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The Pretexts and Reasons for the Allied Invasion of Iran in 1941

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Nikolay A. Kozhanov
Nikolay A. Kozhanov*
Affiliation:
Institute of the Middle East (Moscow, Russia)
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Abstract

During the last 65 years, European, American and Russian historians have often tried to study the reasons which led to the Allied invasion of Iran on 25 August 1941. For a long period, the main obstacle was the limited access to official documentary sources. Gradually, British and Russian archives started to declassify their documents concerning the events of August 1941. That, in turn, caused a new wave of publications on this topic. Unfortunately, even with newly available sources, modern researchers were frequently unable to grasp the whole picture, emphasizing only one reason for the invasion or even exaggerating its importance. This paper attempts to analyze the most common explanations of the reasons for the occupation of Iran offered by different historians and try to find out which of these causes impelled the Allies to invade Iran. The research paid special attention to existing Russian primary and secondary sources on the issue which are less well known to English readers. Important information found in them allows events related to the Allied occupation of Iran in 1941 to be described from a relatively new angle.

Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 45 , Issue 4 , June 2012 , pp. 479 - 497
Copyright
Copyright © The International Society for Iranian Studies 2012

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Footnotes

His current research interests include the political economy and modern history of Iran. The present article is a result of a number of studies conducted by the author during his field works in Russia, Iran and Egypt.

References

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2 Alekseev, Leonid, Sovetskiy Soyuz i Iran (Moscow, 1963)Google Scholar; Ivanov, Mikhail, Ocherk Istorii Irana (Moscow, 1952)Google Scholar.

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4 For the vast majority of the documents, the official period of time during which they were supposed to stay secret expired more than a decade ago. However, access to some of them is still restricted because the special government commission has not yet made a decision concerning their declassification.

5 Arkhiv Vneshney Politiki Rossiyskoy Federatsii (AVPRF), Moscow.

6 Tsentralnyy Arkhiv Ministerstva Oborony Rossiyskoy Federatsii (TsAMO), Podolsk.

7 Rossiyskiy Gosudarstvennyy Voennyy Arkhiv (RGVA), Moscow.

8 Rossiyskiy Gosudarstvennyy Arkhiv Socialno-Politicheskoy Istorii (RGASPI), Moscow.

9 Tsentralnyy Arkhiv FSB Rossii, Moscow.

10 Arkhiv Sluzhby Vneshney Razvedki Rossii (ASVRR), Moscow.

11 Arkhiv Voenno-Meditsinskoy Akademii, Saint Petersburg.

12 Nauka, Sovetsko-Angliyskie Otnoshenya vo Vremya Velikoy Otechestvennoy Voyny. 1941–1945 (Moscow, 1983).

13 Among the other collections of official documents published by the Soviet and Russian Ministries of Foreign Affairs one can mention the following: Gospolitizdat, Perepiska Predsedatelya Soveta Ministrov SSSR c Prezidentami SShA i premer-ministrami Velikobritanii vo Vremya Velikoy Otechestvennoy Voyny. 1941–1945 (Moscow, 1957); Otnosheniya, Mezhdunarodnie, SSSR i Germanskiy Vopros. 1941–1949 (Moscow, 1996)Google Scholar.

14 For instance, Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedki Rossiyskoy Federatsii, Operatsiya “Marodery” (Moscow, 1999), http://svr.gov.ru/history/stage05.htm (accessed 25 April 2011).

15 Leonid Zorin, Osoboe Zadanie (Moscow, 1987).

16 Journal published by the Ministry of Foreign Affair of the Russian Federation.

17 Valentin Berezhkov, Rozhdenie Koalitsii (Moscow, 1968); Valentin Berezhkov, Tegeran 1943 (Moscow, 1975); Valentin Berezhkov, Stranitsi Diplomaticheskoy Istorii (Moscow, 1982).

18 Andrey Grechko, Bitva za Kavkaz (Moscow, 1973).

19 In 1934–46, the NKVD (Narodnyy Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del [People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs]) was the name of the Soviet secret police organization whose functions also included counterespionage and intelligence operations.

20 Pavel Sudoplatov, Raznye Dni Taynoy Voyny i Diplomatii (Moscow, 2001).

21 Emil Zaslavskiy, Vospominaniya: Pervyev Mesyatsy Voyny i Chetyre Goda v Irane (Saint Petersburg, 2001).

22 Since the last interview conducted by the author in 2006 in Saint Petersburg, the interviewees have either moved or passed away.

