudeh Party met in Berlin to discuss how to proceed and ways out of political isolation. It was decided to position the party more strongly than before as a party of progress, to publicly admit political mistakes that had been made in the past and to go on the political offensive with a new party program. From now on, Iraj Eskandiari acted as spokesman for the Central Committee and liaison to the Central Committee of the SED . The headquarters of the Central Committee were moved from Berlin to Leipzig.

After Iran and the Soviet Union sought to improve their relations, the members of the Tudeh party living in exile in the GDR lost their “importance as a reserve cadre for a socialist transformation of Iran”. In August 1962, in a speech addressed to the leadership of the Soviet Union, the Shah declared that he would not consent to the stationing of American missiles in Iran. In 1966, Soviet industrial plants were delivered to Iran. Further agreements on technical cooperation and the supply of Soviet weapons systems were concluded in the late 1960s and early 1970s. During the Shah's visit to Moscow in 1968, the establishment of a joint commission for economic cooperation between Iran and the Soviet Union was agreed. The close cooperation between the Soviet Union and Iran put the Tudeh party in a difficult position, as it could not contradict the rapprochement between the two states, but at the same time was supposed to continue the fight against the “Shah regime”. So it was not surprising that there was a split with a Maoist orientation. Disillusioned with the rapprochement between the Shah and the Soviet leadership, some Tudeh activists moved to the Federal Republic of Germany or returned to Iran. Quite a few took on management positions in ministries or industry or worked for the SAVAK.

Secession and weakening

In 1964, some Kurdish intellectuals left the party to re-establish the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran . In 1965 there was an internal Sino-Soviet conflict and the party split again. The Maoist party cadre around Gholamhoseyn Forutan and Ahmad Qasemi left the party. Their criticism was directed against the unreserved adoption of the Russian theory that capitalism and socialism could coexist peacefully. On October 7, 1965, Forutan and Qasemi published a letter in which they rejected all resolutions of the 11th party plenary. An article by Qasemi from these days is entitled: A violent revolution is the way to the liberation of the Iranian people . They were followed in 1966 by numerous militant members of the Tudeh youth organization, who also reformed and understood themselves as a Maoist and revolutionary movement, two characteristics that they did not see fulfilled by the Tudeh party.

Also in 1966 party leaders were arrested again and sentenced to death or life imprisonment. International expressions of solidarity, hunger strikes and demonstrations have persuaded the Shah regime to convert the death penalty into life imprisonment. Ali Chavari , the current leader of the party, was among those arrested . Interest in the prisoners gave the Tudeh party a new impetus and helped to weather the divisions of the 1960s. The party regained strength and influence. In the 1970s it became an important factor in the Islamic Revolution .

On December 7, 1972, Iran and the GDR established diplomatic relations. In 1975, the chairman of the GDR Council of Ministers, Horst Sindermann, visited Iran to promote further economic cooperation between the GDR and Iran. This made the political situation completely problematic for the activists of the Tudeh party who remained in the GDR.

The Islamic Revolution

In the course of the conflict with the Soviet Union, the People's Republic of China had become a supporter of the Shah in order to protect Iran from Soviet “ social-imperialism ”. This attitude met with little understanding in Iranian Maoist opposition circles. As a result, many of the Maoist activists who left the Tudeh Party in the 1960s returned to it in the early 1970s.

The Tudeh party also had a functioning network of foreign organizations and exile offices in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Communist parties from Italy , France and the GDR provided the Tudeh party with financial and organizational support. The party leadership had not infrequently been trained in Eastern European universities.

In the Iranian opposition movement of the 1970s, the party was able to help shape the events, but never became the main force behind the growing protests. This role was reserved for the Shiite clergy around Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini . The Tudeh party organized strikes and demonstrations in factories and at the Iranian universities, it distributed anti-Shah publications and tried to gain influence in parliament, in which only members who were loyal to the Shah were represented. She strictly rejected the use of arms, rather she called for the peaceful overthrow of the Shah regime and an end to the monarchy. Instead, a democratic republic should be established, which the Tudeh Party believes is a necessary intermediate step on the way to establishing a socialist society .

The opposition movement, which in addition to the Tudeh party and the Shiite clergy also included the National Front and the radical People's Mojahedin , who acted with armed force , developed into a mass movement by 1979. The Shah left the country on January 16, 1979, and a few days later Ayatollah Khomeini landed as a celebrated folk hero at Tehran's airport to transform the country into an Islamic republic .

Noureddin Kianouri , a former member of the Central Committee of the Tudeh Party, who had sought refuge in the GDR after the fall of Mossadegh in August 1953 and spent almost 25 years in exile, returned to Iran and became its General Secretary.

In the early years of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Tudeh Party came to terms with the rule of the mullahs and the unrestricted authority of the Supreme Legal Scholar Khomeini. She called on her supporters to vote for the Islamic Republic in the 1979 referendum. She officially took part in the first parliamentary elections of the new republic, held in 1980. The victory clearly went to the conservative forces.

Nevertheless, the Tudeh party decided to support the new government. In fighting its enemies, the new regime displayed a brutality that was in no way inferior to that of the SAVAK. After the mujahideen no longer posed an acute danger, i. H. After numerous members were executed or imprisoned, the regime and its military organization (the Revolutionary Guard ) increasingly turned its attention to the Tudeh Party.

