Abbas Amanat

And he created one for himself with Russian officers, actually.

So the Russian officers served in Iran from Iran

1880s up to the revolution of 1917, the collapse of the Zarist regime.

So many revolutions.

So many revolutions.

And Reza Shah was an officer in that, Reza Khan was an officer in that force.

And he created a new monarchy for reasons that we need not to go through.

And it's called the Pahlavi regime.

Pahlavi regime was a modernizing regime.

okay, that brought, in effect, fulfilled many of the ambitions of the Constitution, many of the aspirations of the constitutional revolution.

Better communication, secular education, centralized states, centralized army, better contact with the outside world,

greater urbanization, that's what a modern state is all about.

And in that regard, in a sense, for the first 20 years up to the Second World War, was successful.

Despite, and more significant of all, it managed to keep the European powers, which was always interfering in the local affairs of Iran, in an arm length.

So they were there.

in an arm length, but they were also respecting the power of the state, power of the Pahlavi state.

During the Second World War, the same phenomenon as earlier interference led to the occupation of Iran by the allied forces, the British from the south, the Russians from the north.

the Red Army.

They took over Iran.

And of course, they said- The New World War.