Ja'far Pishevari

{{Infobox officeholder

| name = Ja'far Pishevari

| image = Pishavari.png

| imagesize = 200px

| office = President of Azerbaijan People's Government

| term_start = 2 November 1945

| term_end = 15 November 1946

| office2 = Member-elect of the Parliament of Iran

| term2 = Admission refused on 13 July 1944

| constituency2 = Tabriz

| office3 = Interior Minister of the Persian Socialist Soviet Republic

| term3 = 1921

| birth_name = Jafar Javadzadeh{{cite journal|title=The Iranian Communist Movement under Reza Shah|journal=Middle Eastern Studies|volume=26|number=4|year=1990|pages=506–513|publisher=Taylor & Francis|first=M. Reza|last=Ghods|doi=10.1080/00263209008700833|jstor=4283395}}{{subscription required}}

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1892|8|26}}

| birth_place = Zaviyeh-ye Sadat, Khalkhal, Sublime State of Persia

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1947|6|11|1892|8|26}}

| death_place = Baku, Azerbaijan SSR, Soviet Union

| death_cause = Car crash

| party = Azerbaijani Democratic Party

| citizenship = Iran
Soviet Union{{citation|title=East of the Iron Curtain|first=William O.|last=Lucas|publisher=Ziff-Davis Publishing Company|year=1946|page=263}}

| otherparty = {{plainlist|

Russian Social Democratic Labour Party
Communist Party {{small|(1920–1921)}}}}

}}

Sayyed Ja'far Pishevari ({{langx|fa|سید جعفر پیشه‌وری}}; {{langx|az|Seyid Cəfər Pişəvəri}}; {{langx|ru|Сеид Джафар Пишевари}}; 26 August 1892 – 11 June 1947) was an Iranian Azerbaijani communistIran in the 21st Century: Politics, Economics & Conflict, page 51, Homa Katouzian, Hossein Shahidi, Routledge politician who most-notably founded and led the Azerbaijani Democratic Party, the founding and ruling party of the Azerbaijan People's Government.

Life

He was born in Khalkhal in Ardabil province, Iran. He had lived in the Caucasus in the early 20th century and was introduced to Marxism during this period. He was a member of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party.

He was a founding member of the Communist Party of Iran (not to be confused with the Tudeh Party), established in 1920, in Rasht. He became a journalist and communist activist in the 1920s.

In 1921, Pishevari served the Soviets as minister of the interior in the Persian Socialist Soviet Republic.{{citation|title=Winston Churchill: Resolution, Defiance, Magnanimity, Good Will|publisher=University of Missouri Press|date=1996|isbn=9780826210364|editor=R. Crosby Kemper III|page=22}}

He was arrested and imprisoned during nine years in the late 1930s and early 1940s by the government of Reza Shah Pahlavi for his communist ideas and activities. He was released from prison after Reza Shah was deposed by the Allies in 1941. Pishevari was the Tudeh Party of Iran candidate for the Majlis and was elected, but was denied entry{{cite book|title=Labor unions and autocracy in Iran|last=Ladjevardi|first=Habib|page=[https://archive.org/details/laborunionsautoc0000ladj/page/105 110]|year=1985|publisher=Syracuse University Press|isbn=978-0-8156-2343-4|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/laborunionsautoc0000ladj/page/110}} by the rest of deputies. Of the 100 votes cast, his credentials were rejected 47–50.{{cite book|last1=Atabaki|first1=Touraj|title=Azerbaijan: Ethnicity and the Struggle for Power in Iran|date=2000|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=9781860645549|page=74}}

He then established the Azerbaijani Democratic Party with manifest material and organizational support from the USSR.

Political career

The Soviet Union founded the communist Azerbaijan People's Government in November 1945 during their occupation of Northern Iran, making Pishevari its leader. It seems however that the strong man of this government was Mohammed Biriya, Minister of Propaganda and head of secret police trained by the NKVD. His government's actions, including organizing and arming local militias, disarming of regular Iranian military and police forces, setting up an independent judiciary based on the Soviet legal system, nationalising banks,{{Cite book|title=1946. The Making of the Modern World|last=Sebestyen|first=Victor|publisher=Pan Macmillan|year=2014|isbn=978-0230758001}} levying taxes, land reform without ratification of the Majlis, using Azerbaijani as the official language and banning the usage of Persian{{Citation needed|reason=Need source on ban of Persian language|date=November 2016}}, and setting up an alternative curriculum and educational system, were viewed with deep suspicion by the central government and other Iranians.

Following an agreement reached between the governments of Iran and the USSR under intense American pressure, who viewed Pishevari's government as a not-too-subtle scheme by the USSR to partition Iran, the Soviets removed their protection. Iranian armed forces, kept away from the provinces of Azerbaijan and Kurdistan by the Red Army presence since 1942, entered these provinces in November 1946. Pishevari's self-proclaimed government collapsed quickly, as many of the people welcomed the central government's troops. By December 1946, both Azerbaijan and Kurdistan were evacuated by the Soviet forces and the Iranian government re-established control over the USSR-occupied territories. It appeared as if Pishevari's government was becoming very unpopular, especially in larger cities where the merchants feared communism.

After the collapse of this short-lived republic, he fled to Azerbaijan SSR and died in a car crash in Baku in 1947.

Legacy

His legacy is a matter of heated debate today. While many Iranians consider him as either a Soviet stooge or a traitor, he is considered a national hero for Azeri nationalists or a socialist revolutionary by the Iranian Left. He had the support of Joseph Stalin and the USSR in setting up his government. There is also no doubt that USSR indeed wanted to annex several provinces in northern Iran.{{Cite web |url=http://legacy.wilsoncenter.org/va2/index.cfm?topic_id=1409&fuseaction=home.browse&sort=Collection&item=1945-46%20Iranian%20Crisis |title=CWIHP Virtual Archive : Collection : 1945-46 Iranian Crisis |access-date=8 December 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111103065508/http://legacy.wilsoncenter.org/va2/index.cfm?topic_id=1409&fuseaction=home.browse&sort=collection&item=1945%2D46%20Iranian%20Crisis |archive-date=3 November 2011 |url-status=dead }}

References

External links

[https://web.archive.org/web/20111103065508/http://legacy.wilsoncenter.org/va2/index.cfm?topic_id=1409&fuseaction=home.browse&sort=collection&item=1945%2D46%20Iranian%20Crisis 1945-46 Iranian Crisis] Cold War International History Project, Retrieved 2008-05-22
[http://www.rozanehmagazine.com/NoveDec05/Pic44-pishevari.jpg photograph], Retrieved 2008-05-22

Category:People from Khalkhal, Iran

Category:1890s births

Category:1947 deaths

Category:Road incident deaths in Azerbaijan

Category:Road incident deaths in the Soviet Union

Category:Azerbaijani Democratic Party politicians

Category:Azerbaijani communists

Category:Soviet Azerbaijani people

Category:Iranian emigrants to the Soviet Union

Category:Azerbaijani people of Iranian descent

Category:Iranian revolutionaries

Category:Iranian communists