23 Petr Milov, Iran vo Vremya i Posle Vtoroy Mirovoy Voyny (Moscow, 1949).

24 Leonid Alekseev, Sovetskiy Soyuz i Iran (Moscow, 1963).

25 The state ideology of that time did not allow Soviet researchers to mention facts which could “blacken” the Communist cause. For instance, in the 1950s and 1960s even the topic of Lend-Lease supplies through Iran and their role in the Allies' decision to occupy Iran was unofficially disapproved of by the Soviet authorities. Moreover, almost until the fall of the USSR, Soviet researchers preferred to avoid speaking about the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, which contained a secret protocol. That protocol stipulated a division of the spheres of interests in eastern Europe and the Middle East between Germany and the USSR. According to this document, Iran was solely attributed to the zone of Soviet influence.

26 His main works include Ocherk Istorii Irana (Moscow, 1952); Noveyshaya Istoriya Irana (Moscow, 1965).

27 His main works include SSSR—Iran (Tbilisi, 1977); Sovetsko–Iranskiye Otnosheniya v Gody Vtoroy Mirovoy Voyny (1939–1945) (Tbilisi, 1978); Sovetsko–Iranskiye Otnosheniya 1920–1986 (Moscow, 1988).

28 Ivanov, Ocherk Istorii Irana; Parvizpur, Sovetsko-Iranskiye Otnosheniya v Gody Vtoroy Mirovoy Voyny (1939–1945).

29 Such as Germanskiy Imperializm v Irane (Moscow, 1969); Iran: Vneshnyaya Politika i Problemy Nezavisimosti, 1925–1941 (Moscow, 1971).

30 Semyen Agaev, Germanskiy Imperializm v Irane (Moscow, 1969).

31 Arabadzhan, Iran: Protivostoyanie Imperyam 1918–1941.

32 Aleksey Raykov, Opasnieyshiy Chas Indii (Lipetsk, 1999); Y. Golub, “1941: Iranskiy Pohod Krasnoy Armii,” Otechestvennaya Istoriya, 3 (2004): 20–27; D. Lubin, “Vvod Sovetskikh Voysk v Severnyy Iran Letom—Osenyu 1941: Voennaya Neobkhodimost ili Politicheskiy Raschet,” in Iran i Rossiya: Sbornik Statey, ed. Nina Mamedova (Moscow, 2004), 112–20.

33 Golub, “1941: Iranskiy Pohod Krasnoy Armii”; Lubin, “Vvod Sovetskikh Voysk v Severnyy Iran Letom—Osenyu 1941.”

34 Khadzhi Murat Ibragimbeyli, Krakh “Edelveysa” i Blizhniy Vostok (Moscow, 1977).

35 Aleksandr Orishev, Iranskiy Uzel. Skhvatka Razvedok 1936–1945 (Moscow, 2009). Another book by this author which could be also useful for a researcher studying the problem of the Allied invasion of Iran is Taynie Missii Abvera i SD v Irane: iz Sekretnykh Dosye Razvedki (Moscow, 2006).

36 Salekh Aliev, Istoriya Irana XX veka (Moscow, 2004).

37 Aliev, Istoriya Irana XX veka.

38 Fedor Rumyantsev, Taynaya Voyna na Blizhnem i Srednem Vostoke (Moscow, 1972).

39 Agaev, Germanskiy Imperializm v Irane, 82.

40 Clarmont Skrine, World War in Iran (London: 1962), 76.

41 Skrine, World War in Iran, 76.

42 George Lenczowski, Russia and the West in Iran. 1918–1948 (Ithaca, NY, 1949), 162.

43 Agaev, Germanskiy Imperializm v Irane, 93.

44 Laurence Paul Elwell-Sutton, Persian Oil: A Study in Power Politics (Westport, CT, 1975), 137.

45 Laurence Paul Elwell-Sutton, Modern Iran (London, 1941), 167.

46 Agaev, Germanskiy Imperializm v Irane, 93.

47 Faramarz Fatemi, The USSR in Iran (London, 1980), 16.

48 Rumyantsev, Taynaya Voyna na Blizhnem i Srednem Vostoke; Bernhardt Schulze-Holthus, Frűhrot in Iran: Abenteuer im deutschen Geheimdienst (Esslingen, 1952), English translation by M. Savill as Daybreak in Iran. A Story of the German Intelligence Service (London, 1954).

