“With power, with money, with the crown -
Fate throws people around like kittens.
Well, how did we miss the Shah’s place?! -
Our descendants will not forgive us for this.
The Shah admitted complete incompetence.
Take it here and replace it!
Where to get? We have every second one in Turkmenistan -
Ayatollah, and even Khomeini!
(V.S. Vysotsky)
So what place of the Shah did Vladimir Semyonovich sing about and who is this Ayatollah Khomeini?
In 1972, the planes of the Voronezh Aviation Plant lured the last Shah of Iran to our city; Mohammad Reza Pahlavi visited Voronezh. Of course, he did not arrive alone, but accompanied by his wife, Shahini Farah, and a delegation of about 60 people. In those years, there was no newspaper that did not write about one of the most beautiful couples in the East...
They wrote about his incredible condition, about his ceremonial uniform (on which there were more than two hundred and forty diamonds), about his love for aviation, and, of course, about his personal life and much more.
But first things first.
FROM BATMAN TO GENERAL. Reza Shah the Great
During the Russian-Persian War of 1828, a guard soldier and a Georgian woman fled to Persia, and half a century later, on March 16, 1878, in Alashta, a small village in northern Iran, a boy was born who was destined to turn the course of Persian history.
Nasser-ed Din Shah visited St. Petersburg and was delighted by the sight of the Russian Cossacks. At his request, Alexander II formed a Persian Cossack brigade. Nasser-ed Din Shah, who belonged to the Turkic Qajar dynasty, did not know then that the brigade would train someone who would overthrow this very dynasty.
Reza Pahlavi grew up with his mother, his father died when the boy was not even a year old. In 1893, he entered the service as an orderly for a Russian officer. In 1916, Reza himself became the commander of the Cossack brigade. He wore Russian uniform for the rest of his life, and the Old Believers Cossacks (who served with him) called him “Tsar-Father.”
On October 27, 1919, his son is born - Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, the hero of our story.
February 1921. Reza Khan, having led the campaign of 2 thousand Cossacks against Tehran, organizes a military coup, removes the Qajar dynasty from power, eliminates Iran's political dependence on England and forces it to remove troops from Iranian territory.
Reza fought illiteracy, built highways, schools, railways, airports, and built a university.
Prince Mohammed received an excellent education, studying in Switzerland. Meanwhile, his father Reza Khan became interested in the Aryan theory of Hitler, who came to power in 1933, and even ordered to call his country not Persia, but Iran, that is, the “country of the Aryans.”
Photo from the 1930s, Iranian women - without veil:
The prince returned to Tehran in 1937, having a remarkable understanding of economics, finance, history, and having studied several European languages. He did not get involved in government affairs, and, in fact, his imperious father did not allow anyone into this area of activity, not even the heir to the throne. I won't go into detail about the various subsequent political events, but they resulted in 1941 when British and Russian forces invaded and occupied Iran and Reza Pahlavi abdicated the throne in favor of his son. Reza himself, under British escort, was taken first to Mauritius and then to Johannesburg (South Africa), where he died on July 26, 1944.
LAWS OF EASTERN HOSPITALITY. Tehran-43
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, at the age of 21, was proclaimed Shahin Shah.
In 1942 he signed an alliance treaty with Great Britain and the USSR, and in September 1943 he declared war on Germany.
I’ll add on my own behalf that I was always amazed by this declaration of war with the Nazis precisely in 1943, when there was already a clear advantage in favor of the Soviet Union. Before this, everyone was hiding in the corners like hares and waiting to see whose side to take. Well, okay, I'm digressing from the topic.
During the meeting of the Big Three in Tehran, the young Shah met with F.-D. Roosevelt, W. Churchill and I.V. Stalin. Joseph Vissarionovich showed a high-class knowledge of diplomacy, although he shouldn’t understand the laws of Eastern hospitality.
Marshal of Long-Range Aviation A.E. Golovanov recalled: “Upon the arrival of the heads of the three powers in Tehran, the Shah of Iran asked for an audience with Churchill and Roosevelt to greet the guests. Arriving at the British embassy, he waited for quite a long time until Churchill came out to him. Roosevelt's wait was less long and finally a telephone call came to our embassy asking when His Excellency Stalin could receive the Shah of Iran. The embassy asked me to wait to coordinate the time of the visit. Quite quickly, a response was received that read: “The head of the Soviet delegation asks when the Shah of Iran will find time and be able to receive him?” The caller to the embassy said in a somewhat confused voice that he was misunderstood, that the Shah of Iran was asking when he could come to Stalin. However, the answer was that he was understood correctly, and Stalin was specifically asking when the Shah of Iran could receive him. The caller said that he must report this to the Shah. After some time, a call followed and the embassy was informed that if they understood correctly and J.V. Stalin really wants to visit the Shah of Iran, then the Shah will be waiting for him at such and such a time.
At exactly the appointed hour, Comrade Stalin was with the Shah of Iran, greeted him and had a long conversation with him, which emphasized that every guest should pay tribute to the owner, visit him and thank him for the hospitality shown.
Issues of attention in general, and in the East in particular, have a certain meaning and significance. The Shah was very young at that time, he was interested in aviation and received a light plane as a gift from us. Stalin’s personal visit to it further strengthened the friendly relations that subsequently existed between our states for many years. Truly, it would seem, an insignificant case, but in essence it is politics, and a considerable one...
The young monarch highly appreciated Soviet military equipment, especially combat aircraft, which he himself flew no worse than first-class pilots, and declared “his sympathy for the Soviet Union and the Red Army.” He, like Peter I, “cut a window to Europe,” tried to make Iran one of the largest industrial powers in the world.
The changes in the country were enormous: metallurgical and machine-building plants, petrochemical complexes, automobile enterprises. The foundations of shipbuilding and aircraft construction were laid, and even steps were taken towards the creation of nuclear energy.
EGYPTIAN PRINCESS
The Shah's first wife, Fawzia Fouad, was an Egyptian princess, the eldest daughter of the Sultan of Egypt and Sudan, Fuad I, and his wife Nazia Sabri. Fabzia was born in Alexandria on 11/05/21. She is a representative of the Muhammad Ali dynasty. She became the first wife of the Shah of Iran. The wedding took place in Cairo, and after the honeymoon was again held in Tehran. The marriage was fragile and not happy; it lasted from 1941 to 1945. After the birth of her daughter Shahnaz, Fawzia filed for divorce and then moved to Cairo.
However, the Iranian authorities legalized the divorce only three years later, in 1948.
She remarried in 1949 to a distant relative, Colonel Ismail Hussein Shirin Bey, and became known as Fawzia Shirin. After the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, she was stripped of her royal privileges and titles and is still addressed with respect using the title. I understand that Fawzia is still alive.
Photo taken from here.(external reference)
SORAYA
Soraya Esfandiary Bakhtiary, second wife of the Iranian Shah Reza Pahlavi, Soraya, daughter of the leader of the Persian diaspora in Europe and his German wife Eva Karl, was born on June 22, 1932 in Isfahan. The eldest daughter of a representative of an old noble family has been accustomed to politics since childhood. My father was ambassador to West Germany for a long time, my uncle is the leader of the constitutional movement in Iran.
Unfortunately, she could not have children, and the Iranian Majlis (parliament) demanded an heir. Mohammed thought about taking a second wife, who would bear him a son, and also proposed changing the Iranian constitution so that after his death his brother would inherit the throne. Soraya was against the first option, and the Majlis was against the second. In March 1958, Mohammed was forced to divorce. However, several times a year he flew from Iran to Switzerland (where his second wife lived) on a plane that he himself flew.
