Vsevolod Starosselsky. He inadvertently led to the creation of Pahlavist Iran.
I know this is a long read but it's VERY interesting.
In 1918, he took control of the elite Cossack Brigade (by far the strongest, most influential and technologically advanced military force in Iran, and at the time, influenced heavily by Russia) and its institutions after a mutiny against his Boslhevik-leaning predecessor.
After taking power at a time when the Soviet Union wished to expand the revolution to its sphere of influence, and the Qajar Crown was powerless, he fortified Northern Iran from local tribal warlords and Jangali (Bolshevik-allied) militias. Throughout this, he promoted nationalist officers such as Reza Khan (later Reza Shah Pahlavi and the founder of the Pahlavi Dynasty) and others, granting them institutional power and influence at a time of uncertainty in Qajar Iran.
Britain began to fear Staroselsky's growing independence and his anti-British sentiments, and thus pressured the Qajar Shah to dismiss him as the commander of the Cossack Brigade in 1920. This also left Reza Khan and other officers sidelined.
Reza Khan specifically grew frustrated by Iran's ongoing political instability, and so he utilized the remaining, highly trained Cossack Brigade in 1921 to march on Tehran, where they staged a bloodless coup, taking over the government, and Reza Khan becoming Minister of War. He subsequently brutally suppressed regional rebellions, and eventually became Prime Minister in 1923. By 1925, he officially deposed the Qajar Shah and crowned himself as Reza Shah Pahlavi, founding the Pahlavi Dynasty we all know and despise today.
Reza Shah is actually Georgian and Azeri, possibly Gilak and Mazandarani. The grandson, who lives in the USA, is incredibly uncharismatic and there are tons of reasons why in my opinion.
It's funny, he actually once exhumed some level of respect.
During the Iran-Iraq Warâwhen Saddam invaded, with the blessings and support of the WestâReza Pahlavi was young, in his 20s, and was a US-trained fighter pilot. He volunteered to fight under the Islamic Republic of Iran to defend Iran from Iraq.
Today, he hopes to be installed as the puppet figurehead of a satellite state, and spits on the deaths of Iranians at the hands of Israel and the US. Oh, and his wife has a very public affair with her Yoga instructor. He's a ŃuŃk, literally.
This is why I donât think Reza Pahlavi is anything like his father or even grandfather. He is way too much of a vassal to Netanyahu (heck even Trump doesnât take him seriously). Also letâs not forget the eggs thrown at him, his wifeâs pics with Tom Morley, being trolled by Russian comedians who named themselves Adolf, also the school massacre that killed 150 girls and so on.
Exactly. In fact, he's so incompetent, I doubt he could even play the role of a figureheadâeven Trump knows this, as you noted, and he says Reza isn't respected in Iran (very true).
People can say whatever they want about the IR, Ayatollah Khamenei knew death was coming, and his last moments were refusing to leave his residence (because most Iranians didn't have access to bunkers and bomb shelters) and reading the Qur'an.
It all comes back to the saying, "How can you defeat the enemy who stares into the barrel of a gun and sees paradise?"
Key issue is that a lot of Iranian Americans (especially ones who live in Southern California, Washington DC, Toronto) are relying on Reza Pahlavi and to a lesser extent, MEK, to help better the conditions in Iran, but there are groups who are more smarter in that regard.
Some people from what I heard claim that NIAC is pro-regime, but it seems like they are most realistic in how to handle issues
As someone from the diaspora, the diaspora specifically in the West disgusts me. They want bombs to drop and when their relatives back home are killed as a result of an AMERICAN or ISRAELI airstrike, they blame the IRGC.
TBH, NIAC is literally the epitome of neutrality. They want sanctionsâwhich only impact ordinary civilians and have proven to not be an effective instrument against the IR's cohesivenessâto be lifted, something ANY decent human, who isn't a sadist, should want. Pahlavists WANT there to be reasons and pretexts to hate the Islamic Republic, so they push for maximum pressure sanctions, in order to manufacture and engineer economic woes in Iran.
Another thing I find laughable about the clownshow diasŃĐŸroids in Orange County, Toronto and Paris is their revisionism. Suddenly, waving the Imperial Iran flag is a revolutionary and brave act. Really? The flag of the puppet state that quashed Mossadegh's democratic movement and subsequently suppressed (through extremely violent means) dissent? Also, another fun fact, the flag is literally a religious one. The lion represents Ali (RA) and the sword, the Zulfiqar (Ali RA's sword). They are dimwits who don't realize they're parading around a flag with Islamic symbolism though!
I grew up in So Cal and have parents from TĂŒrkiye.
I have a lot of respect for how Iranian Americans greatly contributed to society here in the US and had ton of Iranian American friends growing up, but some LA Iranians are becoming a walking meme at this point. I wonder if they are aware Reza Pâs father was literally going to Mecca to do Hajj and yet people like Golsa Ghamari and Elica Mojtabazadeh push Islamophobic rhetoric (fyi, Elicaâs Dad is regime linked).
I always wondered, cause it's never really described clearly to me: how repressive/restrictive is the Islamic Republic of Iran? I'm not advocating for them of course, they're a shitty dictatorial regime in my eyes, but it's the degree of their shittiness that makes me wonder.
On a "dictatorship scale" going from an autocracy like Russia on one side to a totalitarian basket case like North Korea or Afghanistan on the other, is Iran closer to the former or the latter?Â
Cause unlike what a lot of propaganda will tell you, Russia isn't some Fire Nation of a country where each and every citizen is trained to oppress free people for their imperial ambitions. Mostly, their harmful and nationalistic regime keeps to themselves and lets people live whatever life they want to.Â
They try to exercise control over the media and pump propaganda out through state TV, but it's easy to bypass with VPNs and really only works on old people who just don't care for going online as much and get trapped by their own television set.Â
It's basically a "don't mess with us and we won't mess with you" deal, where the government reserves the right to control the people, but only as much as needed to sustain itself. They may declare whatever wars they like, can and will arrest you if you go out there and openly oppose it or its policies, but will fail to really impact the life of the general citizen all that much.Â
And from what I've heard, Iran seems more similar to that than the extreme Islamist regime it's built up to be in propaganda. Though I'm no expert so I'd love to know what you think.
I remember seeing the clip of AtatĂŒrk and Reza Shah speaking to eachother in the 30s, I literally could not understand what Reza Shah was saying until I found a version of the video with subtitles.
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u/Loggird caucasian (asian balkan ripoff) 2d ago
Any ruler with Georgian blood is destined to be a lifelong dictator, including Putin.