49 Aleksandr Orishev, Iranskiy uzel. Skhvatka razvedok 1936–1945 (Moscow, 2009); Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedki Rossiyskoy Federatsii, Operatsiya “Marodery” (Moscow, 1999), http://svr.gov.ru/history/stage05.htm (accessed 25 April 2011).

50 politika, Vneshnyaya, Documenty vneshney politiki SSSR (Moscow, 2000), XXIV: 230Google Scholar.

51 Rumyantsev, Taynaya Voyna na Blizhnem i Srednem Vostoke.

52 politika, Vneshnyaya, Documenty vneshney politiki SSSR, XXIV: 576Google Scholar.

53 politika, Vneshnyaya, Documenty vneshney politiki SSSR, XXIV: 229–30Google Scholar.

54 Ivanov, Ocherk Istorii Irana, 92.

55 Ivanov, Ocherk Istorii Irana, 92.

56 politika, Vneshnyaya, Documenty vneshney politiki SSSR, XXIV: 273–74Google Scholar.

57 Vneshnyaya politika, Documenty vneshney politiki SSSR, XXIV: 273–74; al-Rābiṭ al-‘Arabīya, 26 August 1941, 1; al-Vādī, 26 August 1941, 1; al-Ahrām, 27 August 1941, 1.

58 Arabadzhan, Iran: protivostoyanie imperyam 1918–1941.

59 Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (1919–80), the future shah of Iran, was married to Princess Fawzia of Egypt. The wedding ceremony took place in Cairo on 16 March 1939. However, this marriage did not last long: Queen Fawzia obtained an Egyptian divorce in 1945. It was not initially recognized by the Iranian authorities. Tehran officially confirmed the split of the royal family only on 17 November 1948. Mohammad Reza Shah and Fawzia had one child, a daughter, Shahnaz Pahlavi (b. 1940).

60 al-Vādī, 26August 1941, 1; al-Ahrām, 31 August 1941, 1.

61 al-Ahrām, 27 August 1941, 5.

62 Agaev, Germanskiy Imperializm v Irane, 110; D. S. Komissarov, “Smirnov kak Diplomat i Grazhdanin (1905–1982),” Diplomaticheskiy Ezhegodnik (1997): 144–49; Nauka, Sovetsko-Angliyskie Otnoshenya vo Vremya Velikoy Otechestvennoy Voyny, I: 117.

63 Nauka, Sovetsko-Angliyskie Otnoshenya vo Vremya Velikoy Otechestvennoy Voyny, I: 50.

64 Arkhiv Voenno-Istoricheskogo Muzeya Artillerii, Inzhenernikh Voysk i Voysk Svyazi (Arkhiv VIMAIiVS), Fond 22r, opis 2, edinitsa khraneniya 21, tetrad 1, list 13–14.

65 Arkhiv VIMAIiVS, Fond 22r, opis 2, edinitsa khraneniya 21, tetrad 1, list 13–14.

66 Vneshnyaya politika, Documenty vneshney politiki SSSR, XXIV: 273–74.

67 Arabadzhan, Iran: protivostoyanie imperyam 1918–1941.

68 Skrine, World War in Iran, 76.

69 Lenczowski, Russia and the West in Iran, 154.

70 Lenczowski, Russia and the West in Iran, 156.

71 Lenczowski, Russia and the West in Iran, 156–58.

72 Parvizpur, Sovetsko-iranskiye otnosheniya v gody Vtoroy mirovoy voyny, 11.

73 Lenczowski, Russia and the West in Iran, 158.

74 Bashkirov, A. V., Ekspansiya Angliyskih i Amerikanskih Imperialistov v Irane (Moscow, 1954), 42Google Scholar.

75 In 1922, the American financial mission headed by Arthur Millspaugh (1883–1955), a former adviser at the US State Department's Office of the Foreign Trade, was invited by the Persian government to conduct a number of serious economic reforms. The scale of the activities of this mission and authority granted by the Persian government to it raised serious concerns in Moscow and London. Both the British and the Soviets saw the presence of Milspaugh as a threat to their influence in Persia. As a result, in 1927, under their pressure, the American mission was expelled from the country. Millspaugh, Arthur, The American Task in Persia (New York, 1925)Google Scholar; Millspaugh, Arthur, Americans in Persia (Washington, DC, 1946)Google Scholar; Avery, Peter (ed.), The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 7 (Cambridge, 1991), 241CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