The second wife became, as they say, the love of his life. I completely agree with this. As you know, if a person’s personal life is not going well, he throws himself into work. After the divorce, the Shah actively began transforming the country. By the way, Soraya also enjoyed popular recognition and respect.
Soraya was nicknamed "the sad-eyed princess." After her divorce from the Shah, the princess tried herself in films. As an actress, she took part in the project of Dino Di Laurentiis. It was assumed that she would embody the image of the great Russian Tsarina Catherine on the screen, but the project failed.
Soraya Asfandiyari died in 2001 at the age of sixty-nine in her apartment in Paris under unclear circumstances.
Empress Farah
The legend of choosing a third wife is as follows: a special physical training parade was organized twice in Tehran, in which several hundred young girls took part. During the first parade, Mohammed failed to make his choice. I had to repeat the parade. The Shah pointed to Farah, who became the new Shaheen. The wedding of 24-year-old student Farah and 40th Mohammed Reza Pahlavi took place on December 21, 1959.
Farah Diba (born 1938), came from an old, rich Azerbaijani family. Her great-grandfather was an ambassador to Russia before the revolution. Farah received her education in Tehran and Paris. During her school years, she was fond of sports and was even captain of the basketball team. Fluent in English, French, Farsi and a little Azerbaijani.
Iran finally has an heir to the throne. In total, Farah gave birth to four children: Reza Kir Pahlavi (1960), Farangiz Pahlavi (1963), Ali Reza Pahlavi (1966), Leila Pahlavi (1970).
The first and only of the Shah's three wives, Farah received the title of Empress (Shahbana). It was a sensation; at that time women in the East were not given such rights.
In the 1970s, the empress developed a vigorous activity. While her husband was reviving the power of the country, using its huge oil reserves (and, by the way, achieved a lot in this direction), she managed the cultural part. With her participation, all historical values and shah's relics were returned to Iran, she founded the largest museum in Asia, fought for women's rights, and became a trendsetter. Wealthy Iranians sent their children to study in the West, and ballet schools were popular.
At one time, Muslim Magomayev was fascinated by her: “Shakhina Farrah was dazzling: chiseled facial features, Persian velvet eyes, pearly smile... A real movie star. Her Majesty's visit to Baku was official, and she behaved within the strict framework of protocol... There, in the palace, an incident happened to me, which, however, was forgiven. After the performance of Figaro's cavatina, at the request of the Shah, I was brought to His Majesty. He spoke flatteringly about the performance of Neapolitan songs. Having finished the conversation, I turned to move away from the Shah, and heard a restrained roar in the hall. According to etiquette, one does not walk away from the Shah, but backs away from him. But no one warned me about this. However, in the history of the Shah’s palace, I was apparently the first to violate strict etiquette - I showed the ruler of Iran my back.”
VISIT TO VORONEZH
During the reign of Nikita Sergeevich, relations with Iran were difficult and wary.
In July 1972, with a huge delegation of 58 people, the Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and his wife Shaheen Farrah arrived in Voronezh. Mohammed wanted to purchase a Tu-144 aircraft from an aircraft factory. A profitable agreement was then concluded between the USSR and Iran on the supply of Tu aircraft to Iran.
The brilliant married couple was given a hotel, which is located at the intersection of the streets and is popularly called the “Steamboat” and “Ship”. This hotel has always received only high-ranking guests of the city.
The former hotel manager says:
“During the Shah’s visit, I was appointed commandant of the mansion on Karl Marx Street. Operational employees of our department and representatives of the Moscow 9th Directorate of the KGB of the USSR carried out the necessary preparatory measures. All safety measures were taken. However, this time we encountered additional problems. The fact is that Mohammed’s wife, Shah Farrah, was in the mansion almost all the time. She was unwell, and she left the residence only four times: she was at the aircraft factory, at a concert at the Opera and Ballet Theater, at the Yu.E. School of Sports Excellence. Shtukman and at a banquet at the Slavyansky restaurant (for some reason the Shah was absent from the last event). The rest of the time, the shahina was in the apartments of the residence. She hardly went out, spending time surrounded by servants. We were given the command not to let any of the Soviet citizens near her. An exception was made only for the deputy chairman of the regional executive committee, I.I. Razdymalin (responsible for receiving the delegation) and the chief sanitary doctor of the region V.A. Kamensky (who personally checked all the products brought to the residence these days). In addition to them, at the request of the shahini, a doctor was once brought to the mansion, to whom, after examination and consultation, Farrah presented a gold watch...”
They had less than six years to rule...
THE COLLAPSE OF A 2,500-YEAR-OLD MARCHY
The reformer monarch represented serious competition to the country that had “defeated” the Indians. Fortunately for them, the very rapid economic growth of the country (and the people, for the most part backward, do not have time to get used to and accept the new way of life) and the introduction of Western technologies and culture naturally caused panic among ordinary Eastern citizens. Religion is all that remains of the familiar and familiar life of Muslim residents who do not want to accept modernization. And this was to America’s advantage; Washington began to actively support the opposition, headed by Ayatollah Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini, who propagated that the Shah “sold his soul to the Western devil” and contrasted the model of a pure pious people’s Islamic state with the “depraved” and pro-Western regime of the Shah.
Ayatollah Khomeini... A very interesting figure. A tough revolutionary who promotes religion (a paradox in essence). However, that's another story...
Mohammed was inspired by the success and transformation and for a long time did not notice the clouds hanging over him. It was January 1978. In the holy Muslim city of Qom, the Shah's troops shot at a demonstration whose participants demanded a limitation of the Shah's power and a return to the laws of Islam, killing more than 70 people. This was a chance for the opposition. Clergymen organize mass demonstrations. True, they say that the army command suggested that Mohammed deal with popular protests. To which Pahlavi replied: “I cannot reign on the blood of my subjects. What country will I pass on to my son? Mohammad Reza was no longer in control of the situation and was forced to leave the country on January 16, 1979 with his family. In February 1979, power in Iran passed into the hands of the clergy led by Ayatollah Khomeini (a religious leader who was then in exile in Paris), who proclaimed the creation of the “Islamic Republic.” Everything that was done by the Shah was destroyed, and the development of the country was thrown back centuries.
Mohammed has lived in Egypt, Morocco, the Bahamas and Mexico. The Islamic authorities of Iran demanded his extradition, and his former friends shied away like a leper, fearing Khomeini's revenge.
The former monarch's health condition worsened and he was diagnosed with lymphoma. The arrival of Mohammad Reza for treatment in the United States caused the seizure of the American embassy in Iran by Muslim extremists in November 1979 and an acute international crisis. The deposed Shah left the United States and moved to Panama, and then again to Egypt, where he died and was buried in Cairo's Al-Rifai Mosque.
DESCENDANTS
The eldest of the monarch's three sons, Reza, went to America in 1978, even before the revolution. After graduating from the United States Air Force Academy, he enrolled in the political science department at Williams College. Then he graduated from the University of California. Now Reza Pahlavi lives in Maryland with his wife and three daughters. The Iranians call him the “Shakhin Shah in exile”, or the crown prince, that is, after 30 years, they don’t trust the current government, or what?
"House with Lions", or Shvanvich's Hotel
...
Part 6 -
Part 7 -
Part 8 - The Last Shah of Iran (Korablik Hotel)
Part 9 -
Part 10 -
Part 11 -
Part 12 -
Unequal marriages in royal families are, one might say, a modern trend. However, eastern dynasties try to remain faithful to traditions. One of the few “violators” in the last century was the last Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who chose his lovers according to his heart. Was it always this way and why did he manage to build a family nest only on the third attempt?
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi went down in world history not only as the last Shah of Iran, but also as a real hero-lover. The playboy politician had such a rich personal life that it could form the basis of a romance novel or melodrama. The former ruler of Iran was married three times, and each new lady of his heart turned out to be younger and more beautiful than the previous one.
