Uhammad Reza Shah was born in October 1919 in Tehran into the family of a not very wealthy Cossack officer, which he was then. He was in his seventh year when Muhammad suddenly became crown prince and his life changed completely. If before that the boy lived with his mother, brothers and sisters, then after the coronation he was separated from them. The father decided to give his son what he called a "basic education" and sent him to an elementary military school specially created for this purpose. In addition to what was taught at this school, where all students without exception lived separately from their families, the crown prince, at the behest of his father, intensively studied foreign languages. He later recalled: "There were 21 people in my class. Were they selected with the necessary care and caution from among the sons of statesmen and army officers? The students of this school wore military uniforms. The curriculum was very difficult. My childhood years naturally passed in a military environment. Studying During this period, my father hired a French governess to supervise my development and teach me French. clear pronunciation?
After graduating from elementary military school, Reza Shah sent his son to Switzerland and placed him in one of the private schools in Lausanne. Here he spent four years, and his life was in everything similar to that of other students. The only exception was that, in addition to the general program for all, a specially appointed Persian teacher gave the prince lessons in Persian literature. In 1936, having received a diploma, Muhammad Reza returned to his homeland and, at the request of the Shah, entered the officer's school, which he graduated in 1938 with the rank of lieutenant. After that, his service in the Shahinshah army began as an inspector. Twice a day he visited military units and got acquainted with the organization of military service. Then he got married.
Muhammad Reza's personal life was complex and dramatic. The first time he married in 1939 and did it at the behest of his father, who decided to establish a marriage union between the dynasties of Iran and Egypt and chose the Egyptian princess Fouzi, the daughter of King Faud and the elder sister of the heir to the throne Farouk, as his wife. Muhammad Reza himself did not feel affection for his wife, although she had a very interesting appearance. After becoming shah, he gave her a divorce in June 1945. After that, the Shah led a bachelor life for several years. However, the divorce of the ruler worried the widowed Shahin and close relatives of Muhammad Reza, who tried to find him a suitable match. In 1950, his sister Shams met Sorea Esfidiari in Paris, whose mother was German, and whose father came from a noble Bakhtiar family. Since Sorey liked the shah himself, in February 1951 a marriage alliance was concluded between them. In the future, Muhammad Reza experienced the most tender feelings for his wife, but since she could not bear him an heir, he had to give her a divorce at the request of the state council. On December 21, 1959, the Shah entered into a third marriage, marrying Farah Diba (a friend of his daughter Shahnaz), who came from a wealthy and respectable Tabriz family. The new queen soon gave birth to two sons: princes Reza and Ali-Reza.
On September 16, 1941, after abdication, Muhammad Reza ascended the throne. This happened at a difficult time for Iran, when the country actually lost its sovereignty and was occupied by the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition. "During the entire period of the occupation of Iran, - later recalled Muhammad Reza Shah, - sadness and sorrow did not leave me for a minute, my nights passed in anxiety and insomnia. Under the conditions of foreign occupation, the young shah was unable to continue his father's tough policy. The Mejlis won the right to nominate the prime minister and form a government convenient for him. After that, the shah ceased to play any serious role in determining the most important directions of government policy. The activity of political parties revived in Tehran. Real power was concentrated in the hands of the prime ministers, but as a rule it did not extend beyond the capital. In the national provinces - in Azerbaijan and Kurdistan - a joyful atmosphere of cultural and political freedom reigned. Books and newspapers began to appear in Azerbaijani and Kurdish languages, teaching in native languages was introduced in schools and educational institutions. Strengthened local nationalist parties. At the end of 1945, Azerbaijan and Kurdistan declared autonomy.
However, the weakening of the monarchical power had not only foreign policy reasons. By his nature, Muhammad was far from being such a strong and firm person as his father. His wife Sofei Esfandiyari wrote later: "He was noble and even shy. For example, he could hardly refuse a request. Many of his entourage took advantage of this weakness and wanted to benefit from this property of his." Often, succumbing to persuasion, Muhammad Reza Shah turned a blind eye to how certain persons violated the law, and forgave them. Sometimes he promoted not the most worthy people, fulfilling the requests of his entourage. This weakness of character caused great damage to his authority as a monarch, since cases of various abuses were frequent and information about them became public knowledge. Under his father, this state of affairs was completely unacceptable. The difference between father and son can be seen, among other things, in their hobbies. As you know, he devoted all his time to work without a trace. Muhammad Reza, on the contrary, knew how and loved to relax. In his memoirs, he writes about this: "My passion for sports is well known. I love swimming, tennis, horse riding, hunting, skiing, water skiing, golf, flying and driving racing cars. But sports are not my only hobby. So, I enjoy easy conversations, from playing chess; do I enjoy reading fiction, especially French novels? I am not a musician, but I am passionate about music; listening to it, I feel great pleasure. "
It took Shah more than ten years to fully restore the powers of his power. Already in December 1946, shortly after the withdrawal of Soviet troops, the revolutionary regimes of Azerbaijan and Kurdistan capitulated to the central government. Martial law was introduced here, and arrests began. The repressions in Azerbaijan were especially severe. Thousands of people died, thousands were deported, the ban on the publication of books and newspapers in the Azerbaijani language came into force again.
