Communist Party of Persia

The Communist Party of Iran ( CPI ) was founded in 1920 in Bandar Anzali in Gilan province.

Predecessor organization

The Communist Party of Iran was not originally Iranian party. Its origins are to be sought in Russia. Iranian workers who worked in the oil fields in Baku, founded after the October Revolution of 1917 under the leadership of Haidar Khan, the party Adalat (Justice ). The group quickly grew to over 6,000 members. Haider Khan sent agitators, the local party branches in Tabriz, founded the cities of the Caspian provinces of Iran and Tehran.

History of establishment

The founding congress of the Communist Party of Iran ( CPI ) was held from 23 to 25 June 1920 in the port city of Bandar Anzali instead, had invaded five weeks after the Soviet troops in the north of Iran. Adalat called from now on Communist Party of Iran. At the party a party program was adopted, which provided for the following tasks for the practical implementation of the dictatorship of the proletariat ::

A united front of Dschangali rebels under the leadership of Mirza Kutschak Khan and Iranian Communists had conquered with the help of Russia already on June 5, 1920 Rasht and the province of Mazandaran, and based on the Russian Caspian fleet and 2,000 Red Guards proclaimed the Persian Soviet Socialist Republic. Immediately an Iranian Red Army was set up, whose commander was Ehschanollah Khan.

First political successes

The Central Committee of the CPI was not sure which strategy should be pursued. Lenin advised the comrades to make Iran the issue of land reform at the center of political debates, because the agricultural usable area was in the hands of a few large landowners, and therefore would be a revolution in the country for millions of farmers of political importance. Among the workers of Iran, the party quickly gained followers. 1921 were in Tehran alone eleven unions active. More than one hundred party members visited in the years 1920 to 1930, the Communist University for Workers of the East to the study of Marxism -Leninism.

After withdrawal of the Russian Red Guards to Ehschanollah staged a coup with the help of Jafar Pischevaris on 21 July 1920, the head of a revolutionary government of Gilan and undertook raids against Tehran, which, however, led to heavy losses in the Iranian Red Army. In return, battered by the Russian Red Army, but was rebuilt by the British Persian Cossack Brigade occupied the end of 1920 Rasht and put the autonomous Persian Socialist Republic to an end.

Cleavage

In exile in Baku to split the Communist Party of Iran after Pischevari had been replaced by the Russians by the former Social Democrats Haidar Khan Amu Ogli. First of May 1921 concluded Ehschanollah, Kuchek Khan Haidar Khan and a new united front. In June 1921 Ehshanollah Khan moved with 2,000 men again against Tehran, but was defeated.

The Revolutionary Council concluded Ehshanollah Khan then on 30 July 1921 the Communist Party of Iran from. On August 4 Kustschek Haidar Khan and Khan could once again establish a Soviet Government in Rasht. The military defeat of the Persian Cossack Brigade counter-attack led by Reza Khan, later Reza Shah Pahlavi, Kuchek Khan tried to forestall a coup, the murder of Haidar and the sole assumption of power in Rasht. Reza Khan rejected it with an autonomy guarantee Gilan associated capitulation Kuchek Khan. On November 3, 1921 Rasht finally fell. Mirza Kuchek Khan froze on the run, the severed head of the corpse was brought to Tehran. Ehshanollah Khan escaped to the Soviet Union, the Dschangali were wiped out.

Jafar Pischevari went to Moscow to the Communist University for Workers of the East to study Marxism -Leninism. After completing his studies of Marxism- Leninism, he went back to Tehran, opened a bookstore and was co-editor of the union newspaper Haqiqat (Truth).

Ban

After these events, a regular party work was no longer possible. Under the reign of Reza Shah Pahlavi, the Communist Party was finally banned.

Start as Tudeh Party

→ Main article: Tudeh Party

Only in 1941 there should be a new foundation. Iran had been occupied during the Anglo - Soviet invasion of Iran on 25 August 1941 by British and Soviet troops. Already on October 2, 1941, the Tudeh Party ( the party of the masses ) was established with support from the Soviet Union to continue the work of the previously banned KPI. Among the founding members was among other things the writer Bozorg Alavi. At its first chairman Soleiman Mohsen Eskandari was chosen.

Start as a Communist Party of Iran

1984 came by Mansoor Hekmat to a split from the Tudeh Party. The new party is called the Communist Party of Iran. Hekmat had founded the Union of Communist fighters during the reign of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and participated in the Islamic Revolution. But he opposed a collaboration with Khomeini, fled to Kurdistan in 1981 and joined the Kurdish resistance group Komalah. In 1984, then came to a reestablishment of the Communist Party of Iran.

1991 Hekmat left the Communist Party of Iran and founded the Worker-communist Party of Iran (WPI ).