Iranians History on This Day

Reza Shah resigned

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    On 16 September 1941 (25 Shahrivar 1320), when the Russian and British forces were nearing Tehran, Mohammad Ali Foroughi, the then prime minister, together with Ali Soheili, the Foreign Minister of his cabinet, rushed to visit the Ambassadors of England and Russia and informed them that, as requested by these two governments, Reza Shah has resigned and has left Tehran for Isfahan. His wife and children had gone to Isfahan beforehand and only Reza shah had stayed in Tehran.
    Most probably, in this visit, the agreement of the two governments of Russia and England for assigning Mohammad Reza as the king of Iran was notified to Foroughi, because after this visit Foroughi directly went to Baharestan and informed the parliament members of the resignation of Reza Shah and the succeeding of Mohammad Reza as king of Iran. Previously, it was planned that after the resignation of Reza Shah, the occupiers would have another arrangement for Iran and our country would be governed by a temporary council and subsequently the type of government would be determined. Some of the 2nd world war historians have written that since London authorities, especially Churchill, were worried that after termination of the government of the council (the proposed temporary council to rule over Iran) Stalin would bring communists to power in Iran, and on the other hand, after studying the characteristics of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, they found him to have an
     obedient character and interested in sports (more than politics), therefore, insisted on his immediate nomination as the king.
    On that day, after Foroughi informed the Parliament about resignation of Reza Shah and his departure from Tehran, those members who were not on Reza Shah’s side (or at the hint of the British Embassy) made strong speeches against him and warned Foroughi to make an immediate list of the crown jewels to make sure that Reza Shah has not taken part of it with him! It was decided that the Parliament goes into an extra session to hear the oath to be taken by Mohammad Reza as the King.
    Incidentally, the oath towards the constitutional law by Louis the 16th, King of France, was taken on 16 September 1791 and both kings were ousted by two revolutions with a gap of 188 years.
    By studying memory diaries, documents and scripts it seems that the main reason for the agreement of the two governments, especially England, with succession of Mohammad Reza as king was that they thought him to be of a weak and obedient character, and lacking the ambitions of his father and would not take the ruling power from the hands of the ‘favoured statesmen’!
    Though he was brought to power with the support of England, in the lat 5-6 years of his reign, in order to free himself from the British bonds, Reza Shah made friendship with Germany, who was talking about Aryan race correlation, and also with the nationalist Italy, and signed many agreements with them, and was planning to join the group of Germany and its allies, make a military attack on Caucasia and put and end to the British rule in the Persian Gulf area, and. . . Reza Shah was not aware that unless he gets rid of the suspicious and rotten statesmen he will not achieve his goal. These same statesmen were the cause of the military occupation of Iran and the change of the country’s leader, and thus turned back the hands of the clock in Iran.
    Upon signing of the peace agreement between Russia and Berlin, Reza Shah approached Russia and signed several agreements with Moscow. Reza Shah’s intention was to keep away Russia from any plot of the British against Iran. Reza Shah’s successor also followed his way, to a large extent, from the political point of view; worked with ‘certain’ statesmen, and in his last years of reign wanted to reduce dictatorship over him and go towards independence, but met the same fate as his father.
    Arrests, expropriations, removals from office, and hurried appointments of Reza Shah in the course of his reign, especially in the second decade of his tenure, did not give any result but increasing his enemies. In spite of this, because Reza Shah had risen from the common people he knew their problems and weaknesses, and there should not be any doubt about his patriotism. He made hard efforts to modernize Iran and strived for its progress and development. In his time, Iran sent many students, every year, to Europe for studies, who upon return, would mainly get the job of teaching, while the right step would have been to entrust them with administration of the country’s organizations, and the top management posts would be taken from the “Dowleh” and “Saltaneh” groups, and those who were tied to foreign powers, and . .
    The biggest personal weakness of Reza Shah was his interest in collecting material, which finally did not stay for him.

     Translation by Rowshan Lohrasbpour

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