The Tudeh Party of Iran was dismantled as a result of its confirmed espionage for the Soviet Union. In an operation known as Amir al-Momenin (as), the Intelligence Unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) banned the party and brought its activities to an end.

The Tudeh Party of Iran was founded on October 7, 1941, following the occupation of parts of Iranian territory by the Soviet army.⁠[1] It was established in Tehran with the participation of more than 80 political activists affiliated with the Soviet Union.⁠[2] Through active recruitment and by opening offices in various cities across the country,⁠[3] nine of the party’s candidates won seats in the 14th National Consultative Assembly⁠[4] and formed what became known as the “Tudeh Faction”. The positions this faction took on issues such as granting oil concessions in northern Iran to the Soviet Union, the Democrat crisis in Azerbaijan and Kurdistan, and the potential separation of northern Iran brought the party’s political stance under intense public scrutiny and generated widespread resentment toward it as a foreign-aligned organization.⁠[5]

The capture of Berlin, the capital of Germany, by Soviet forces on May 2, 1945, followed by the end of World War II a week later, encouraged opportunists who believed these developments signaled the beginning of the Tudeh Party’s rise to power in Iran. As a result, party membership nationwide reached approximately 10,000 that year.⁠[6] However, the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Iran and the defeat of the Democrat movement in Azerbaijan on December 12, 1946, sharply reduced party membership to about 1,500.⁠[7] The flight of party leaders to the Soviet Union and the first major internal split, known as the “Reformist Split”, were among the other consequences of this defeat.⁠[8]

By early 1949, after an unsuccessful assassination attempt on Muhammad-Reza Pahlavi, which was attributed to the Tudeh Party, the party was declared illegal. From then until August 19, 1953, and the reassertion of Pahlavi rule, the party continued to operate underground, relying on its affiliated organizations. After the August 19 coup and the consolidation of the Shah–U.S. alliance and dominance over the country, the party’s organizational structure collapsed. With the discovery of the party’s military network on August 12, 1954, the political life of the Tudeh Party effectively came to an end until the victory of the Islamic Revolution.⁠[9]

After the Islamic Revolution, starting in March 1979, the Tudeh Party reopened a public office on 16 Azar Street in Tehran. In the meantime, Noureddin Kianouri entered the country using a forged passport and took charge of the office as the party’s First Secretary.⁠[10]

Initially, the party outwardly showed significant alignment with the Islamic Revolution,⁠[11] but over time—especially after Iraq’s attack on Iran—its fundamental differences with the Revolution became increasingly clear.

From early 1980 until the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq War, the Tudeh Party, based on information received from its sources in Iraq, including the Iraqi Communist Party, warned in its newspaper Nameh-ye Mardom about Iraq’s military and security movements along Iran’s western and southern borders and the likelihood of an Iraqi military attack.⁠[12]

In the early months of the war, the Tudeh Party, influenced by the Soviet Union’s apparent neutrality, condemned Iraq’s invasion of Iran.⁠[13] Moreover, in a call issued on December 21, 1980, the party urged its members to join the war under the command of the IRGC.⁠[14] In October 1982, the party published a book claiming that 90 of its members had been killed in the war, a claim that was never proven.⁠[15]

One of the party’s main objectives at the start of the war was to defend the Soviet Union’s actions and refute accusations against it. The Tudeh Party claimed that Iraq’s aggression against Iran was purely about border disputes and that the United States and its allies were exploiting the situation to pursue their anti-Iranian policies. According to the party, Iraq had misused weapons previously supplied by the Soviet Union, which had allegedly been provided only for defensive purposes, not for attacking neighboring countries.⁠[16] At the same time, some party leaders claimed they were trying, through correspondence with Soviet officials, to prevent further Soviet arms sales to Iraq.⁠[17]

Another move by the Tudeh Party in the early months of the war was the creation of the “Iran Society for Peace”, which claimed to promote anti-war ideas and remained active until 1982. The group published pamphlets and booklets, but due to the revolutionary atmosphere of the country, public political awareness, and widespread enthusiasm for participating in the warfronts, it failed to gain traction. One key reason for its failure was the party’s disregard for the Soviet Union’s role in the Iran-Iraq War.⁠[18]

After the liberation of Khorramshahr, the Tudeh Party, which believed the war should end, called back members who it claimed were fighting at the frontlines and urged them not to return to the battlefields.⁠[19] During this period, in line with the Soviet Union’s shift from claimed neutrality to open support for Iraq, the party moved toward confrontation with the Islamic Republic. With the continuation of the war and mounting social and economic difficulties, the Tudeh Party assumed that public dissatisfaction would grow and pave the way for a widespread crisis and social unrest. Based on Marxist analysis, the party viewed the motivations behind the Islamic Revolution solely in economic terms and failed to recognize the role of Islam and popular faith. On the other hand, the Tudeh Party had little real connection with the general public. Most of its members and supporters were dissatisfied, Western-oriented individuals. The party was also cautious about taking an explicit stance on the war, and instead, through carefully worded Q&A pamphlets, subtly promoted the idea that the Iran-Iraq War should be brought to an end.⁠[20]

In June 1982, following the defection of Vladimir Kuzichkin, a senior KGB officer stationed at the Soviet embassy in Tehran, to the West,⁠[21] Iranian presidential security advisers met with him in Pakistan.⁠[22] Based on information obtained from this meeting, the Intelligence Unit of the IRGC arrested the leaders of the Tudeh Party on February 5, 1983.⁠[23] The second phase of arrests, known as Operation Amir al-Momenin (as), took place on the night of Imam Ali’s birthday, April 27, 1983, based on the information uncovered during the first phase.⁠[24] After the arrests, Imam Khomeini (ra), in a message, for the first time referred to the IRGC intelligence forces as the “Unknown Soldiers of Imam Mahdi (as)”.⁠[25]

During these operations, Captain Bahram Afzali, commander of the Iranian Army Navy and a member of the Tudeh Party, was also arrested. Court proceedings revealed that, during the sensitive period of the Iran-Iraq War, the Tudeh Party had passed highly classified information to the Soviet Union, including details on the Army Naval Forces, the military situation in the Persian Gulf, Iraqi attacks on Iranian shipping, Iran’s missile program, and counterintelligence bulletins from the Army’s Second Directorate.⁠[26]

Military personnel affiliated with the Tudeh Party within Iran’s armed forces were providing strategic military intelligence to the Soviet Union.⁠[27]

Finally, with an announcement by the Tehran Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office on May 5, 1983, four decades of Tudeh Party activity in Iran came to an end. Between 1983 and 1989, the remaining party members abroad not only attempted to revive the party,⁠[28] but also sought to overthrow the Islamic Republic by forming coalitions such as the “United People’s Front”, which included the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization, the Kurdistan Democratic Party, various factions of the Fadaian guerrillas, Rah-e Kargar, as well as liberal and nationalist groups. These efforts, however, ultimately failed.⁠[29]

Today, some surviving members of the Tudeh Party of Iran engage in scattered political activities across various countries around the world.