In the future, the value of the shah gradually increased, although until the mid-1950s. The leading role in political life belonged to the Majlis and the Cabinet of Ministers. Particularly sharp contradictions between the shah and the government arose in 1951-1953, when the well-known politician Muhammad Mossadegh, who gained popularity thanks to the nationalization of the oil industry, was prime minister. At that time, it seemed to many that the monarchy in Iran was living its last days. In the confrontation with Mossadegh, Muhammad Reza behaved very indecisively. He was noticeably shy in front of the prime minister and agreed, at his request, to expel his beloved sister Ashraf and the widowed queen from the country. In the end, entrusting the fight against Mossadegh to General Zahedi, the Shah also left the country.
In August 1953, General Zahedi staged a coup d'état. The civil government was overthrown, Mossadegh and some of his ministers were arrested. Zahedi himself became prime minister. To the credit of Muhammad Reza Shah, it should be noted that he dealt with the defeated enemy quite gently: he commuted his death sentence to three years in prison, after which he allowed Mossadegh to live his life in peace on his estate. The Shah fully appreciated his services to the country and once said to his wife: "I am not an opponent of Mossadegh. If it were not for him, then maybe we still would not be the owners of our oil. There is no need to make a martyr out of him." In October 1955, Muhammad Reza dismissed Zahedi and from that time concentrated all power in his hands. Legislation limiting the Shah's prerogatives was annulled; freedom of speech, assembly - significantly curtailed. In 1957, the security and information organization SAVAK was created - the secret police, which established control over the press and political moods in society. After a short time, SAVAK turned into a formidable body for the fight against all kinds of dissent.
The following years became a period of large-scale changes in all spheres of Iranian society, the main initiator and conductor of which was the Shah himself. By the time of his accession, the village continued to be the most explosive element of Iranian society, primarily because of the dominance of semi-feudal relations in it (most of the land belonged to the landowners, who leased it to the peasants). The reforms of Reza Shah practically did not affect the land issue, so its resolution fell entirely on the shoulders of Muhammad Reza. In May 1961, the shah declared the agrarian reform to be the main task of domestic policy. However, before embarking on it, Muhammad Reza decided to set an example for the landlords by announcing the sale of the shah's and state lands to the peasants. The sale was carried out on favorable terms with a 20% discount and with installment payments for 20-25 years. By 1962, 200,000 hectares of crown land had been sold in this way.
After that, on January 15, 1962, the Shah approved an agrarian law, according to which the bulk of arable land was to pass into the hands of small owners. However, the reforms that began were not limited to the sphere of land relations. In January 1963, Muhammad Reza published the "Six Points of the White Revolution", which was a detailed plan for large-scale reforms. It included: the destruction of the feudal system, land reform, the nationalization of forests and pastures, the privatization of state enterprises with the simultaneous redemption of shares by workers, the introduction of universal suffrage (including for women), the fight against illiteracy. The Shah's program and especially the agrarian reform project caused great excitement in Iranian society. In January 1963 they were approved by a popular referendum.
The essence of the agrarian reform was as follows: the landowners were obliged to sell to the state all possessions exceeding one village (you could keep no more than 500 hectares, but only on the condition that the landowner uses equipment and hired labor to process them). In turn, the state sold the land to the peasants who rented it before (with installment payments of 15 years). In February, in one of his speeches, Muhammad Reza Shah announced that the feudal system would be abolished in Iran within 30 years. And in fact, the agrarian reform significantly changed the Iranian countryside: the large semi-feudal landlord economy was liquidated, the stratum of the middle peasantry grew and strengthened significantly. However, the reform did not lead to an increase in labor productivity and productivity. Even the opposite happened - with the liquidation of landowners' farms, the country began to feel a shortage of grain and meat, and Iran turned from an exporter of agricultural products into its importer. In 1973-1974, that is, ten years after the start of the reform, agricultural productivity remained extremely low and there were no prospects for raising it, in connection with which many economists consider the agrarian policy of Muhammad Reza to be erroneous. Its social consequences also turned out to be negative: as a result of the reform, the traditional mechanisms that allowed the existence of a significant number of the rural poor - landless and landless peasants - were destroyed. In search of a job, these people rushed to the cities, formed here a layer of declassed lumpens always ready for anti-government protests, and brought a lot of trouble to the ruling regime. In Tehran alone, tens of thousands of people lived in tin-covered shacks.