It is interesting that the late Shah was particularly selective - his passions were so good-looking that they were often mistaken for Hollywood divas. For example, Mr. Pahlavi’s contemporaries compared his first legal wife, Egyptian Princess Fawzia Fuad, with the main movie star of that time, Vivien Leigh.
Despite the fact that the last Shah of Iran was constantly surrounded by the first beauties and clever women, until the end of his days he continued to love only one. Who managed to forever capture the heart of one of the most prominent men of the 20th century? In this material we will recall the most famous episodes from the extensive love biography of Mohammed Reza Pahlavi and tell you why in the late 1950s he had to part with the main woman in his life.
Blue bloods?
Mohammed Reza Pahlavi was born in October 1919 into the family of the Iranian military leader Reza Pahlavi, who six years later prepared the overthrow of the ruling dynasty and proclaimed himself the new Shah of Iran. Mohammad Reza came to power relatively early - he was barely 22 years old.
Pahlavi Jr. received an excellent education. He attended the prestigious boarding school Institut Le Rosey in Switzerland, after which he returned to Iran, where he entered the officer's school. Even then, the handsome brunette Mohammed Reza was known as a ladies' man. The representative of the Iranian ruling dynasty beautifully courted the girls he liked.
It is curious that in the mid-thirties of the last century there were rumors that Pahlavi Jr. was not really interested in women at all. Allegedly, while studying in Switzerland, he became close to a young man named Ernest Perron. Mohammed Reza called Ernest, who never hid his homosexual orientation, a close friend. Moreover, in 1936, the son of the Shah invited his friend to move to the Marble Palace in Tehran. Subsequently, Perron became a personal adviser to Pahlavi Jr. and helped him make important decisions, including those of a state nature.
After the Islamic Revolution, opponents of Mohammed Reza Pahlavi published a book in which they openly accused him of having an intimate relationship with a friend. Allegedly, they were lovers for several decades. However, representatives of the politician denied this data. Everything was motivated by the fact that Reza, who opposed sexual minorities, would never have allowed his eldest son, and even the heir to the throne, to transport his homosexual friend to the palace if they had an affair.
What role Ernest Perron actually played in the life of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi still remains a mystery. Only one thing is known: the last Shah of Iran usually ran to woo the girls he liked almost on the first day of their acquaintance.
Oriental tales
Mohammad Reza did not remain an eligible bachelor for long. In 1937, the Shah decided that it would be beneficial for Iran to “intermix” with Egypt. Then he decided to set up his eldest son with the beautiful Egyptian princess Fawzia Fuad. The blue-eyed brunette, who resembles both Vivien Leigh and Hedy Lamarr, was only 17 years old when her father began negotiating an impending union. By that time, Fawzia had managed to get an education in Switzerland. She behaved like a typical European girl of that time, and she dressed in Western fashion.
Fawzia did not want to follow royal traditions and live under the constant supervision of her parents in the palace, so she was not at all against the idea of getting married - it seemed to her the only way out. “Fawzia rarely left the walls of the house. If she succeeded, she was surrounded by a large retinue. While all her peers were having fun, she felt like a captive of a high position,” the Egyptian author Adel Sabit wrote about the princess.
In May 1938, Fawzia Fuad and Mohammed Reza Pahlavi became engaged. Before the engagement, the future husband and wife met only once, but this moment did not bother anyone then. A magnificent wedding took place a year later in Cairo. The next day, the newlyweds went to Tehran, where the daughter-in-law was very warmly greeted by her satisfied father-in-law. The whole of Iran celebrated for a whole week on the occasion of the wedding of Pahlavi Jr. with the Egyptian princess.
In October 1940, the couple had a daughter, whom they named Shahnaz Pahlavi - then everyone finally believed that everything had been endured and loved. In fact, family life did not bring any pleasure to the couple. The mother-in-law did everything to complicate the life of her daughter-in-law, and believed that Fawzia was poisoning the existence of Mohammad Reza. Pahlavi Jr. did not even try to hide from the public that he did not love his legal wife. The heir to the Iranian throne often appeared in public with other women. In 1941, the Shah had to abdicate the throne in favor of his son, and since then the relationship between husband and wife has completely deteriorated. Fawzia lived her life, and Mohammad Reza lived his.
The young wife of the Shah began to experience depression. She could not get out of bed for days on end and only played cards with her servants. The brunette with a languid look hardly communicated with her husband - they only exchanged routine phrases, and even then in French. At first, the princess enthusiastically studied Persian and wanted to impress her husband with her knowledge, but the passion quickly dried up.
It all ended with Fawzia starting to get sick: either a cold or malaria. The woman's health became so weak that doctors insisted that she return to Egypt for a while. “Bony, frighteningly pale... Fawzia’s shoulders became so sharp that she resembled dried fish rather than her former self,” Egyptian author Adel Sabit wrote about the wife of the Shah Pahlavi.
The recovery period dragged on for many months, and everyone realized that Fawzia would never return to her husband.
She began to lead an active social life in Cairo and ignored messages from Mohammed Reza. In 1948, The Times newspaper announced the couple's divorce. “Princess Fawzia returned to Egypt to undergo a full course of treatment for malaria. Doctors forbid her to return to Iran. Because of these circumstances, their marriage with the Shah broke up by mutual consent,” the message said.
Due to the dissolution of her marriage with the ruler of Iran, the young and blossoming Fawzia had no time to grieve: by that time she already had a line of admirers. Just five months after the divorce, she married for the second time, this time successfully. They were separated from their husband, Colonel Ismail Shirin, by death - in 1994 the man passed away.
Mohammad Reza also did not complain about the lack of personal life. One mistress replaced another, and it seemed that this vicious circle would not be interrupted in the near future. But soon after the divorce, he met the one with whom he was ready to spend all the years allotted to him.
Ah, what a woman!
Mohammed Reza literally fell in love with the beautiful Soraya Isfandiyari-Bakhtiari, the daughter of the Iranian Ambassador to Germany Khalil Isfandiyari and the German woman Eva Karl, at first sight. An acquaintance of the newly divorced Shah, Farukh Zafar Bakhtiari, showed him a portrait of his relative, who had just graduated from the Institute of Noble Maidens in Switzerland. The girl in the photo turned out to be miraculously beautiful, and the ruler of Iran insisted on a personal meeting with her.
The acquaintance ended... with a marriage proposal. After talking with an intelligent brown-haired woman with amazing green eyes, Mohammed Reza finally capitulated. That same evening he went to Soraya's father to ask for a blessing for the marriage. The girl did not expect such a turn of events, but was very happy - she also liked her boyfriend.
In October 1950, the couple's engagement was announced. On the occasion of the engagement, the generous Shah, who by that time was 31 years old, presented his 18-year-old beloved with a ring with a huge 22.37-carat diamond. The ruler of Iran was incredibly happy and planned to get married as soon as possible. However, conservative local residents did not approve of his choice, because the bride looked and thought like a girl from the West. “I was so stupid. I knew nothing about the history of my native country, about legends and religion,” Isfandiyari-Bakhtiari wrote years later in her memoirs.
It was expected that the wedding of Shah Pahlavi and his young bride would take place in December 1950. But Soraya became seriously ill, and the doctors even feared that she would not live to see the marriage registration ceremony. For a long time doctors could not make an accurate diagnosis. At first they said that the girl had ordinary poisoning, then there was a version that she had malaria. As a result, the best Iranian doctors convened a consultation and agreed that the brown-haired woman was suffering from typhoid fever.
For several months, Soraya was bedridden, but in February 1951 she nevertheless became the legal wife of Mohammad Reza.
