Word: tudeh
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Moscow-Tehran relations have, in fact, long been characterized by mutual and mistrustful exploitation. The Soviets were far from enthusiastic in their support for Khomeini in the months just before his 1979 overthrow of the Shah. The reason, as a Tudeh member now in jail puts it, was that "Moscow perceived the clergy as incorrigible reactionaries." Those fears were well founded. Right-wing clergymen routinely reviled the Soviets as godless Communists, while Khomeini opposed the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. But Moscow wooed Tehran by offering assistance against the nettlesome Mujahedin guerrillas. In response, the mullahs invited KGB agents to Iran...
...peculiarly bloodless demolition of a largely toothless group. On TV broadcasts videotaped in jail, glum leaders of Iran's Tudeh Communist Party confessed, one by one, to being Soviet spies. Haggard and morose, First Secretary Nureddin Kianuri conceded that since its inception in 1941, the party had been "an instrument of espionage and treason," and added that he had been spying for Moscow since 1945. After seven colleagues elaborated on the details of their treachery, Ali Amou'i, a ranking Central Committee member, warned Iranian youths not to follow his example and calmly declared the dissolution...
Those words seemed more important than the gaudy actions that preceded them. Despite its fanatical loyalty to Moscow, the widely reviled and politically ineffective Tudeh Party (membership: between 2,000 and 3,000) seemed to be nothing more than a symbolic victim. Many analysts noted that Khomeini thrives on crisis, habitually seeking to dramatize his strength and distract his restive populace by pummeling some scapegoat. Past offenders have included the U.S., which Khomeimi frequently calls the great Satan," the Mujahedin-e Khalq guerrillas, who oppose the regime, and the army of neighboring Iraq. Late last year, Khomeini added the Soviet...
...Islamic Guards and the clergy. In an eight-point directive issued Dec. 15, he ordered an end to unlawful arrests and urged respect for human rights, private property and individual privacy. Last week Khomeini took yet another popular step: he had the leadership of the small pro-Moscow Tudeh (Communist) Party arrested on charges of treason and espionage for the Soviet Union. Khomeini, said an Iranian clergyman, seemed to be telling his people, "As long as you don't oppose me, do whatever pleases...
From the beginning, the Soviets have moved with extreme caution in Iran. They ordered the local Tudeh (Communist) Party to infiltrate organizations of clerical power but to avoid any actions that could arouse official suspicion. Meanwhile, Moscow provided Iran with increasing amounts of military and economic aid, though always by proxy. Indeed, to hedge their bets, the Soviets continued giving token support to Iraq, with which they have had a friendship treaty since 1960 and whose army they have largely supplied...