Khalil Maleki
Encyclopedia
Khalil Maleki was an Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

ian political figure, socialist and intellectual.

During the early 1940s, Maleki had been one of 53 left-wing intellectuals who had been imprisoned by Reza Shah
Reza Shah
Rezā Shāh, also known as Rezā Shāh Pahlavi and Rezā Shāh Kabir , , was the Shah of the Imperial State of Iran from December 15, 1925, until he was forced to abdicate by the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran on September 16, 1941.In 1925, Reza Shah overthrew Ahmad Shah Qajar, the last Shah of the Qajar...

. After his release, he had been one of the original founders of the Tudeh Party (i.e. party of the masses), a communist and pro-USSR organization that desired to transform Iran into a socialist state modeled on that of the Soviet Union. The group played a significant role in organizing labor unrest and pushing for improved wages and living conditions for the working class of Iran, particularly those working in the oil fields of Khuzestan (then under the control of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company or AIOC). But the party was widely believed to be taking its orders from Soviet leader Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...

 and because of this, many Iranians regarded them as traitors. In time, Maleki came to believe that the Tudeh Party was a proxy force of the USSR and for this reason he broke off from the group and began to denounce them. Along with Dr. Mozzafar Baghai
Mozzafar Baghai
Dr. Mozzafar Baghai is known best as an Iranian political figure of the 1940s and 50s. He rose to prominence during the national struggle against British control of Iran's oil industry...

, he helped to create the Toilers Party of Iran, an organization ostensibily dedicated to establishing socialism and democracy in Iran, but which was also very anti-communist. In contrast to the Tudeh Party, Maleki argued that Iran should be independent of both the West (i.e. Great Britain) and East (Soviet Union). However in 1952, Maleki broke with Baghai over the latter's decision to turn against the government of Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh, who was at this time the prime minister and leader of Iran. Premier Mossadegh had led the movement to nationalize the oil industry (bringing it under the control of the National Iranian Oil Company
National Iranian Oil Company
The National Iranian Oil Company , a government-owned corporation under the direction of the Ministry of Petroleum of Iran, is an oil and natural gas producer and distributor headquartered in Tehran. It was established in 1948...

 or NIOC) in 1951. Since that time, he had taken measures to democratize Iran and bring about modest reforms in administrative areas, in the military and in the conduct of elections. However, Baghai argued that Mossadegh was showing excessive tolerance towards the communists and that his policies were too collectivistic in nature. He then split off from the National Front of Iran (an umbrella group of parties who all supported Prime Minister Mossadegh). Because of this, the Toilers Party split into two factions, with one side joining with Baghai in opposing Mossadegh and the other joining with Khalil Maleki in his support for Mossadegh's policies. This latter group became known as the Third Force and it was the dominant left-wing element in the National Front.

In Aug. 19 1953, the pro-Shah elements in the Iranian military replaced Mossadegh with an autocratic monarchy led by the reigning king, Mohammad Reza Shah. Khalil Maleki, along with other nationalists, strongly opposed the new, despotic and pro-West regime and he continued his political activity throughout the 1950s and 1960s. But in the early 1960s, during the formation of the Second National Front, he was prohibited from joining that group due to the strong resistance he encountered from Shapour Bakhtiar
Shapour Bakhtiar
Shapour Bakhtiar was an Iranian political scientist, writer and the last Prime Minister of Iran under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi...

and Mohammad Ali Khonji. Nevertheless, he joined with the Third National Front and remained politically active until his death in 1969.

External links

Article about Khalil Maleki on IranianNationalFront

Sources

  • Siavoshi, Sussan, Liberal Nationalism in Iran: The Failure of a Movement, Westview Press, March 1990.
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