The clergy also perceived the "white revolution" negatively, as they saw in it a number of provisions that undermined the positions of Islam. It was especially intolerant of the agrarian reform and of granting women equal rights with men. On March 21, 1963, the leader of the Shiite clergy, Ayatollah Khomeini, delivered a speech in Qom, which contained sharp criticism of the "white revolution". At his call, mass demonstrations of students began in Qom, who gathered for a mourning ceremony to commemorate the victims of the Shah's regime. They had to use force against them - troops were moved into the city, riots broke out, suppressed with great difficulty. In April 1963, Khomeini published his famous statement entitled: "Love for the Shah is an indulgence in the robbery of the people." In this statement addressed to Reza Shah, Khomeini wrote: "I am ready for my heart to be pierced by the bayonets of your agents, but I will never bow to your unjust demands or bow before your cruelty."
The peak of this year's anti-Shah speeches fell on June, when (10 Muharram according to the Iranian calendar) Ashura is celebrated - the day of memory of the greatest Shiite martyr, the third sinless Imam Husayn, who fell in battle with the Sunnis near the town of Karbala. Religious demonstrations began in Tehran and soon turned into anti-government demonstrations. Khomeini, who by this time had become the recognized leader of the opposition, addressed the faithful with several sharp anti-Shah speeches. Muhammad Reza gave the order to arrest him, which was done. The news of this led to a real uprising. The people from the surrounding cities and villages moved to Tehran, but were stopped by troops who opened fire to kill. Several thousand people died in the clashes. Khomeini was sent abroad.
Against the backdrop of these events, preparations were underway for parliamentary elections. In September 1963, a new Majlis was elected, the majority of which were supporters of the reforms. Having got rid of the most irreconcilable opponents and having an obedient parliament at his disposal, the shah continued the transformation. Simultaneously with the agrarian reform, he began to intensify the industrialization of the country, the funds for which gave huge revenues from the sale of oil. From 1960 to 1972 these incomes increased 8.5 times. In 1973, when the price of "black gold" went up steeply, they increased even more. If in 1970 Iran gained about 1.2 billion dollars from oil trade, then in 1973 - already 4.6 billion dollars, in 1975 - 18.5 billion dollars, and in 1977 - 22.2 billion dollars. From 1974 to 1978 alone, Iran received $108 billion from the sale of oil (during these years, the country had the seventh largest budget in the world).
In the next ten years, many metallurgical, machine-building, petrochemical and other industrial enterprises were built. The industrial potential of the country grew literally before our eyes - the annual rate of economic growth reached 17%. (In terms of economic growth, Iran ranked second in Asia after Japan.) In just ten years, Iran turned from an agrarian state into an industrial one. Private capital has grown significantly, wages of workers and employees have increased. The average standard of living of the population has risen. But this did not mean at all that Iranian society developed harmoniously. As always happens with large-scale transformations, part of the population was disorganized by the breaking of old relationships. It has already been said above that a dangerous consequence of the Shah's reforms was the appearance of a large number of lumpens who flocked to large cities in the hope of earning money. The dissatisfied also included traditional bazaar traders and small artisans who were unable to compete with large stores and the products of growing enterprises, as well as with imports of cheap goods. Their dissatisfaction with the existing state of affairs naturally turned first of all against the Shah, but it went further and resulted in a sharp hostility towards the entire Western civilization, elements of which were forcibly introduced into the traditional structure of Iranian society, destroying and changing it. The clergy supported these sentiments, constantly pointing out that the flow of Western technologies, goods and mores was replacing the original values and traditions of Islam.
The performances of these heterogeneous forces during the period of economic recovery were not of a large-scale nature. The huge and well-organized repressive apparatus of the monarchy coped well with them. Therefore, it seemed that the implementation of the "white revolution" program was not far off. But suddenly, when this was least expected, a severe economic crisis erupted. Moreover, Reza Shah could not blame anyone but himself for him. Having received huge funds in his hands and planning to receive even more in the future, he decided to significantly accelerate the already impressive pace of the country's industrial development - in a short time to put into operation several dozen large enterprises, nuclear power plants and modern highways. Developing the provisions of the "white revolution", he in the mid-1970s. came up with new ideas. He wrote that Iranian society must make a "jump through the centuries" in the lifetime of one generation, "transition from the Middle Ages to the nuclear age", turn the country into the "fifth industrial power of the world", and make a march towards a "great civilization". At the same time, several large-scale ambitious construction projects were launched. Enormous funds were spent on the purchase of industrial equipment and the largest technical reorganization of the army in the history of the country. From 1972 to 1976, inclusive, Iran bought $10 billion worth of American weapons, including 28 hovercraft, more than 1,500 tanks, and 200 Phantom fighter jets. The reconstruction of the naval base of Chahbahar was started, which was to become the largest in the Indian Ocean.
