Tudeh Party of Iran

The Tudeh Party of Iran (Party of the Masses of Iran) is the oldest communist party in Iran, founded on 29 September 1941 by a group of Marxist intellectuals released from prison after the Allied invasion of Iran. Under Iraj Eskandari's early leadership, the party grew into Iran's largest political organization by the mid-1940s, with some 25,000 members and 400,000 affiliated trade unionists. The party was banned in 1949 after an assassination attempt on Mohammad Reza Shah and driven fully underground after the 1953 coup. Following the 1979 revolution, the Tudeh initially supported Khomeini's government under the leadership of Nureddin Kianouri, who advocated alliance with the Islamic Republic against imperialism. This strategy proved catastrophic: in 1983 the regime arrested the entire party leadership, tortured members into televised confessions, and executed an estimated 163 cadres. The party's chief ideologue Ehsan Tabari died in prison. Surviving leaders fled to Western Europe, where the party continues to operate in exile, publishing its newspaper Nameh-ye Mardom.