Was Mosaddegh an Agent of Soviet Influence?

Abbas Suri and Benjamin Suri take up the question their title asks directly: whether Mohammad Mosaddegh is better understood through Soviet and later Arab alignment than as the liberal nationalist of the standard account. Four passages carry the argument.

Their central move is to divide him in two. The young Mosaddegh, on their reading, was an internationalist who spoke in parliament in support of the Soviet Union. The older Mosaddegh turned toward the Arab world, and they place nationalism and pan-Islamism at the center of his ambitions, arguing he worked to bring Iran into that bloc. As evidence of the standing that turn earned him they offer two details: the Arabic honorific Za'im al-Sharq, leader of the East, which they say Arab leftists and nationalists used for him, and a street in Cairo they say Gamal Abdel Nasser named after him. Neither detail is as settled as the conversation presents it, and the notes below say where each one stands.

The sharpest claim concerns the assassination of Prime Minister Haj Ali Razmara in March 1951. The speakers state that Mosaddegh was involved in the idea of the killing, in freeing the man who carried it out, and in payments made to him afterward, and they present this as documented rather than speculative, pointing to an earlier program of their own. The record is divided. The assassination itself is attributed to Fada'iyan-e Islam acting on its own, and no evidence supports Mosaddegh's involvement in planning it. The payments are real: the Majlis bill that pardoned the assassin in August 1952 also obliged the state to provide for him for life.

The closing passage sets Stalin's death in March 1953 against Mosaddegh's removal five and a half months later, reading the Soviet succession struggle that followed as part of why the fall came when it did.

9:44

National Identity

The speakers say Arab leftists claimed Mosaddegh as their own, calling him leader of the East.

9:44 to 11:22 Watch in the full lecture

Abbas Suri and Benjamin Suri say the Arab left claimed Mosaddegh as its own, calling him Za'im al-Sharq, leader of the East, and meaning it as praise. Farsi sources report the usage, though no Arabic source from the period has been found applying it to him. They read his second term as a turn toward pan-Arab alliance and away from the Iranian nationalism he is remembered for.

Read the transcript

they were actively working to make Palestine the central issue in the Arab world. You know, even before many different figures in the Arab world, Mossadegh was called "Za'im al-Sharq," meaning the leader of the East, in the Arab world. That is, someone whose significant activities, significant leftist activities, he carried out. I want to strongly emphasize this and put it in quotes so that full attention is paid to it.

The leftists of the Arab world, many of the great figures they cite, when a country was about to be formed, a consensus was reached between Egypt and Syria, a larger country came into being, all of them referred to Mossadegh, they called Mossadegh their "Za'im al-Sharq," meaning the great leader or guide of the East.

That is, they considered him the leader of their left. For that very reason, you simply cannot look at Mohammad Mossadegh as simply a liberal. I'm talking about something different. I'll get to that. For that very reason we will discuss this, but the fact is that in his first period, Mossadegh leaned toward the Soviets, was fiercely delivering passionate speeches in parliament in support of the Soviets, fiery speeches in support of the Soviets, and in his second period he shifted strongly toward the Arab world. This is a point that absolutely needs to be discussed much more when it comes to Mossadegh.

16:02

The Iranian Condition

The speakers read a young Mosaddegh who looked to Moscow and an older one who looked to Cairo.

16:02 to 17:39 Watch in the full lecture

Abbas Suri and Benjamin Suri describe two Mosaddeghs: the young internationalist who looked to Moscow, and the older pan-Islamist working to pull Iran into Cairo's orbit. As evidence they point to a Cairo street they say Nasser named after him, though most detailed Egyptian accounts date that naming to 1979 under Sadat.

Read the transcript

And I see a very strong continuity between 1953 and 1979, in all of it. For Mohammad Mosaddegh, it was extremely important that you naturally, as someone who came after 1979, see Mohammad Mosaddegh's struggle against the West as important, and friendship with Arabs and the Palestinian cause were important to him, just as it is undeniable that this is exactly what happened, that what you are actually seeing is that the Palestinian cause and friendship with Arabs were not unimportant to Mohammad Mosaddegh.

The compass of Mohammad Mosaddegh was precisely this issue. Meaning exactly everything you can list under nationalism and pan-Islamism, those were his list, the greatest goal and aspiration and ambition of Mohammad Mosaddegh. Yes, look, this is exactly what I want to say. I have genuinely never seen anyone examine this dimension of Mohammad Mosaddegh.

The young Mohammad Mosaddegh was an internationalist, under Soviet leadership. The old Mohammad Mosaddegh was an Islamic and Arab pan-Islamist, and he was trying to bring Iran into that club. Did you know that to this day in the capital of Egypt there is a street named Mohammad Mosaddegh? Abdel Nasser named that street after him, and the Arabs called him exactly by the title "Za'im al-Sharq," meaning the leader of the East. He named it that, and in practice many leftists in the Arab world loved him very much, in a sense.

20:11

The Iranian Condition

The speakers press a contested claim of Mosaddegh's direct hand in Razmara's 1951 assassination.

20:11 to 20:59 Watch in the full lecture

The standard record credits the 1951 assassination of Prime Minister Razmara to Fada'iyan-e Islam acting alone, and puts Mosaddegh's confirmed role at the Majlis pardon of the assassin the following year. Abbas Suri and Benjamin Suri argue the evidence shows a more direct hand. It is their argument, not settled history.

