Full Description
The Party of the Masses, founded in 1941, was Iran’s main communist and pro-Soviet political organisation. It was suppressed after an assassination attempt on the Shah in 1949, re-emerged during the Mossadegh period (1951–53), and was banned after the 1953 coup. Despite operating underground for decades, the Tudeh participated in the 1979 revolution, supporting Khomeini against the Shah. The Islamic Republic subsequently arrested and executed hundreds of Tudeh members in the early 1980s.
Critical Perspective
The Tudeh Party’s fate in 1983 — when Khomeini turned on the left that had helped bring him to power — is a recurring pattern in revolutionary history. Left-wing forces with their own organisations and constituencies provided crucial mass mobilisation but lacked the organisational discipline and theological legitimacy to compete with the clerical network in the post-revolutionary power struggle. The Islamic Republic’s destruction of the Iranian left removed the most significant potential counterweight to theocratic consolidation.
Leave a Reply