76 Avery, The Cambridge History of Iran, 241.

77 Ghods, Iran in the Twentieth Century, 117.

78 Parvizpur, Sovetsko-iranskiye otnosheniya v gody Vtoroy mirovoy voyny, 6.

79 Hasan Arfa, Under Five Shahs (New York, 1965), 280.

80 Ansari, Modern Iran since 1921, 72; Michael Axworthy, Iran: Empire of the Mind (London, 2008), 232–33.

81 Axworthy, Iran: Empire of the Mind, 233.

82 Stewart, Richard A., Sunrise at Abadan. The British and Soviet Invasion of Iran, 1941 (London, 1988), 53–54Google Scholar.

83 Ibragimbeyli, Krakh “Edelveysa” i Blizhniy Vostok.

84 Parvizpur, Sovetsko–iranskiye otnosheniya v gody Vtoroy mirovoy voyny (1939–1945), 11.

85 politika, Vneshnyaya, Documenty vneshney politiki SSSR (Moscow, 2000), XXIV: 230Google Scholar.

86 As was mentioned before, Iran was an important supplier of grain and cotton to Germany. For instance, by 1941 Iran supplied 60 percent of all cotton imported by Germany (Lenczowski, Russia and the West in Iran, 157).

87 Parvizpur, Sovetsko-iranskiye otnosheniya v gody Vtoroy mirovoy voyny, 11.

88 Nauka, Sovetsko-Angliyskie Otnoshenya vo Vremya Velikoy Otechestvennoy Voyny, I: 115.

89 Nauka, Sovetsko-Angliyskie Otnoshenya vo Vremya Velikoy Otechestvennoy Voyny, I: 117.

90 Nauka, Sovetsko-Angliyskie Otnoshenya vo Vremya Velikoy Otechestvennoy Voyny, I: 117.

91 During the period 1941–45, Leonid Zorin was the deputy head and, from February 1942, the head of the Special Commission of the People's Commissariat for Foreign Trade (Narodnyy Komissariat Vneshney Torgovly) which was responsible for receiving equipment supplied through Iran to the USSR according to the Lend-Lease Act. After the Second World War, he was appointed a deputy minister for foreign trade.

92 Zorin, Osoboe Zadanie.

93 Zorin, Osoboe Zadanie, 11.

94 Zorin, Osoboe Zadanie, 11.

95 Naumkin, V. V. (ed.), SSSR i Strany Vostoka Nakanune i v Gody Vtoroy Mirovoy Voyny (Moscow, 2010)Google Scholar; Stewart, Sunrise at Abadan, 34–52.

96 Fatemi, The USSR in Iran, 17; Stewart, Sunrise at Abadan, 34–52.

97 Vichy France (also Vichy Regime or Vichy Government) is a term used to describe the puppet French government headed by Marshal Philippe Petain which collaborated with the Axis. It emerged in the south of France in July 1940 after the military defeat of the French Third Republic by Germany and existed until August 1944.

98 The strategic plan “Orient” was developed by the German General Staff during 1940 and the first part of 1941 and included a number of military operations which would lead to the joint conquest of British India by the German and Japanese military forces. The establishment of German control over the Middle East was a crucial part of this plan. To achieve this goal, the German General Staff initially planned to launch the following three offensives: from Libya to Egypt; from Bulgaria to Turkey and Syria; from Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland to the Soviet Ukraine, the Caucasus and Iran. Subsequently, the German military forces tried to implement only two of these operations (in Libya and in the USSR). See Ibragimbeyli, Krakh “Edelveysa” i Blizhniy Vostok, 33, 40–46.

99 Arkhiv VIMAIiVS, Fond 22r, opis 2, edinitsa khraneniya 21, tetrad 1, list 1; Ibragimbeyli, Krakh “Edelveysa” i Blizhniy Vostok, 33, 40–46; Fatemi, The USSR in Iran, 18.