The consequences of these ill-conceived actions proved fatal for the regime. The cash forces of the Iranian economy were unable to digest these colossal infusions. First of all, the flow of goods paralyzed transport. Equipment imported from abroad accumulated in ports and border stations. In mid-1975, some ships waited six months for unloading, and when the goods were on shore, there was nowhere to store them. The energy industry could not meet the greatly increased needs of industry, as a result, many enterprises worked at only half their capacity. Enormous funds were scattered and frozen. The pace of economic development slowed down sharply. The state faced the problem of a shortage of foreign exchange. Purchases of foodstuffs from abroad have decreased. Food prices quickly crept up (they doubled in three years). The financial situation of the people began to deteriorate before our eyes, and as a result of this, the opposition movement sharply intensified. The rigid totalitarian regime established by that time in the country by Muhammad Reza did not allow him to express his dissatisfaction in any legal way. The Shah was completely intolerant of dissent and practically deprived the Iranian society of any freedoms. Therefore, as soon as discontent began to rise in society, it immediately took on the character of a tough confrontation with the authorities.
The spark for the beginning of the revolution was a dirty slanderous article, full of false passages against Khomeini, published on January 7, 1978 in the official newspaper Ettelaat. Outraged supporters of the exiled ayatollah took to the streets. The protests escalated into riots on January 9, during which several seminary students were killed. This was the first explosion followed by a collapse. On the third, seventh and fortieth days of mourning, when the death of recent martyrs was celebrated, unrest broke out in Tabriz, Isfahan, Tehran and other large cities. They were accompanied by fierce clashes with the army and police, during which people died again and again. At the mourning ceremonies dedicated to their memory, more and more thousands of dissatisfied people gathered, gradually drawn into the revolutionary process. Despite the massacres, the punitive authorities were unable to extinguish the blazing flames. Khomeini's impassioned appeals, calling for an end to the "satanic" Shah's regime, supported the general enthusiasm.
It eventually became clear to the ruling Iranian elite that Reza Shah would not be able to retain the throne. The struggle against it united the most diverse political forces, which under other circumstances would never have come forward as a united front. Heeding the persuasion of his supporters, on January 16, 1979, the Shah sat at the helm of his personal plane "Shahin" ("Falcon") and left Iran with his family. These days, Muhammad was already mortally ill with cancer and hardly expected to return. But he hoped to keep the throne at least for his heirs.
However, the monarchy was already doomed. On February 1, 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Tehran from exile. A few days later, a powerful popular uprising broke out in the capital. After several days of bloody fighting, the army capitulated and retreated to the barracks. On February 12, a government appointed by Khomeini came to power. At the end of March, after a national referendum, Iran was proclaimed an Islamic Republic. Muhammad Reza had to come to terms with the fall of his dynasty. He spent the last months of his life in exile in Egypt and died on June 27, 1980 in Cairo.
In the light of recent events on the world stage, it is worth remembering how Iran has lived for the past decade
On January 16, 1979, His Imperial Majesty Mohammed Reza Pahlavi was escorted to Egypt at Mehrabad Airport in Tehran. The 35th and last of the Persian Shahs, who ruled the country for 2627 years, died in exile on July 27, 1980. “Cutting through a window to Europe”, the Shahinshah did not take into account the traditional religious feelings of the Iranian people. Some experts argue that the fall of the monarchy was "missed" by the Western intelligence services, others believe that the reason for the decline of the empire was mystical.
The father of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, Reza Khan, grew up in the Persian Cossack Brigade, the personal guard of the Iranian shahs. Coming from the bottom, he made his way to the top thanks to his practical mind, cunning, will and ruthlessness towards enemies and competitors. In 1921, Reza Khan led the campaign of the Cossacks against Tehran and, having removed Nasser ed Din Shah, who belonged to the Turkic Qajar dynasty, from power, in 1925 proclaimed himself the new Shah of Iran.
Thus, Reza Khan founded a new dynasty under the name Pahlavi. By the way, Pahlavi is the language that was spoken in Iran before the Arab conquest of the country in the 7th century. The desire to return to modern Iran the imperial glory of the era of the legendary Darius and Xerxes was the main plan for the father, and later for the son.
By the way, the dynastic name of Pahlavi was the first symbolic innovation of the new monarch: until that time, the Iranians did not have surnames. The first Iranian ruler from the Pahlavi dynasty introduced a new name for the country - Iran. In 1935, Reza Khan wrote to the League of Nations with a request to use the word Iran (Erān) for the name of his country instead of the term "Persia". The monarch justified the innovation by the fact that inside his country the word Irani is used to refer to what is known in the world as Persia (the term comes from the “land of the Aryans”, “the country of the Aryans”, which goes back to the self-name of the Aryan tribe).
From now on, everyone was ordered to take a surname, wear a European dress, and thousands of young people began to be sent to study abroad. In addition, women were given civil rights and forced to take off their veils. All this caused dissatisfaction among the Shiite clergy, who traditionally enjoyed great influence among the people and, accordingly, fed themselves thanks to this influence. The conflict that flared up, then faded between the throne and Qom (a sacred city for Iranian Shiites, the center of spiritual authorities) largely determined the tragedy of Iranian history in the 20th century.
