Chapter 4 — Reza Shah and his downfall

After centuries of misrule by its former rulers and the ravages of the war waged by foreign belligerents on its soil from 1914 to 1919, Iran in 1921 was prostrate, ruined, and on the verge of disintegration. The last of the shahs of the Qājār dynasty, Aḥmad Shah, was young and incompetent, and the cabinet was weak and corrupt. Patriotic and nationalist elements had long been outraged at the domination of Iran by foreign powers, especially Great Britain and Russia, both of which had strong commercial and strategic interest in the country. This situation led Reza Khan to decide on an attempt at putting an end to the chaos by taking over power and forming a strong government, bolstered by an effective and disciplined military force.

On February 21, 1921, he occupied Tehrān at the head of 1,200 men. A young journalist, Sayyid Zia al-Din Tabatabaʾi, became prime minister, while Reza Khan took command of all the military forces and was appointed minister of war a few weeks after. His progress toward supreme power was extraordinarily rapid. Of a forbidding appearance, he talked very little and never revealed his intentions. Displaying great political talent against his opponents, he divided and weakened them. He also understood that to reach his ultimate objective he had to have complete control over a military force and that that required money.

Able to levy some taxes, he built up the army with the proceeds and then used the army to collect more taxes, until finally he had gained control over the entire country. As war minister, he was the real power behind several prime ministers in succession until 1923, when he became prime minister himself. His foreign policy, which had consisted essentially of playing the Soviet Union off against Great Britain, failed when those two powers joined in 1941 to fight the Germans. To supply the Soviet forces with war material through Iran, the two allies jointly occupied the country in August 1941. Source Britanica.com

It is the responsibility of unbiased scholarly historians to write in detail about the conditions in Iran prior to Reza Shah’s coup d’état, and all that he accomplished until his fall. Here I will briefly report what I saw as an eyewitness. Amongst his accomplishments: He dismantled the feudal system and brought all the cities and provinces under the rule of central government – built a railway system across the country with limited and primitive resources of that time without borrowing money from abroad – developed a real Iranian army – organized the judicial and economic ministries-abolished consular judgment. revoked the right of capitulation – revised Iran’s agreements with foreign governments based on mutual rights and respect – sent thousands of students to Europe to acquire new sciences and technologies – changed the prevalent menswear to European style –pushed for participation of women in social life. – and many other actions….

Dr. Ali Akbar Siassi, Memoirs

Amongst the criticisms of Reza Shah are his autocratic dictatorship. Nobody was free to speak or vote on governmental matters. Therefore, the intellectuals and even members of “Iran Javan” even though Reza Shah almost completely carried out all aspects of our programs, were still dissatisfied. However, neither the intellectuals nor the people of Iran had anything to do with his downfall.

The same elements that twenty years before had a role in bringing him to power and welcomed him, twenty years later kicked him out.
Here I will briefly explain:
It was during World War II. when the war was at its height and Hitler’s armies occupied much of Russia and were in fact close to Iran’s border.

Iranians, who for more than a century had suffered from England and Russia’s competition in their country, always wished that a third country would appear to neutralize the harmful effects of those two. They were in favor of Germany’s victory and thought that was going to happen. Reza Shah also shared this belief.

Dr. Ali Akbar Siassi, Memoirs

His Imperial Majesty – Reza Shah Pahlavi – Shahanshah of Iran – With the Best Wishes – Berlin, 12 March 1936 – Adolf Hitler

One day Abolhasan Ebtehaj, Mostafa Fatteh and I were gathered at Dr. Mosharaf Nafisi’s house and were talking about the daily affairs. Fatteh said: “Let’s see what Radio London has to say.” In those days, few people owned a radio and Dr. Nafisi was one of them. We got close to the radio, whose sound was very weak, to carefully listen. After some preliminaries Radio London started criticizing Reza Shah that he is an authoritarian dictator putting Iranian citizens under pressure taking away their freedom…Mostafa Fatteh suddenly screamed: “My friends! Reza Shah has been overthrown.” We replied: “What is this you are telling us?” He responded: “This that London speaks bad of him means that he will be overthrown. Now it is up to us to form our future government.” Then each of them selected a ministry and I was chosen for the Ministry of Education. The entire time I was silent and said nothing. A few days later we got news that England through its representatives has asked Reza Shah to expel the German specialists and other German workers that were employed in Iran. Reza Shah payed no attention to this request and did not give the order. Therefore, the British ordered its army to invade Iran from the south. Iranian soldiers were ordered to meet them with resistance and for an obscure reason after suffering some casualties retreated. The British forced the King to resign (Shahrivar 1319(1941) Then they exiled him to one of their colonies. Some years later, Reza Shah died in Johannesburg, South Africa. Dr. Ali Akbar Siassi, Memoir

Source: Qatar digital library

When Reza Shah saw that he had to resign, he requested from Mohammad Ali Foroughi (Zaka al-Molk) to become the Prime Minister and to help arrange for his son, Mohammad Reza, to become heir to the throne. Although Foroughi had been treated unkindly by the King, he accepted this serious responsibility with the sagacity and perspicacity that he possessed. He arranged Reza Shah’s resignation, with Mohammad Reza as the heir to the throne and promptly started working to form his government.

Of the people at Dr. Mosharaf Nafisi’s house who chose governmental positions for themselves, he only invited two of them. One of them was Dr. Mosharaf Nafisi for the Treasury and the other was me for the Ministry of Education.I had known Foroughi for a long time. When I was a student at Siassi School, Foroughi was the school Principal and the History teacher.

When I returned from my first European trip (1915), from time to time I visited him and paid my respect. And he received me warmly with open arms. After returning from my second European trip (1931) our meetings became more friendly and our discussions turned scientific and philosophical. Several times he accepted my invitations to “Iran Javan” where he enlightened the audience with his scholarly talks. With this background, when he became Prime Minister, I was the first person he invited to work with him. But regretfully I did not accept his offer.

He was not expecting this and asked me for the reason. At first, I made several excuses: Family problems, having to complete two books, which takes up all my time after teaching…He cut me off and with a bitter smile said: “These are all excuses: tell me the truth.” Then I honestly told him:

“I don’t want the first steps I take into politics to be while the country is being trampled by the boots of foreign troops and we need permission from them to do anything, amongst people this will give one a bad reputation.“