The propaganda war in Iran among the former allies, 1945–1949: The Soviet perspective as seen through Soviet documents

Abstract

This article gives an interesting picture of how the Soviets viewed the propaganda war in Iran during the second half of the 1940s. It is mainly based on documents from the USSR's Ministry of Interior, the use of which is considered an innovation in the existing literature on the subject. Most of the attention of the Soviet sources discussed concerns the propaganda war, which began in 1943 between the three Allied powers that had invaded Iran during WWII, taking on the character of a combined struggle when the competition for Iranian oil was woven into the mix. To a large extent, this continued well into the years after WWII when, toward its end, it became even more intense. The main promoter of pro‐Soviet propaganda was the Tudeh party, and it was very successful in promoting the Soviet agenda in Iran, at least until the middle of 1946, mainly at the expense of British interests. In the remaining years until the end of the 1940s, the USA began to prevail in the struggle, and this was quite clear to all, including the Soviets, who admit to this openly in their situational assessment from the beginning of 1950.