Reza Khan believed in technological progress and education that would lead Iran to prosperity and greatness. People were interested in the first Pahlavi only as the executors of his grandiose plan.
Prince Mohammed Reza was more gentle and flexible by nature than his father, whom he loved and respected very much, but was also afraid. Some secrecy and self-control in any situations that Shah Mohammed Reza demonstrated throughout his life is the legacy of his difficult childhood.
Reza Khan got entangled in the most complex problems of international relations of the 30s, establishing special relations with Hitler's Germany, in which the Shah saw a support against the British and the Soviet Union. In the end, British and Soviet troops entered Iranian territory, and on September 16, 1941, Reza was forced to abdicate in favor of his 22-year-old son, Mohammed Reza. The former Shah was put on a British ship, which, not heeding his demands to land on the shores of Japan, headed for the island of St. Mauritius. In the spring of 1942, already seriously ill, Reza Pahlavi moved to South Africa, to Johannesburg, where he died on July 26, 1944 at the age of 66. His remains were transported to Iran, and in 1949 the Majlis awarded him the title "Great".
The path to sovereignty
The young Shah Mohammed Reza from the very beginning of his reign was under the strong influence of the allied powers. He was well acquainted with the life of Europe - in 1931-1936 he studied at a college in Switzerland, he liked the European way of life, and in the officer school of Tehran (1936-1938) training was put in a Western manner.
Mohammed Reza in the first years of his reign was hardly noticeable - at that time the role of the Iranian parliament increased. This alignment of forces initially met the plans of the Americans and the British, who feared that Iran would get out of the control of the West.
However, in the second half of the 1940s, when the communist movement grew in the country, and the USSR began to exert increasing influence on Iranian Azerbaijan, the Shah became a more important figure in the political horizon. His popularity grew after the assassination attempt on February 4, 1949, when a terrorist seriously injured the monarch. Martial law was introduced in the country and the activities of subversive organizations were banned. The communist threat was eliminated, Mohammed Reza expanded his powers somewhat, but most power remained in the hands of the Majlis.
Difficult times for the Pahlavi came in 1951-1953, when Mohammed Mossadegh was the country's prime minister. He cut the Shah's budget, confiscated his lands, forbade him to meet with foreign diplomats, and expelled his sister from the country. In 1953, the Prime Minister introduced state ownership of the land and began organizing "collective farms". Finally, Mossadegh held a referendum to dissolve the Majlis (parliament) and take full power into his own hands.
Mosaddegh's government went into open conflict with the West by nationalizing the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, which was making huge profits from the trade in Iranian oil.
In the end, the US decided that Mossadegh had to be stopped. CIA resident C. Roosevelt (grandson of former US President Theodore Roosevelt) helped the opponents of the prime minister organize, and the top generals led the conspiracy. The Shah's court and the higher army officials, who hated the upstart prime minister, decided that their hour had come.
In August 1953, tanks took to the streets of Tehran, and the Shah signed a decree on the resignation of Mossadegh. The recalcitrant Majlis was dispersed. From that moment on, the shah received virtually unlimited, absolute power in his country.
Mohammed Reza Pahlavi was never a traditional tyrant who sought to stay in power at any cost. He had grandiose plans for the complete restructuring of Iranian society, for Iran's "jump" from the Middle Ages to the nuclear age, for turning the country into the "fifth industrial power of the world." Greatly increased revenues from the sale of oil (for 1972-1977 - 90 billion dollars) allowed him to carry out broad reforms, and the whole world started talking about the "white revolution" in Iran.
"White Revolution"
In 1963, Mohammed Reza proclaimed the beginning of the "white revolution of the Shah and the people" - a campaign to modernize life in the country. The education system improved, new technologies were introduced, industrialization and land reform were carried out. The first 10 years of the White Revolution turned Iran into a regional superpower. The standard of living, especially in cities, grew at an incredible pace, thousands of Iranian students studied in Europe and the United States, factories and tens of thousands of square meters of new housing were built in Iran.
Along with economic growth, the country remained calm. Mohammed Reza maintained low food prices, introduced free eight-year education in the country and distributed milk to schoolchildren. New hospitals and residential buildings were built everywhere, the wages of workers and employees rose sharply, unemployment was fought - the world started talking about the Iranian economic miracle. Yet the ground under the feet of the reforming monarch was not entirely firm.
Beginning of sunset
The Shah skillfully maintained an alliance with the United States, while managing not to spoil relations with the USSR. When oil prices soared after the 1973 Arab-Israeli war as a result of the West's Arab oil boycott, Iran's oil industry began to give the country $25 billion a year. In 1971, Shah Reza pompously celebrated the 2500th anniversary of the Persian monarchy and statehood. He began to think about the construction of nuclear power plants in order to save the country's oil and gas wealth for a long time. To outsiders, it seemed that Iran was entering a golden age that would last forever.