100 Axworthy, Iran; Empire of the Mind, 232.

101 Fatemi, The USSR in Iran, 18–19.

102 Mohammad Goli Majd, Great Britain and Reza Shah (Gainesville, FL, 2001), 377.

103 Hajj Amin al-Hussaini (1895–1974) was an Arab nationalist and active member of anti-Zionist and anti-British movements in Palestine. From 1921 to 1948, he was the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. Al-Hussaini took an active role in the Arab Revolt in Palestine in 1936–39. During the Second World War he openly collaborated with the Germans and Italians. In 1941, he supported the nationalist coup staged by Rashid Ali al-Gailani in Iraq and was involved in the activities of Gailani's government. In May 1941, al-Hussaini issued a fatwa calling for a sacred war against Britain. After the fall of Gailani, wanted by the British government he fled to Iran and, subsequently, to the German part of Europe. See Joseph Schechtman, The Mufti and the Fuehrer: The Rise and Fall of Haj Amin el-Husseini, (New York, 1965); Philip Mattar, The Mufti of Jerusalem (Columbia, 1988).

104 Rashid Ali al-Gailani (1892–1965) was an Arab nationalist and prominent political figure in Iraq. During his tenure as prime minister in 1940 and 1941, he established close links with the Axis in an attempt to counterbalance the British presence in the country. On 1 April 1941, he staged a coup in Iraq and created a pro-German National Defense Government. To regain control over Iraq and eliminate a potential threat to its oil fields, Britain was compelled to launch a military operation against Gailani which was successfully accomplished by 31 May 1941. On 29 May 1941, Rashid Ali Gailani fled to Iran. See Stewart, Sunrise at Abadan.

105 Ghods, Iran in the Twentieth Century, 116–20.

106 Ghani, Cyrus, Iran and the Rise of Reza Shah. From Qajar Collapse to Pahlavi Rule (London, 1998), 405CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

107 Agaev, Germanskiy Imperializm v Irane, 113.

108 Nauka, Sovetsko-Angliyskie Otnoshenya vo Vremya Velikoy Otechestvennoy Voyny, I: 51.

109 Ansari, Modern Iran Since 1921, 72; Komissarov, “Smirnov kak Diplomat i Grazhdanin (1905–1982),” 144–49.

110 Ghani, Iran and the Rise of Reza Shah, 405.

111 Komissarov, “Smirnov kak Diplomat i Grazhdanin (1905–1982),” 144–49.

112 Ghani, Iran and the Rise of Reza Shah, 405.

113 Keddie, Modern Iran, 105.

114 Richard Bullard, Letters from Tehran (London, 1991), 60.

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121 G. G. Isaev and G. D. Daushvili, “Problemy i Stimuly Razvitiya Energetiki Severnoy Afriki i Blizhnego Vostoka: Iran, Saudovskaya Araviya, Alzhyr, Liviya,” in Neft, Gaz, Modernizatsiya Obshchestva, ed. N. A. Dobronravin (Saint Petersburg, 2008), 296–300.

122 Komissarov, “Smirnov kak Diplomat i Grazhdanin (1905–1982),” 144–49.

123 See Arabadzhan, Iran: protivostoyanie imperyam 1918–1941; McFarland, The Crises in Iran.

124 G. N. Valiakhmetova, “Irakskaya Neft' v Voennoy Strategii Anglii i Sovetskiy Factor: 1940–1941,” Vestnik Chelyabinskogo Gosudarstvennogo Universiteta, XXXVIII (2009): 70.

125 Isaev and Daushvili, “Problemy i Stimuly Razvitiya Energetiki Severnoy Afriki i Blizhnego Vostoka.”

126 See McFarland, The Crises in Iran.

127 McFarland, The Crises in Iran, 98.

128 Komissarov, “Smirnov kak Diplomat i Grazhdanin (1905–1982),” 144–49. See also Skrine, World War in Iran, 88–89.

129 Valiakhmetova, “Iranskaya Neft' v Voennoy Strategii Anglii i Sovetskiy Factor: 1940–1941,” 72.

130 Komissarov, “Smirnov kak Diplomat i Grazhdanin (1905–1982),” 144–49.

131 McFarland, The Crises in Iran.

132 Ghani, Iran and the Rise of Reza Shah, 405.

133 Stewart, Sunrise at Abadan.