Read the transcript

In practice, when we talk about this, we are saying that Mohammad Mosaddegh was directly involved in the assassination of Haj Ali Razmara. We have made a program on this before, examining this connection with documents and evidence. He was involved both in the idea of the assassination and in freeing the person who carried out the assassination of Razmara, playing a direct role in parliament.

And beyond that, after the person who assassinated Razmara was given a stipend, he received payments until the end for this matter. All of this is in the historical record. There is practically nothing here that we need to speculate about. We have examined all of this. The link will appear at the top of the screen. Mohammad

22:57

The Iranian Condition

The speakers argue the gap between Stalin's death and Mosaddegh's fall was not incidental.

22:57 to 24:38 Watch in the full lecture

Stalin died in March 1953. Five and a half months later Mosaddegh was out of power. The Soviet leadership spent roughly the next two years consumed by the succession fight that ended with Khrushchev on top. Abbas Suri and Benjamin Suri argue the timing is not incidental.

Read the transcript

March 5, 1953, Joseph Stalin dies. Which is the 14th of Esfand, 1331. The gap between Stalin's death and the moment Mosaddegh is removed from power is about five months. Meaning, what history never told us was this: the American intelligence agency declared that it had been active in Tehran. And during that period, the territorial integrity of all of Iran mattered in terms of countering the Soviets, because it was an ally, for many reasons, given that the Arab world was heading in a direction where Iran could be a major barrier against Soviet activity and the leftists of the Arab world.

As soon as Joseph Stalin dies, a power struggle begins. For about two to three years, or you could say roughly two years and a bit, it takes until Khrushchev seizes power in the Soviet Union and effectively eliminates his rivals. So for those two years, the Soviet Union is consumed by its own internal power struggles.

Exactly, exactly during this window when the Soviet Union is caught up in its own internal problems, trying to consolidate power under a single person, Mosaddegh falls in Iran. Not one

Books and Thinkers Referenced

Abbas Suri and Benjamin Suri name the following figures across this conversation. No books are named aloud, so this is a list of figures rather than works. Descriptions are ours, offered as a starting point for readers new to them.

Mohammad Mosaddegh: Prime minister of Iran from April 1951 to August 1953, remembered for nationalizing the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and removed by a coup organized by the American CIA and Britain's SIS. The conversation's central claim is that his politics are better read through Soviet and then pan-Arab alignment than through the liberal nationalism he is usually credited with.

Haj Ali Razmara: Army chief of staff and prime minister of Iran from June 1950 until his assassination on 7 March 1951, shot as he entered a mosque in Tehran. He had resisted the immediate nationalization of Iranian oil. The Majlis passed nationalization within weeks of his death, and Mosaddegh became prime minister the following month.

Khalil Tahmasebi: The member of Fada'iyan-e Islam who killed Razmara. The Majlis passed a single article bill pardoning him on 7 August 1952, on the stated ground that Razmara had betrayed the country, and he was released on 15 November 1952 after roughly twenty months in custody. A clause of that same law obliged the government to provide for his livelihood for the rest of his life, so the payments the speakers describe are documented. They were a statutory obligation created by a bill attributed to Shams Ghanatabadi and some thirty deputies, passed and executed during Mosaddegh's premiership, rather than an arrangement of Mosaddegh's own. A contemporary newspaper reported that Tahmasebi went to the prime minister's residence after his release and met him for about an hour. He was arrested again after the 1953 coup and executed in 1955. The speakers go further, saying Mosaddegh was involved in the idea of the assassination itself. That claim is theirs and it is not supported. Its strongest version rests on secondhand allegations made during 1955 interrogations of Fada'iyan-e Islam figures, and Iranian historians including Homa Katouzian argue instead for involvement by the court.

Fada'iyan-e Islam: A Shia militant group founded in the 1940s and responsible for several political assassinations in Iran, including Razmara's. The standard account attributes that killing to the group acting on its own account.

Gamal Abdel Nasser: Leader among the Egyptian officers who took power in July 1952, later prime minister and president. The speakers say he named a Cairo street after Mosaddegh. A Mosaddegh street does exist, in the Dokki district, but the naming is contested: most detailed Egyptian accounts date it to 1979 under Anwar Sadat, replacing a street named for the Pahlavi shah, while BBC Arabic and some Farsi language sources credit Nasser in the 1950s.

Joseph Stalin: Soviet leader from the 1920s until his death on 5 March 1953, five and a half months before Mosaddegh's removal. The speakers read the succession struggle that followed as part of why the fall came when it did.

Nikita Khrushchev: Emerged from that succession struggle as Soviet leader, consolidating power over roughly the following two years. That interval is the window the speakers describe as the Soviet Union being consumed by its own affairs.

Za'im al-Sharq: An Arabic honorific meaning leader of the East, which the speakers say Arab leftists and nationalists used for Mosaddegh. Farsi language sources report the usage, but no Arabic source from the period has been found applying it to him, and the phrase circulates as a generic honorific for other regional figures.

Was Mosaddegh an Agent of Soviet Influence?

The speakers say Arab leftists claimed Mosaddegh as their own, calling him leader of the East.

The speakers read a young Mosaddegh who looked to Moscow and an older one who looked to Cairo.

The speakers press a contested claim of Mosaddegh's direct hand in Razmara's 1951 assassination.

The speakers argue the gap between Stalin's death and Mosaddegh's fall was not incidental.

Books and Thinkers Referenced

About this page