At first, the "white revolution" dealt a serious blow to the positions of the left forces and Shiite radicals. However, over time, the situation began to change in their favor. Firstly, the majority of the country's inhabitants continued to live in rural areas, where the successes of modernization were much more modest, and the influence of the clergy was much stronger. In addition, the pace of reform set by the Shah turned out to be too high for many.
Secondly, the economic boom was accompanied by a huge surge of corruption that affected the highest echelons of power and the Shah's family. Finally, the opportunity to criticize the policies of the authorities was severely limited. In many ways, this was facilitated by SAVAK (National Intelligence and Security Organization), created back in the 1950s with the help of specialists from the CIA and MOSSAD.
The main task of the organization was considered to be the preservation of the Pahlavi dynasty on the throne - after the revolutions in Egypt, Iraq and Libya, the Shahinshah was on the alert. The secret police had virtually unlimited powers to arrest, detain and interrogate "suspects". Everything that was of any interest to the authorities was watched and tapped. And not only in Iran - surveillance was carried out, for example, on Iranian students abroad.
Mohammed Reza himself sincerely did not understand why his undertakings were meeting with increasing resistance. He was an unusually responsible ruler, a skilled diplomat and a born administrator. The Shah came to work early, left late, personally read all the papers, tirelessly received statesmen, ambassadors, journalists, and also traveled around the country, opened shipyards, dams, schools and factories, monuments to his father and himself. Shahinshah regularly attended the mosque, and not only out of duty, but because he was a sincere believer. He resorted to violence to fight leftist and Islamic extremists, but he did it reluctantly.
Ayatollah Khomeini
The opposition to the Shah was led by Ayatollah Khomeini, as usual, not without the support of the West. While in exile in France, he broadcast on the waves of the BBC, calling for the overthrow of the Shah. The United States supported the coup d'état, undermining the regime of Mohammed Reza, because he showed independence and "flirted" with the USSR. Tehran, although it was friends with America, was very detached, “at a distance”, and did not recognize it as a dominant state.
At first, the Americans had no idea what Khomeini's true intentions were. They simply supported him, and what he would do next in Iran was of little interest to them. And in 1979, President Carter failed to correctly assess the true intentions of Ayatollah Khomeini, who was striving for power.
On January 16, 1979, Pahlavi left the country, going abroad for treatment - he had long been ill with cancer of the lymphatic system. And on February 1, 1979, Khomeini returned in triumph from Paris to Tehran, met at the airport by crowds of enthusiastic fans. And ten days later, on the morning of February 11, a popular uprising broke out in Tehran, military units one after another went over to the side of the rebels. By the end of the day, power passed to the ayatollah. On April 1, 1979, a national referendum was held in Iran, in which 98.2 percent of citizens voted for the establishment of an Islamic republic in Iran.
And with the fall of the Shah's regime, Iran suddenly became the number one threat to the United States in the Middle East, because everything did not go at all as the Americans had planned.
Khomeini outlawed American and British influence by deporting all Anglo-Saxons from the country. The US State Department (and no one else) did not expect that the person whom they supported in every possible way, broadcast his sermons with their own money, clandestinely threw them into the country, would simply take and immediately slam the doors of Iran in front of their noses.
The mere fact - Khomeini's sermons on the state-run British channel BBC BBC broadcasting to Iran - speaks volumes. It is clear that this is a very serious political tool, and people who carry out exclusively the policy of the Anglo-Saxons get there.
In June 2016, the BBC reported on covert contacts between the US and Ayatollah Khomeini. It told the hitherto unknown story of how Khomeini was able to arrange his return to Iran by convincing the United States of his reverence and friendliness. For two weeks, confidential negotiations took place that ensured Khomeini's safe return to Iran and his meteoric rise to power. As a result, they led to decades of extremely tense relations between Iran and the United States.
Immediately after coming to power, Khomeini liquidated tracking stations along the Soviet border, cut off oil supplies to Israel and South Africa, and severed diplomatic relations with Israel. According to experts, the American intelligence services simply "missed the Islamic revolution."
There is another point of view why the Pahlavi throne fell. Supporters of this theory believe that the curse of Allah has nothing to do with politics and is connected exclusively with the Shah's personal life... They say in the East: you can't betray what is dear. You cannot give up someone you love, even for the sake of a very high goal. And the Higher Power does not forgive betrayal to either a mere mortal or a monarch.
Three wives of Shah Pahlavi
Mohammed Reza Pahlavi spent the rest of his life in exile, living in Egypt, Morocco, the Bahamas and Mexico. The Islamic authorities of Iran demanded his extradition, and former friends shied away like a leper, fearing Khomeini's revenge. Meanwhile, the health of the former monarch deteriorated: his lymphoma worsened and required surgical intervention. The former Shahinshah arrived in the United States for treatment. In response to this, in November 1979, Muslim extremists seized the American embassy in Iran, which caused an acute international crisis. The overthrown Shah left the United States and moved to Panama, and then back to Egypt.