Arrests and executions

In 1982 there was a concentrated blow against the party. Up to 10,500 Tudeh members and supporters were labeled "Soviet spies" and imprisoned. Many of those detained were executed and leaders were forced to publicly renounce their ideology. In addition, a new party ban was issued on May 4, 1983, which is still in force today. The Tudeh party has been operating underground again since then. The party's leadership is mainly in exile.

In May 1985, the Tudeh Party issued a statement that it opposes and opposes the Islamic Republic.

Political positions

In more recent publications, the Tudeh party particularly emphasizes the high unemployment and poor economic situation in Iran. She is sharply directed against what she sees as a medieval regime around Seyyed Ali Khamene'i . It is said that his policy is reactionary and ultimately the continuation of the Shah's despotism under religious auspices. The corrupt regime was not able to cope with the economic and social crises in the country. Soon critics and opposition found themselves in the same torture cellars as before the revolution. The Tudeh party continues to call for workers to unite and for a socialist society to be established.

See also

literature

  • Teymour Bachtiar (Ed.): Black Book on Tudeh Officers Organization . Tehran 1956.
  • Bozorg Alavi: The Tudeh Party. In: Fighting Iran. Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1955, pp. 66-109; see. (in Fighting Iran ) also pp. 14–26 and more often.
  • Manuchehr Irani : The King of the Black Robed. Short story (original edition 1990: Shāh-i Siyāh Pushān), from Persian by Zana Nimadi. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1998, pp. 8-16 and 88 f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Tudeh News. (PDF; 170 kB) (No longer available online.) In: Tudeh Party of Iran. October 2007, archived from the original on July 6, 2010 ; accessed on November 18, 2008 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.tudehpartyiran.org
  2. ↑ a b Kristen Blake: The US-Soviet confrontation in Iran, 1945–1962. University Press of America, 2009, p. 14.
  3. ↑ Chosroe Chaqueri: Did the Soviets play a role in founding the Tudeh party in Iran? In: Cahier du monde Russe , 199 (40), pp. 497-528. persee.fr
  4. ↑ Abbas Iskandari's speech on the nationalization of the AIOC (January 25, 1949)
  5. ↑ See also Bozorg Alavi : Kämpfendes Iran. Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1955, pp. 45-49, 66-109, 87-93, 119-122, 134-136, 140-143, 147-158 and 184-187.
  6. ^ History of the Tudeh Party of Iran. In: Iran Chamber Society. P. 1 , accessed November 18, 2008 .
  7. ^ Publishing.cdlib.org
  8. ^ Minutes of Majlis Shora Melli, 16 Bahman 1327
  9. ^ "The situation and tasks in Germany up to the fall of Hitler", presented on March 6, 1944 at the working session of the KPD in exile; Peter Erler, Horst Laude, Manfred Wilke, Peter Erler: "After Hitler we come": documents on the program of the Moscow KPD leadership 1944/45 for post-war Germany. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-05-002554-9 , p. 153.
  10. ^ Kristen Blake: The US-Soviet confrontation in Iran, 1945–1962 . University Press of America, 2009, p. 68.
  11. ↑ 60 years of the Tudeh Party in Iran. (PDF; 56 kB) In: Tudeh Party of Iran. September 2009, accessed November 18, 2008 .
  12. ^ Kristen Blake: The US-Soviet confrontation in Iran, 1945–1962 . University Press of America, 2009, pp. 84 f.
  13. ^ Black Book on Tudeh Officers Organization . Office of the Military Governor of Tehran, 1956, ISBN 978-3-8442-7813-2 . epubli.de
  14. ↑ a b c d Ervand Abrahamian: Iran between Two Revolutions . Princeton, NJ 1982, pp. 451 ff .
  15. ^ Kristen Blake: The US-Soviet confrontation in Iran, 1945–1962 . University Press of America, 2009, p. 111.
  16. ^ Frank Hirschinger : Suspected of espionage: Asylum seekers and foreign students in Saxony 1945–1970 . V & Runipress, Reports and Studies 57. 2009, p. 81.
  17. ^ Frank Hirschinger: Suspected of espionage: Asylum seekers and foreign students in Saxony 1945–1970 . V & Runipress, Reports and Studies 57. 2009, p. 85.
  18. ^ Frank Hirschinger: Suspected of espionage: Asylum seekers and foreign students in Saxony 1945–1970 . V & Runipress, Reports and Studies 57. 2009, p. 86.
  19. ^ William McLaughlin: Iranian CP Splits Inside Soviet Bloc . In: Radio Free Europe Research . Israel January 27, 1966 ( Open Society Archives [accessed November 18, 2008]).
  20. ↑ Katajun Amirpur / Reinhard Witzke: Schauplatz Iran . Freiburg im Breisgau 2004, p. 94 .
  21. ^ History of the Tudeh Party of Iran. In: Iran Chamber Society. P. 3 , accessed on November 18, 2008 .
  22. ^ Tudeh News. (PDF; 215 kB) (No longer available online.) In: Tudeh Party of Iran. February 2007, p. 6f. , archived from the original on July 4, 2009 ; accessed on November 18, 2008 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.tudehpartyiran.org