Tudeh Party
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Tudeh Party of Iran
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|---|---|
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| First Secretary | Ali Khavari |
| Founded | 1941 |
| Headquarters |
Berlin, Germany London, England |
| Newspaper | |
| Ideology |
Communism Marxism-Leninism |
| Political position | Left-wing |
| International affiliation |
International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties International Communist Seminar |
| Website | |
| www |
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The Tudeh Party of Iran (Persian: حزب توده ایران, translit. Hezb-e Tudeh Iran, lit. 'Party of the Masses of Iran') is an Iranian communist party. Formed in 1941, with Soleiman Mohsen Eskandari as its head, it had considerable influence in its early years and played an important role during Mohammad Mosaddegh's campaign to nationalize the Anglo-Persian Oil Company and his term as prime minister. The crackdown that followed the 1953 coup against Mosaddeq is said to have "destroyed" the party, although it continued. The party still exists, but is much weaker as a result of the banning of the party and mass arrests by the Islamic Republic in 1982 and the executions of political prisoners in 1988.
The party has generally been described as "communist" by historians (for example: "The Tudeh Party was a classical pro-Soviet Union communist party, but wrapped itself at the time in nationalism to be more attractive to Iranians"), but is sometimes described simply as "leftist" or even "left-leaning" by more sympathetic sources.
The history of the communist movement in Iran dates back to the late 19th century, when Marxism first became 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 Russia 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.
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Wikipedia