As the Shah of Iran, Reza Pahlavi married three times. The Shah's first wife Fawziya bint Fuad was an Egyptian princess, a woman of incredible beauty. However, the marriage was fragile and unhappy and lasted from 1939 to 1945. After the birth of her daughter Shahnaz Fawzia filed for divorce and moved to Cairo. She remarried in 1949 to a distant relative, Colonel Ismail Hussein Shirin Bey. Fawzia is still in good health. In this marriage of Mohammed Reza and his first wife, Princess Shahnaz Pahlavi was born on October 27, 1940. After the divorce of her parents, the daughter remained at the Shah's court. She has lived in Switzerland since the Iranian Revolution.
In 1951, Mohamed Reza married a second time. Soraya, "the sad-eyed princess", was the only love of his life. They say that the Shah was madly in love with Soraya. She accompanied Reza Pahlavi everywhere and always, capturing her eyes and always admiring her beauty, grace and impeccable manners. Soraya also enjoyed popular recognition and respect. But, despite this, the imperial couple broke up in early 1958 due to Soraya's apparent infertility, which she tried to cure in Switzerland and France. And the monarch needed an heir, and this was a question at the level of the national security problem of the country. Mohammed Reza Pahlavi was desperately looking for a way out of the situation. He proposed to change the constitution of Iran so that after the death of the Shah, the throne would be inherited by his brother. Soraya was against the first option, and the Majlis was against the second. Then the ruling circles put pressure on the shah - changing a wife is much easier than changing the constitution. Bakhtiyari left Iran in February and eventually returned to her parents' home in Cologne.
The legend of the choice of the third wife for the Shah says that a special physical education parade was organized twice in Tehran, in which several hundred young girls took part. The Shah pointed to Farah, who became the new queen. The wedding of a 24-year-old student and 40-year-old Mohammed Reza took place on December 21, 1959.
Farah Diba (born in 1938) comes from an old rich Azerbaijani family. The girl was educated in Tehran and Paris. Iran finally got the heir to the throne, Farah gave birth to four children to the Shah: these are Reza Kir Pahlavi (1960), Farangiz Pahlavi (1963), Ali Reza Pahlavi (1966), Leila Pahlavi (1970).
After the Islamic Revolution of 1979, the ruler and his family took refuge in Egypt, then, at the invitation of King Hassan II, briefly moved to Morocco. A widow, Farah Pahlavi, at the invitation of the American government, settled in the United States. In 2003, her memoirs "My Life with the Shah" became a bestseller.
Children of the disgraced monarch
The third wife gave birth to four children to the shah, but by an evil twist of fate, these heirs no longer had political significance: he was overthrown and left the country with his family. And then misfortunes rained down on his family with a heavy hurricane. Shah Reza Pahlavi died in Cairo from transient cancer on July 27, 1980 and was buried in the Cairo al-Rifai mosque. And in 2001, his beloved daughter Leila, an educated and talented young woman, committed suicide.
Princess Leila Pahlavi, the third daughter of Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, was educated at Brown University in the United States. She was also fond of sculpture and created the famous bust of her august father. Thanks to her beauty, Leila has become one of the best models of the Italian designer Valentino.
However, due to her work in the modeling business, she began to suffer from anorexia, bulimia and depressive disorder. The princess was treated in various clinics in the US and the UK. During one of the trips, Layla took a lethal cocktail of cocaine and drugs prescribed to her by doctors. On June 10, 2001, the 31-year-old lifeless princess was found in a room at the Leonard Hotel in London. Empress Farah buried Princess Leila next to her mother Farideh Ghotbi Diba in the Passy Cemetery in Paris.
And in 2011, Ali Reza Pahlavi followed the example of her sister. The youngest of the Shah's five children graduated from Princeton University with a bachelor's degree. He then enrolled at Columbia University in the Faculty of Humanities, where he received a master's degree. In recent years, the prince studied at Harvard - studied the history of ancient Iran and Persian literature. He never married and avoided the attention of the press.
According to his acquaintances, the young Pahlavi never aspired to a political role: “He was a person of a different type - a gifted musician and a brilliant scientist, a specialist in antiquity, an expert in the Pahlavi language. And an unusually charming person with an extraordinary sense of humor.
The eldest of the three sons of the monarch, Reza, went to America in 1978, before the revolution. Now the Iranians call him the "shahinshah in exile", or the crown prince. Officially, his title sounds like this: the head of the Iranian Imperial House, His Imperial Highness Crown Prince of Iran Reza II Kir Shah Pahlavi, the eldest son of Shahanshah Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi.