The wedding took place in the Marble Palace on an unprecedented scale. The bride, who did not have time to fully recover from a serious illness, shone in a luxurious Christian Dior wedding dress. The creation of the legendary French fashion designer was decorated with diamonds, pearls and weightless marabou feathers. To create the outfit, which weighed 20 kilograms, it took more than 33 meters of silver lamé fabric. Due to the fact that the winter turned out to be unusually cold and snowy, Soraya even had to put on a snow-white mink sheepskin coat.
Especially for decorating the palace, one and a half tons of the favorite flowers of the future wife of the Shah - orchids, tulips and carnations - were delivered from the Netherlands to Iran. Numerous guests were entertained by circus performers who arrived from Rome for the celebration. The wedding took place on such a grand scale that no one had any doubt about Mohammed Reza’s endless love for Soraya.
Sorry, goodbye
Shah Pahlavi idolized his wife and was ready to fulfill her every whim. The couple traveled a lot: they managed to pay official visits to the USSR, India, Turkey, Spain, the USA and other countries. Soraya began doing charity work and took a keen interest in how ordinary people live in Iran.
Fans of the couple were worried about only one thing: why, after a couple of years of marriage, they never had children. Before the wedding, the brown-haired woman was examined by a doctor - no pathologies that would prevent the birth of babies were found. The lack of heirs did not burden the spouses: Mohammed Reza even wanted to change the constitution so that the throne would eventually go to his younger brother Ali Raza. However, in 1954, the young man died, and the ruler of Iran again had to deal with issues of succession to the throne.
Meanwhile, Soraya was undergoing fertility treatment. The young wife of the Shah even flew to the USA, where she consulted with the best specialists. Alas, the treatment did not bring results.
Mohammad Reza loved his wife very much and did not want to hurt her at all. But according to the Iranian constitution, he had to have a male descendant - otherwise the entire line of succession to the throne would be interrupted. Pahlavi had no intention of divorcing Isfandiyari-Bakhtiari and even came up with a way out of the situation: he decided to take a second wife so that she would bear him a son. Soraya didn’t even want to hear about it - the girl felt bad at the mere thought that she would have to share her beloved man with another woman.
At the beginning of 1958, Soraya left Iran and settled with her parents in Germany. Then representatives of the wife of the Iranian ruler published an official statement on her behalf in the New York Times. “Since it is important for Mohammed Reza Pahlavi to have a direct male heir, it is with the greatest regret that I sacrifice my own happiness for the well-being of the entire country. Thus, I inform you that His Majesty and I are parting,” the message said.
On March 21 of the same year, the tearful Shah Pahlavi announced on the radio that he had divorced his wife and had no plans to marry in the foreseeable future.
After breaking up with his wife, Mohammed Reza often visited her and showered her with flowers and luxurious gifts. He insisted that Soraya retain the title of princess, and she even retained a diplomatic passport, with which she could freely travel around the world. In addition, the Shah himself decided to pay his ex-wife alimony in the amount of seven thousand dollars a month (a colossal amount at that time). After separating from her husband, Soraya was able to keep the jewelry and all the gifts from him.
A few years after the divorce, Isfandiyari-Bakhtiari decided to fulfill her old dream - she took acting classes and even starred in several films. However, the films “Three Faces” and “She” were unsuccessful. According to rumors, this could not have happened without the intervention of Shah Pahlavi, who could not bear to watch the woman he dearly loved kiss other men on the screen. Allegedly, Mohammad Reza bought all the copies of the films and destroyed them.
Unlike her ex-husband, Soraya was never able to arrange her personal life. In the 1970s, she dated Italian director Franco Indovina. In 1972, he died tragically, and since then nothing has been known about the love affairs of Isfandiyari-Bakhtiari. Years later, she settled in Paris and wrote her autobiographical book, The Palace of Solitude. The main woman in the life of Shah Pahlavi passed away in 2001. She was 69 years old.
Male happiness
Mohammad Reza's dream of heirs finally came true. In the summer of 1959, at a reception at the Iranian embassy in Paris, the Shah was introduced to a pretty university architecture student named Farah Diba. A few months later, Farah returned to her native Tehran, where she again met Mohammed Reza. The only daughter of the Shah at that time, Shahnaz, intervened in the matter, and she began to actively match him with yesterday’s graduate of a French university.
Then everything was in a fog: in November of the same year the couple announced their engagement, and in December the wedding took place. The dress for the happy bride was created by Yves Saint Laurent himself, who at that time collaborated with the fashion house Dior.
Soon after the wedding, the newlyweds began to be attacked with questions about when the long-awaited heir would appear.
Less than a year after their marriage, Farah gave birth to her first son, whom they named Reza Kir.
Two and a half years later, a daughter, Farahnaz, appeared in the family. In 1966, Farah gave her husband another boy, Ali Reza, and in 1970, a girl, Leila.
The third wife of Shah Pahlavi coped with her duties “excellently.” She took an active part in the life of the country: she was involved in charity work, developed medicine, and fought for women’s rights. In 1967, Farah Diba was even crowned as the Empress of Iran - she was officially given the title of Shahban.
Farah turned out to be the same woman who is ready to follow her husband both into the sky and into the abyss. In 1979, Iran was shocked by the Islamic Revolution, because of which the Shah had to abdicate the throne and, together with his family, seek refuge in either Egypt or Morocco. By that time, Mohammad Reza was already struggling with oncology and his condition only worsened due to his worries. In the summer of 1980, Pahlavi passed away.
Soon after, US President Ronald Reagan invited the Shah's widow and his younger children to move to Washington. All these events dealt a heavy blow to the psyche of the youngest son and daughter of Farah and Mohammed Reza. In June 2001, Leila, who worked as a model, died due to an overdose of painkillers. And exactly ten years after this, Ali Reza took his own life.
Ironically, the eldest son of Shah Pahlavi has three daughters who are not destined to continue the dynasty. But it was precisely for this reason that Mohammed Reza many years ago agreed to a divorce from the beautiful Soraya.
Reza Savadkuhi, the future Shah, was born on March 16, 1877 in the small village of Alasht, Mazandaran province, into the family of a small landowner, a hereditary officer. He was Mazandaran on his father’s side and Azerbaijani on his mother’s side. As can be seen from his last name, Reza was a Persian, not a Turk. His family gravitated more towards the ancient religion of Ostristism than towards Islam. This would fully manifest itself during the reigns of both Reza Shah and his son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Growing up in a military family, Reza Khan absorbed the basics of army life from early childhood. One of the units of the Persian Cossack Brigade, the most disciplined and combat-ready unit of the Shah's army, was stationed near his father's estate. Unable to imagine any other path in life other than military, Reza Khan in 1892, at the age of 14, submitted a request to enlist in the Persian Cossack Brigade. Service here was considered very prestigious, and many children of the Persian nobility dreamed of becoming Cossack officers. The commission took into account the military background of Reza Khan, the personal qualities of the candidate, and the request was granted. After completing training, Reza Khan was enlisted as a private in a Cossack brigade.
The history of the creation of this brigade was as follows. In 1878, the Persian Shah Nasser ad-Din Qajar, during a trip to the Russian Empire, was shocked by the Russian Cossack units guarding him along the way: their uniform, equipment and horse riding. The Shah turned to the Caucasian governor, Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich, with a request to send Russian officers to Persia to create and train the Persian Cossack cavalry. Emperor Alexander II granted this request, considering this as an opportunity to strengthen Russian influence in Persia. In July 1879, the first Cossack regiment was created. Nasser ad-Din, satisfied with the training and appearance of the regiment, ordered its number to be doubled - to 600 people - that is, in fact, to form another similar regiment, staffed by volunteers. Thus the foundation of the future Cossack brigade was laid. It included a horse artillery battery, a guards squadron and a detachment of musicians. The total number of the brigade was about 900 people. The Cossacks of the brigade wore the uniform of the Terek Cossacks and were armed with Caucasian daggers, sabers and rifles of the Berdan system. At the head of each regiment (foja) was a Persian general (sertip), who was subordinate to a Russian officer-instructor, who was the actual commander of the regiment. In each regiment, subordinate to the Russian officer, there was one constable, who assisted the officer in training his subordinates.
