In this long, LONG, overdue episode, the Minyan joins friend and comrade Alireza to explore the complicated history of Iran from the Constitutional Revolution of 1905 to the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Along the way, we discuss the particular class character of 20th Century Iranian society, the messy and often disappointing foreign relations between Iran and the USSR, the role of first British and then US imperialism in propping up the reactionary Pahlavi Dynasty, the rise and fall of Mohammed Mosaddegh, and the developments, tensions, and occasional fusions of nationalist, Islamist, and Marxist movements in Iran, culminating with the Marxist guerrillas who swept out the Pahlavi Dynasty in 1979, only to be coopted and suppressed by the reactionary wing of the Islamist movement who consolidated control over what would become the Islamic Republic.

Part 2, to be released at a later date, will focus on that consolidation of power in 1979 and the developments within the IR to the present day, in order to guide principled communists in how best to approach an anti-imperialist nation that is also thoroughly anti-communist and in general reactionary.

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Intro Music: Nitsokhn Lid by Yiddish Glory, remixed by Eli Bertrum

Bed Music: Nitsokhn Lid Screwed by Mr. Crane

Outro Music: Bayāt-e Tork by Yonā Dardašti, one of--if not the--most famous Iranian Jewish classical singers.

Suggested Reading: 

"Iran Between Two Revolutions" & "The Modern History of Iran" by Ervand Abrahamian

"Fragile Resistance: Social Transformation in Iran from 1500 to the Revolution" by John Foran

"Soviet Politics and the Iranian Revolution of 1919-1921" by Stephen Blank