The May 1945 strike at the British oil installations in Kermanshah

The first step in Soviet post-WWII anti-British policy in Iran through the Tudeh

Bibliographic Data

ID21551250
AuthorsSoli Shahvar (0000-0002-3647-4668, University of Haifa, corresponding author)
Year2026
Volume64
Issue1
Pages1-13
Publication date2026-07-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueIran (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0578-6967 • E-ISSN: 2396-9202
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/05786967.2026.2662128
OpenAlexW7167066217
LanguageEN
References cited9

The age-old Russian/Soviet–British rivalry for dominance in the global geopolitical game has often been played out in Iranian space. This article explores the rivalry in question through analysis of documents from the Soviet Foreign Ministry found in the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (Rossiyskiy Gosudarstvennyy Arkhiv Sotsio-Politicheskoy Istorii; RGASPI) in Moscow. Until recently, these documents were not accessible to Western researchers. The fascinating picture described in this article shows a unique period of time which immediately followed after these two powers, together with the USA, cooperated successfully against the common enemy, Nazi Germany, during WWII. Once the Nazis had been defeated, the Soviets returned to their old struggle against the British, this time aided by their main proxy in Iran – the Tudeh Party. The latter aimed to harm the British and their interests in Iranian oil by leading a series of strikes at British oil facilities, beginning with Kermanshah (May 1945) and moving to Agha-Jari (May 1946) and Abadan (summer 1946). This was part of an undeclared plan in which the Tudeh-led strike in the Kermanshah oil facilities was the first step in Soviet post-WWII blows to the British in Iran

Government (linguistics) · Oil supply · Petroleum industry · Islamic Studies and History · Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts · World Wars: History, Literature, and Impact

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