Reza Khan is successfully moving up the career ladder. He becomes an officer, and in 1916, with the rank of colonel, he heads the Kuzvinsky detachment of the Persian Cossack brigade. Over a quarter of a century of service, Reza Khan absorbed the knowledge of the Russian Cossack military school and became an experienced and knowledgeable military leader.
At the end of the First World War, complete anarchy reigned in Persia. Ahmad Shah of the Qajar dynasty was a weak ruler and could not influence events. In 1916, as a counterweight to the Persian Cossacks, the British under the command of General Sykes created detachments of South Persian riflemen modeled on the Indian sepoy units. The British were gaining more and more influence in Persia. They controlled the oil fields in the south of the country, and on August 16, 1918, Great Britain, entering Russian territory, captured Baku, which at that time accounted for about 50% of world oil production. In 1919, London decided to take control of the entire territory of Persia, which was practically turning into an English protectorate. The country was torn apart by internecine clashes. The most important problem for the new Shah was the termination of the “liberation” campaign of the Reds. On June 5, 1920, nationalist Mirza Kuchek Khan, after negotiations with Soviet representatives, proclaimed the Gilan Soviet Republic, later renamed the Persian Soviet Republic. There were representatives of the Bolsheviks in the “government” of Kuchek Khan. Yakov Blumkin, who actively participated in the events, was a member of the Iranian Communist Party. The Red Persian Army set its sights on marching on Tehran.
View of the courtyard of the Shah Mosque in Isfahan, 1932. Photo: www.globallookpress.com
To defend the independence of the country, on February 21, 1921, the Qazvin detachment of the Persian Cossack division under the command of Reza Khan entered Tehran and captured it without a fight. Reza Khan immediately concluded an agreement with the Soviet government on friendship and cooperation. He signed an agreement with them only to stop the British imperialists: all enslaving agreements with Great Britain were broken. But this did not make the Shah love the Bolsheviks.
Reza Shah, who served for many years in the Cossack brigade, communicated with Russian officers, was on friendly terms with some, and knew the Russian language perfectly. His military and state views and beliefs were formed largely under the influence of the Russian military school. Many officers of the Imperial Army, monarchists by conviction, did not return to Russia, but continued to serve in the Shah's division.
Reza Shah always treated the Russians with great respect, and those who continued to serve in his Cossack division paid him the same, lovingly calling him “Tsar-Father.” Reza Khan became Minister of War, and on December 12, 1925, the Constituent Assembly of Persia overthrew the Qajar dynasty and enthroned Reza Khan under the name Reza Shah Pahlavi, who became the absolute monarch. This allowed the new sovereign to quickly modernize the country.
The reforms began with the transformation of the legal system. From 1925 to 1928, three new sets of laws were adopted: commercial, criminal and civil codes. All of them significantly limited the legal power of the Islamic clergy. Thus, all property issues were transferred to the jurisdiction of secular courts, the process of paperwork and registration of real estate was completely transferred from the church to government bodies. The creation of modern industry began: textile enterprises and factories for processing agricultural products were built. Several military factories, cement and glycerin factories were built in the vicinity of Tehran. A grand enterprise that captured the imagination of his contemporaries was the construction of the trans-Iranian railway carried out by Reza Shah, which connected the port of Bandar Shah on the Caspian Sea with the port of Bandar Shahpur in the Persian Gulf. The length of the road, built from 1928 to 1938, was 1,394 kilometers.
Highways were built, the total length of which reached 20 thousand kilometers. Large-scale construction took place in Tehran and some other cities. The Iranian capital has taken on a completely European appearance. Many streets were covered with asphalt. In 1934, the University of Tehran was founded, an agricultural institute was opened in Karaj and a pedagogical institute in Tehran. Women began to be admitted to higher education institutions and to work in government agencies. Schools were created where boys and girls studied together. Women were forbidden to marry before the age of thirteen, which was widely practiced in Qajar Persia. The veil, with which the Persian concept of female honor is associated, was outlawed.
Reza Shah tried to transform Iran into a modern, secular nation-state. For a long time, Shiism served as the unifying national idea in Iranian society. Reza Shah tried to establish a completely new national idea among his subjects.
From the first days of his reign, the praise of “Persian”, pre-Islamic Iran began during the reign of the Achaemenids and Sassanids. The entire power of the state propaganda machine was directed towards this. Through textbooks, mass publications and radio programs, they tried to instill pride and love for the ancient Iranian culture in their subjects.
In March 1934, the country began to be called Iran instead of Persia. In 1935, the Shah founded the Iranian Academy, whose main task was to “cleanse” the Persian language from Turkish and Arabic influence. Teaching, publishing books and newspapers, and even public speaking in Assyrian, Azerbaijani, Armenian, and Kurdish were prohibited.
Reza Shah had dangerous enemies in the form of the Islamic clergy, who had lost their former rights and privileges. Discontent also grew among the wealthy population, from whom Reza Shah took away their estates and forced them to sell their land at a cheaper price.
Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, last Shah of Iran (1919-1980), son of Reza Shah. Photo: www.globallookpress.com
They often try to present Reza Shah as an unconditional ally of Hitler, just as his son Shah Mohammed is considered to be an American puppet. Neither one nor the other is true. Of course, Reza Shah reacted positively to the emergence of the Nazi Germany factor in the international political arena. Before that, he had to maneuver between Great Britain and the USSR. Now a third force was emerging, which, moreover, professed the same admiration for the Aryan race as the Shah of Iran. However, let’s not forget that over the years, Nazi Germany was perceived generally positively in London, Paris, and Washington. And Moscow preferred to deal with the NSDAP rather than with the European “social traitors” (social democrats). Words of admiration for the German Fuhrer came from the lips of an English politician, the last Prime Minister of Great Britain from the Liberal Party Lloyd George, playwright Bernard Shaw, Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun, and poet Dmitry Merezhkovsky. At first, Stalin himself admired Hitler.
On the other hand, the more clearly the aggressive essence of Hitlerism manifested itself, the less was the desire of the European powers to continue cooperation with it. This fully applies to Reza Shah. The Germans penetrated deeper and deeper into Iran, trying to create a “fifth column” in it.
Beginning in 1936, the Auber (military intelligence and counterintelligence in Nazi Germany) and the SD (security service) began to “weave networks” in Iran, step by step transforming Iranian territory into a base for carrying out espionage and subversive activities directed against the Soviet Union and Great Britain.
By the end of the 1930s, facing the threat of possible German expansion, the Shah tried to create a regional security system from the eastern states: Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkey. As a result, on July 8, 1937, an agreement was signed that formalized the military-political bloc of four countries of the Near and Middle East: Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan. After Germany occupied Czechoslovakia and Italy occupied Albania in the spring of 1939, Iran and Turkey initiated the convening of a meeting of four states in Tehran. It was supposed to discuss the issue of turning the pact into a defensive alliance.
Reza Shah feared that England and the USSR would be able to divide the territory of Iran and therefore contributed to strengthening German positions in his country. At first, Great Britain did not see a real competitor in the person of the Third Reich in Iran. To a certain extent, the British were satisfied with the growth of German influence, since this, in their opinion, weakened the position of the Soviet Union in the Middle East. The Germans' successes were taken more seriously in Moscow. The USSR was alarmed by the German infiltration. The Soviet government formally protested the presence of German military equipment and German technical advisers in the Caspian region. Reza Shah ignored this protest and similar subsequent protests caused by the invitation of Italian and Japanese consultants. The Shah's refusal to extend the trade agreement with the Soviet Union in 1938 further increased tensions between the two states.
