Artem Arabadzhyan

Иран от революции к революции (история в лицах).

Еditor: Kuzmin Sergius, Mamedova Nina, K. Mixajlov

Москва, 2018, 159 p.

The book is a collection of biographies of several Iranian political figures, who were active between the two Iranian revolutions of the twentieth century — the Constitutional revolution of 1905–1911 and the Islamic revolution of 1978–1979: Seid Khasan Taghizade, Zoka ul-Molka Forumi, Abdul Hossein Khan Teymurtash, Ali Dashti, Haj Ali Razmarа and Amir Abbas Hoveida. Their personal and political lives, ups and downs, are described and analyzed in the context of the most important events in Iran’s history, which they created with their own hands. These politicians’ activities had a significant impact on social, political, cultural and economic modernization, and spurred building relations with the major Powers. The author analyzes and assesses these statesmen’s actions and decisions not from the modern perspective, but as their contemporary, based on the value system and specific features of that time. The author compares a number of events in Iranian history with several aspects of the history of Russia and concludes that the two countries have some common traits in certain processes of the socio-political development. To date, the global processes lead to a geopolitical convergence between Iran and Russia, unprecedented in the history of both countries. The current study can help to understand Iran’s political tradition and culture, as in this country politics is a function of the personality. The analysis is conducted referring to a large number of sources, including archival materials and reports from the Shah’s Secret Police, and may be of interest to professional orientalists, students of Oriental and historical faculties, and readers interested in the history of the Middle East.