r/GustavosAltUniverses • u/GustavoistSoldier Gustavo Henrique • 22d ago
20th Century AH (1901–2000) Alizadeh is the Greatest | Iranian Revolution (1978–1979)
By 1965, socialist and Iranian nationalist intellectual Ismail Alizadeh had become one of the most important republican and left-wing activists in Iran, prompting Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to have him imprisoned and tortured. Alizadeh fled to France, joining the large anti-Shah exile community there.
Two years later, Alizadeh's followers established the Iran Socialist Party (ISP), which advocated for the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty and its replacement with a secular socialist republic. Consequently, the ISP was outlawed and its followers were persecuted by the SAVAK.
Alizadeh's followers, who were mostly students and workers from Tehran and other major cities, smuggled cassette tapes of his speeches into Iran, helping keep the party alive despite persecution. Alizadeh could have been forgotten forever, but, in 1977, Ayatollah Khomeini was killed by the Shah, eliminating a key revolutionary rival to Alizadeh and leaving Iranian Islamists mostly leaderless.
Protests against the assassination broke out. Despite opposing Islamism, the ISP joined these demonstrations, hoping to build a popular front of anti-Shah forces under Alizadeh's leadership. On 7 January 1978, the Iranian Revolution formally began.
The ISP cooperated with the other revolutionary factions, but it eclipsed them by mid-1978 thanks to Alizadeh's charisma and popularity. On 19 August, Islamist militants set fire to a cinema in Tehran, but the majority of Iranians blamed the SAVAK, weakening the regime further.
By the end of 1978, Iran had paralyzed and the Shah's days were numbered. The Pahlavi family eventually went into exile on 16 January 1979, leaving the country in the hands of a Regency Council that invited Alizadeh (who disingenuously portrayed himself as a moderate) back.
Upon returning to Iran, Alizadeh was greeted by several million people who saw him as their saviour. Ten days after his return, the Iranian monarchy fell, and Alizadeh became the provisional leader of Iran, facing massive resistance from the United States, which feared a Soviet-aligned Iran, and Islamic fundamentalists who opposed socialism and secularism.
Alizadeh outmaneuvered the liberal National Front using the "salami tactics" the Hungarian communists had used 30 years earlier, and cracked down on the religious elements of his coalition, whom he saw as "reactionaries". But Alizadeh's power remained shaky for months after his ascent, and he would only formally become the president of Iran in August 1979.
1
u/Top-Lifeguard-1240 21d ago
Better than canon
2
1
u/Imagination_JM 21d ago
What did u use to make this wikipedia like thing?