However, with the outbreak of World War II, on September 4, 1939, Reza Shah declared his neutrality and confirmed that he would defend it by force of arms. In response, the British actually staged an economic and financial blockade of Iran. In this situation, Reza Shah again began to show interest in restoring trade relations with the Soviet Union. Convincing the USSR of his “good intentions,” he used every opportunity to emphasize that the conclusion of a new trade agreement was a done deal. On October 10, 1939, Reza Shah, in his speech at the Majlis on foreign policy, noted the importance of developing economic ties with the northern neighbor and expressed hope that in the near future relations between the two states would be restored in full. Sensing the weakness of Iranian positions, Stalin was in no hurry to conclude a new agreement with Reza Shah, realizing that the Germans were primarily interested in this. The agreement with Iran was nevertheless concluded by the Soviet side after the signing of a non-aggression pact with Germany in February 1940. Despite active cooperation with Germany, Reza Shah continued to follow a course of careful foreign policy maneuvering, trying not to give rise to British intervention.
Family of the Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Photo: www.globallookpress.com
By this time, Hitler's policy towards Iran had undergone significant changes. In Berlin they began to seriously think about replacing Reza Shah with another politician. This idea was suggested to Hitler by some Iranian nationalists, ardent supporters of the “third force.” At the very beginning of the war, they created the so-called Secret Committee, which was under the influence of Nazi ideology. Soon the committee sent a representative to Berlin in the hope of obtaining German assistance in overthrowing Reza Shah. He needed a puppet who was ready to follow instructions from Berlin in everything. Hitler understood that after the start of aggression against the USSR, Iran would lose its importance as a source of strategic raw materials.
In the future, the Fuhrer saw Iran as one of the active participants in the fascist bloc, which could not be imagined while a pragmatic politician was on the Iranian throne, ready to receive military and economic assistance from the Nazis, but not willing to shed blood for the interests of the “German Reich.” Therefore, he sent a special commissioner from G. Himmler’s department to Iran with the task of putting together a terrorist group that would commit systematic murders of people unwanted by Germany. According to Soviet intelligence officers, members of this group were tasked with preparing the assassination of the Shah in order to put German agents in charge of Iran.
After the attack of Nazi Germany on the USSR, Reza Shah considered it prudent not to participate in Hitler’s adventure, and already on June 26, 1941, the Iranian ambassador in Moscow, Mohammed Saed, stated in a note verbale:
The Iranian Embassy, on behalf of its government, has the honor to inform the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs that in the current situation created by the war between Germany and the USSR, the Iranian government will maintain complete neutrality.
From various sources, Reza Shah received information that Hitler hoped to create an Arab state under the auspices of Germany, which would include the oil-rich Iranian province of Khuzestan, populated mainly by Arabs. Under this plan, Iran would also lose significant territories inhabited by Kurds.
The capital of Iran was occupied by Soviet and British troops in September 1941 during Operation Concord. It is widely believed that the reason for this occupation was the pro-German policy of the Shah of Iran, Reza Pahlavi. In addition, Iran could become the only route for the supply of Western supplies to the USSR.
However, some historians believe that the USSR, by sending its troops into Iran, defended itself not so much from the Germans as from its “allies” - the British, who, in the event of the defeat of the Red Army, were ready to occupy Soviet oil territories. The British desire to expand their military presence in Iran was so great that they proposed a plan to Soviet intelligence officers - to jointly stage a German uprising in Iran and thereby obtain an ironclad pretext for intervention. Only the reluctance of the Soviet side to participate in this adventure thwarted the plans of the Intelligence Service. The British refused to conclude an alliance treaty with Iran and, in fact, looked for any excuse to send troops.
The former Turkish ambassador in London admitted that it was the British
insisted on occupying Iran and establishing control over the Iranian government.
On June 26, 1941, Iran received the first note of protest from the government of the Soviet Union, where the Shah of Iran was informed about the active activities of German intelligence in Iran. The troops of the Soviet Transcaucasian Front under the command of General D. T. Kozlov entered Iranian Azerbaijan, and the 53rd Army of General S. G. Trofimenko advanced from Central Asia and occupied Mashhad. British troops occupied Iranian territories and ports in the Persian Gulf adjacent to British India. A direct connection between Britain, whose troops were also stationed in Iraq, neighboring Iran, and the USSR was established.
Reza Shah protested and demanded explanations from the ambassadors of the two powers. They replied that the operation was undertaken to cleanse Iran of German agents. The Soviet ambassador also referred to the above-mentioned Article VI of the 1921 Treaty.
The Shah had no choice but to obey. He changed his government, the new prime minister ordered the troops to stop resistance, and by August 30, Iranian troops laid down their arms.
Reza Pahlavi abdicated the throne in favor of his eldest son, Mohammad Reza. Leaving the country, he said to his son and heir, Muhammad Reza Shah:
The people have always known me as an independent Shahinshah, the master of his own will, strong, guarding the interests of himself and the country, and it is precisely because of this reputation, trust and respect of the people for me that I cannot be the nominal padishah of a captured country and receive instructions from the hands of a Russian or an English junior officer.
Under British escort, he was taken first to Mauritius and then to Johannesburg (South Africa), where he died on July 26, 1944. Until the end of his days, he loved to quote Pushkin by heart and covered himself with Nikolaev’s Russian overcoat instead of a blanket.
(Materials from the book were used Orisheva A. B. In August 1941. - M.: Veche, 2011. - 315 p. — (1418 days of the Great War). - 3000 copies).
I figured it out a long time ago, it remains - Asia.
Today I will tell you about the last three queens of Iran. I really wanted to name the post - three queens of Persia, as Iran used to be called. It's very beautiful. But even in Europe, since 1935 this name has been considered obsolete and everyone calls Iran Iran. Well, I will too. So, about the last three... is it worth digging further into the depths of centuries, we will decide together.
The last shahinshah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi(1919-1980) (Pahlavi - genus), overthrown in 1979, married three times.
Queen Fawzia bint Fuad of Egypt
(1921-)
Princess Fawzia, daughter of King Fuad I of Egypt, a beautiful blue-eyed brunette, became the first wife of the Shah (then Crown Prince of Iran) Mohammed Reza Pahlavi in 1939. The Shah and his first wife Fawzia had a daughter, Shahnaz. The marriage was not successful; the Shah needed an heir.
Queen Fawzia of Iran (ca. 1940)
The same frame, but in full
Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi with his wife Fawzia and newborn daughter
Shortly after the birth of the couple's only daughter, Queen Fawzia petitioned for a divorce in Egypt and was granted it in 1945, after which she moved to Cairo. The daughter stayed with her father. The divorce certificate was not recognized by the Iranian authorities, but subsequently, on November 17, 1948, the divorce was nevertheless legalized, after which Fawziya was returned to the title of Princess of Egypt and Sudan.
In 1949, Princess Fawzia remarried Colonel Ismail Hussein Shirin Bey (1919 – 1994), her distant relative and former Minister of the Army and Navy. The couple has two children - Nadia (1950 - 2009) and Hussein Shirin Effendi (born 1955). Fawzia is still alive and well.
Soraya Asfandiyari Bakhtiari
(1932-2001)
The second wife of Shah Mohammad Reza in 1951 was Soraya Asfandiyari Bakhtiari (half of German origin). She was the daughter of the leader of the Persian diaspora in Europe, Khalil Khan Asfandiyari Bakhtiyari and his German wife Eva Karl. Shah Mohammed loved the green-eyed beauty Soraya very much, but unfortunately they did not have children.
Soraya Asfandiyari Bakhtiari (1951)
Shah with his bride Saraya
Soraya Asfandiyari Bakhtiari (1960s)
The Iranian Majlis (parliament) demanded an heir. Mohammed thought about taking a second wife, who would bear him a son, and also proposed changing the Iranian constitution so that after his death his brother would inherit the throne. Soraya was against the first option, and the Majlis was against the second. In March 1958, after 7 years of childless marriage, Mohammed was forced to divorce. They write that the Shah suffered greatly, visited his ex-wife, and gave gifts. He persuaded him to be the first wife, if there was a second one, who would give birth to an heir. Soraya refused.
Soraya spent the rest of her life in Europe, drowning in depression, the details of which she outlined in her memoirs - in the 1991 book “Palace of Solitude.” Soraya Asfandiyari Bakhtiari died in Paris at the age of 69, having outlived her ex-husband by 20 years. They say a beautiful but sad film “Soraya” was made about her life.
So, the Shah divorced his first two wives, since he did not have sons from them.
The Shah needs a wife who will give birth to a son. A special physical training parade was organized in Tehran, in which several hundred young girls took part. During the first parade, Mohammed was sad and was unable to make his choice. The parade was repeated. Shah chose former basketball player Farah Dib.
Farah Diba
(1938-)
Farah Diba, an Azerbaijani from a noble and wealthy family in Tabriz. Her paternal grandfather was the Iranian ambassador to the Romanov court at the end of the 19th century. Farah received her education in Tehran and Paris. During her school years, she was fond of sports and was even captain of the basketball team. Fluent in English, French, Farsi and a little Azerbaijani. The wedding of 21-year-old student Farah and 40-year-old Mohammed Reza Pahlavi took place on December 21, 1959.
Wedding photo (1959)
Queen Farah of Iran (1960)
Queen Farah bore the Shah four children (two sons and two daughters): Reza Kir Pahlavi (1960),
Farangiz Pahlavi (1963), Ali Reza Pahlavi (1966),
Leila Pahlavi (1970).
The heir, and more than one, was born, the Shah could be calm. On October 26, 1967, when the Shah became Shahinshah, King of Kings, 29-year-old Farah Diba received the title of Shahban, giving her the right to regency. The coronation surpassed Napoleon's in splendor. Of the Shah's three wives, she was the only one crowned empress (shahbanu). It was a sensation; at that time women in the East were not given such rights.
After the coronation. On the left is the Shah's daughter from his first marriage, Shahnaz. On the right is Empress (Shahbanu) Farah.
Empress Farah 1972
Shahinshah sacrificed his love in vain. The Islamic Revolution of 1979 overthrew the Shah and he and his family were forced to leave the country. Shahinshah died in exile in Cairo the following year.
After the death of the Shah, the exiled empress remained in Egypt for almost two years. A few months after the assassination of President Sadat in October 1981, the Empress and her family left Egypt. President Ronald Reagan informed the Empress that she was ready to be received in the United States. Farah first settled in Williamstown, Massachusetts, but later bought a house in Greenwich, Connecticut. After the death of her daughter Princess Leila in 2001 (Leila Pahlavi was found dead in a hotel room in London. The cause of death was not precisely established. The princess suffered from severe depression in the last years of her life) Farah purchased a small house in Potomac, Maryland, near Washington DC , D.C., to be closer to his eldest son and grandchildren. On January 4, 2011, Farah's youngest son, Ali Reza Pahlavi, committed suicide by gunshot in his Boston home.
Empress Farah lives and lives in America, next to her eldest son and grandchildren.
Empress Dowager Farah Pahlavi of Iran
Should we dig deeper into the history of Iran? There will be fewer pictures there... Islam.
Article by A. Chervonenko Secret materials, No. 22 of 2005.
In the 1880s, a Cossack brigade was created in Persia. Under the leadership of Russian officers who trained and armed the Persian Cossacks, the brigade became the most combat-ready unit of the Persian army with modern artillery and machine gun platoons
FROM IMAM Abul-HASAN TO GRIBOEDOV
It is widely known that Russia became a great power largely thanks to the Cossacks. But it was surprising to learn that the Cossacks stood at the origins of the statehood of modern Iran at the beginning of the 20th century.
Relations between Russia and Persia were not easy.
The first Rus, according to the famous historian of the East, Imam Abul-Hasan Ali-Masudi, appeared in the vast Caspian Sea around 880.
Then there were times when the Cossack ataman Stepan Razin walked through the neighboring properties. His treasures with Persian jewelry have not yet been found. They say that only a few of these treasures have been opened, and over the rest a terrible spell hangs, cast by the ataman.
There was also the Persian campaign of Peter I, which brought Russia lands on the coast of the Caspian Sea.
There was a mission by Griboyedov, as a result of which the Russian diplomat died, torn to pieces by a crowd. However, Zoroastrians have their own opinion on this matter.
Zoroastrianism is an ancient religion that existed in Persia long before the birth of Islam and which is still alive today. So, in Iran there is still a legend that Griboyedov did not die, and the body found did not belong to him at all, but to a completely different person.
The history of the appearance of the Persian Cossacks is as follows.
From the middle of the 19th century, under the influence of neighboring Russia and England, which was trying to strengthen its influence on the Asian continent, a period of modernization of the state structures of Persia began. The army also underwent transformations according to the European model.
The country's leadership understood that only with the help of a well-organized military force it was possible to create a strong centralized state, strengthen the power of the government, create the preconditions for the economic development of the country and ensure the state independence of Persia.
But it turned out that it was not enough to divide the army into separate military units and introduce military regulations that meet European standards. By itself, this charter could not provide the necessary discipline and introduce tactics and strategies adopted in Europe. Therefore, the main task was to create a corps of officers and non-commissioned officers trained in accordance with European practice.
The English military instructors, invited to reorganize the Persian army, were not too keen on raising its combat effectiveness, since in the future this could create difficulties for England’s consolidation in this country. As a result, the military transformations did not produce tangible results.
Then, in 1879, Shah Nasser-ed-din turned to the Russian government with a request to provide assistance in creating a combat-ready military formation capable of actually carrying out the tasks assigned to it.
Lieutenant Colonel of the Russian General Staff Domantovich with Cossack officers created a Persian regular cavalry regiment based on the model of Russian Cossack regiments, which soon grew to the size of a brigade. The command of His Majesty the Shah's Persian Cossack brigade was commanded by a Russian officer who reported directly to the Shah...
During the First World War, the brigade was deployed into a division, numbering more than 10,000 people, its units were located in all major cities of the country.
Under the leadership of Russian officers who trained and armed the Persian Cossacks, the brigade became not only the support of the throne, but also the most combat-ready regular formation of the Persian army with modern artillery and machine-gun platoons.
The commander of this brigade, Colonel Lyakhov, was in fact the commander of the country's Armed Forces, and the Supreme Commander-in-Chief was the Shah himself.
TROUBLES
Reza Khan is successfully moving up the career ladder. He becomes an officer, and in 1916, with the rank of colonel, he heads the Kuzvinsky detachment of the Persian Cossack brigade.Over a quarter of a century of service, Reza Khan absorbed the knowledge of the Russian Cossack military school and became an experienced and knowledgeable military leader...
The end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries was marked for Persia by palace coups, speeches by revolutionary organizations of the Mujahideen, detachments of Fadais and other groups of the population disloyal to the Shah. In 1909, the Iranian parliament - the Majlis - announced the deposition of Mohammed Ali Shah in favor of his 14-year-old son Sultan Ahmed.
The deposed Mohammed Ali was expelled from Persia and lived in Odessa, periodically trying to regain power. In 1911, he even secretly landed on the Caspian coast of Northern Iran at Gomush Tel. But he was defeated and returned to Odessa, from where in 1920 he was forced to leave for Istanbul, fleeing the Bolsheviks. At the end of the First World War, Iran was in complete anarchy. Ahmed Shah from the Qajar dynasty was a weak ruler and could not influence the events taking place in the country.
In 1916, as a counterweight to the Persian Cossacks, the British under the command of General Sykes created detachments of South Persian riflemen modeled on the Indian sepoy units, which, despite all efforts, could not match the Cossacks in combat capabilities. The British were gaining more and more influence in Persia. They controlled the oil fields in the south of the country, and on August 16, 1918, Great Britain, having entered Russian territory, captured Baku, which at that time accounted for about 50% of world oil production.
In 1919, England decides to take control of the entire territory of Persia. The English diplomatic service transfers a multi-thousand-dollar bribe to the government in order to conclude an agreement, as a result of which Persia almost completely turns into an English protectorate.
The signing of this enslaving agreement caused an explosion of indignation in the country and led to the resignation of the Cabinet of Ministers, which was headed by the pro-English-minded Prime Minister Vosug od-Drule.
However, the next government did not last long. Less than a few months had passed before the new Cabinet of Ministers, headed by Moshir od-Dowle, fell under pressure from the British. The reason was the categorical refusal to transfer the Persian Cossack brigade to English officers...
However, the High Council still refused to approve the enslaving agreement with Great Britain. To defend its independence, the Iranian side had only one way out...
TEHRAN SURRENDERED WITHOUT A FIGHT
Reza Shah and the Persian troops.
On February 21, 1921, the Qazvin detachment of the Persian Cossack division under the command of Reza Khan entered Tehran and captured it without a fight. On February 26, a Soviet-Iranian treaty of friendship and cooperation was concluded, in which the RSFSR renounced all funds, capital, concessions and property of Russian institutions in Iran in favor of the Iranian side. At the same time, the cancellation of the agreement with Great Britain was announced.
During such a difficult period in the history of his country, Reza Khan became Minister of War. He was a brave and decisive man. Attempts were made on his life several times, but were unsuccessful.
Having become the commander-in-chief, Reza Khan in four years suppressed the resistance of the khans rebellious to the government in several regions of the country and, having occupied the capital of Giland - Rasht, liquidated the Giland Republic.
Reza Khan understood that the main support in his political struggle against the opponents of the planned transformations - the clergy and aristocracy - was only the army, which he created on the basis of the Persian Cossack Brigade.
No expense was spared for the maintenance and equipment of the brigade. After the modernization, it became the strongest in the region. The connection status has reached an all-time high.
Having installed his most loyal officers as provincial governors, Reza Khan established control over the entire country, and on October 31, 1925, the Qajar dynasty was overthrown.
The newly elected Constituent Assembly on December 12, 1925 declared Reza Khan the crown shah of Iran, considering that a monarchical form of government was necessary for Persia. Reza Khan Mirpanj ascended the throne, adopting the surname Pahlavi for his dynasty.
PERSIAN PETER THE GREAT
The transformations that Reza Shah Pahlavi carried out in his country are often compared in importance to the reforms of Peter the Great in Russia. The Shah of Persia, just like the Russian emperor, sought to transform his state into a strong, economically developed power with an independent and independent foreign policy.Reza Shah, who served for many years in the Cossack brigade, communicated with Russian officers, was on friendly terms with some, and knew the Russian language perfectly. His military and state views and beliefs were formed largely under the influence of the Russian military school.
Reza Shah always treated Russia and Russians with great respect, understanding that stable relations with our country are a guarantee of Iran's stability.
However, his relationship with the Soviet authorities did not work out. Reza Shah openly did not like the Bolsheviks - just as his friends and colleagues in the Cossack division - Russian officers - did not like them. He was always wary of the machinations of Red Moscow and the spread of the influence of communist ideas to the north of Iran. Moreover, in the early 1920s, Soviet-Iranian relations were very difficult.
In addition, England did not abandon attempts to subjugate not only the whole of Iran, but also to gain control over the Baku oil fields.
As a far-sighted politician, Reza Shah did not break off relations with the colonial empires, but significantly curtailed the privileges that foreign companies had previously had on Iranian territory.
In 1927, judicial reform was carried out in the country. The structure of the French judiciary was taken as a basis. The powers of the Sharia courts were significantly reduced, and only cases related to religion and family remained under their jurisdiction.
From 1925 to 1928, new legislation was passed in Persia.
In 1930, a national bank was established. The gold real became the national currency, replacing the silver tap.
The Trans-Iranian Railway was built entirely from Iranian funds from the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf. Industrial enterprises were revived.
During the reign of Reza Shah Pahlavi, the number of primary and secondary schools increased several times, and in 1934 the University of Tehran was created.
In 1935, in official diplomatic correspondence, the name of the country “Persia” was replaced by the name “Iran” by government decision.
LAST PAGES
Inside the country, Reza Shah had to brutally suppress the resistance that the local clergy offered to the reforms. In foreign policy, he also tried to eliminate outside pressure.To weaken the influence of Great Britain and Soviet Russia, Reza Shah established a special relationship with Hitler's Germany in the late 1930s, signing secret agreements to supply the Reich with wheat, cotton, wool and other strategically important agricultural goods.
In return, Germany pledged to supply railway equipment to Iran, as well as provide its specialists and advisers. Notes from the Soviet government were ignored. Iran was overrun by agents of the German intelligence services.
In August 1941, the head of the Abwehr, Admiral Canaris, secretly arrived in Tehran to prepare a coup d'etat. But the coup failed.
On August 25, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill made a proposal to “open communications from the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf.” The Soviet government, based on the 1921 treaty, sent troops into Northern Iran. At the same time, British troops entered the southern provinces.
On September 16, 1941, Reza Shah Pahlavi, who ignored the Allied decision to expel diplomatic missions from the countries of the fascist coalition, was forced to abdicate the throne in favor of his eldest son, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.
Reza Shah himself was taken on a ship of the Royal Navy of Great Britain to the island of Mauritius, located off the eastern coast of Madagascar. Here he was under guard until the spring of 1942, after which, already seriously ill, he received permission to move to the South African city of Johannesburg, where he died on July 26, 1944.
There were persistent rumors of poisoning in Iran. Everyone knew that Reza Shah had excellent health, so they hardly believed in an unexpected illness. His remains were transported to Iran, embalmed and placed in a special tomb, and the Majlis awarded him the title “Great” in 1949... However, a legend is still alive that contradicts the official version. Allegedly, a double was sent into exile on the island of Mauritius, and the ex-shah died peacefully of old age on the coast of the Caspian Sea while reading poetry from Ferdowsi, whom he loved very much.
Another legend has been preserved associated with the name of Reza Shah Pahlavi. Allegedly observing Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill during the Tehran Conference of 1943, he uttered the following prophetic words: “These are powerful rulers now. But the time will come, and one of them will die like a dog, the second will die easily and suddenly, and the third will die in peace and wealth, but deprived of power...”
Shahinshah Aryawat Muhammad Reza Pahlavi.
The Pahlavi dynasty lasted until 1979, when the clergy came to power in Iran.
Reza's son, the last Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, took his father's embalmed body from the tomb and flew first to France and then to Cairo. Here he died on July 27, 1980, at the age of 61, and was buried with his father in the Rifai Mosque, next to members of the Egyptian royal family.
The grandson of Reza the Cossack, also Reza Pahlavi, named after his famous grandfather, is a military pilot and now lives in the USA.