"Sun of the Aryans"
In November 2014, REGNUM published material that deserves attention. According to the sources of this news agency in Tehran, rumors have been circulating in this country lately that as one of the scenarios for establishing control over Iran, the US intelligence agencies are actively preparing to restore the monarchy in this country. As the main candidate for the post of the monarch of Iran, they are preparing the eldest son of the late Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi - Reza Kira Pahlavi, who, after the death of his father, is the head of the Pahlavi house and is considered by Iranian monarchists to be the Shahinshah of Iran in exile and "the sun of the Aryans."
Kir Pahlavi was born on October 30, 1960 in Tehran and was the eldest of the children of Mohammed Reza Pahlavi and his third wife. He served in the Shah's Air Force. At the age of 17, he went on a flight training in the United States, where a year later he was caught by a message about the Islamic Revolution that had taken place in his homeland. After graduating from the US Air Force Academy, he entered the political science department at Williams College. Then he graduated from the University of California. Now Kir Pahlavi lives in Maryland with his wife and three daughters.
Over the entire past period, Kir Pahlavi from time to time makes himself known and his plans to return to his homeland. If the revolution succeeds, Cyrus is ready to become the constitutional monarch of Iran: “I am ready to serve in this position. If people choose me, it will be a great honor for me.” At the same time, he hopes for the support of ordinary Iranian people.
Even during the presidency of Ahmadinejad, he repeatedly stated that he had already established contacts with a number of leaders of the Corps and activists who were ready to start protests. In addition, he expects the support of the United States and other states. According to him, the United States should impose tough sanctions on the Iranian authorities, but at the same time categorically refrain from military intervention.
In January 2010, Reza Pahlavi called on the governments of the world to withdraw their diplomatic representatives from Tehran in protest against the violence against opposition demonstrators. At the same time, he turned to the UN with a proposal to investigate the violation of human rights in Iran.
From the statements of Kir Pahlavi to the press, it becomes clear that he is going to achieve regime change in Iran by organizing mass demonstrations in the country. Translated into a more accessible language, this means that Cyrus builds his plans on the basis of the ideas of "color revolutions". This is also confirmed by the fact that in his work he gives preference to television propaganda and the possibilities of social networks, which play an important role in the life of modern Iranian youth. Sources in Iran claim that such propaganda is already bearing fruit, that today the number of supporters of the restoration of the monarchy has increased many times in the country.
It's no secret that the US did everything to "clear" Kir Pahlavi's path to leadership in the "Shah's House". In Iran, many are sure that it was the US intelligence services that "removed" his youngest son, Ali Reza Pahlavi, from his path. On January 4, 2011, police found the body of 44-year-old Ali Reza with a gun in his home in Boston. According to the elder brother of the deceased, Ali Reza, "like millions of young Iranians, he was deeply moved by all the evil that befell his homeland."
The brother of the deceased wrote on his website that Ali Reza "tried for many years to overcome this grief, but, in the end, gave in to it." In addition, relatives of the deceased claimed that "he had to bear the burden of losing his father and sister at a young age."
According to relatives, "After her death, Prince Ali Reza suffered from a deep depression." In Iran, many still do not believe that a young man full of strength, especially 10 years after the death of his sister, decided to commit suicide.
I figured it out a long time ago, it remains - Asia.
Today I will tell you about the last three queens of Iran. I really wanted to name the post - the three queens of Persia, as Iran used to be called. It's very beautiful. But, even in Europe, since 1935 this name is considered obsolete and everyone calls Iran Iran. Well, I will too. So, about the last three ... whether it is worth digging further into the depths of centuries, we will decide together.
Last Shahinshah of Iran Mohammed Reza Pahlavi(1919-1980) (Pahlavi - clan), overthrown in 1979, was married three times.
Queen Fawzia bint Fouad of Egypt
(1921-)
Princess Fawzia, daughter of King Fuad I of Egypt, a beautiful blue-eyed brunette, in 1939 became the first wife of the Shah (then Crown Prince of Iran) Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. The Shah and his first wife Fawziya had a daughter, Shahnaz. The marriage was not successful, the Shah needed an heir.
Queen Fawzia of Iran (approx. 1940)
The same frame, but completely
Shah of Iran Mohammed Reza Pahlavi with his wife Fawzia and their newborn daughter
Shortly after the birth of the couple's only daughter, Queen Fawzia filed for a divorce in Egypt and received it in 1945, after which she moved to Cairo. The daughter stayed with her father. The divorce certificate was not recognized by the Iranian authorities, but subsequently, on November 17, 1948, the divorce was still legalized, after which Fawzieh was returned the title of princess of Egypt and Sudan.
In 1949, Princess Fawzia remarried Colonel Ismail Hussein Shirin Bey (1919-1994), her distant relative and former Minister of the Army and Navy. The couple has two children - Nadia (1950 - 2009) and Hussein Shirin Effendi (born in 1955). Fawzia is now alive and well.
Soraya Asfandiyari Bakhtiari
(1932-2001)
The second wife of Shah Mohammed Reza in 1951 was Soraya Asfandiyari Bakhtiari (of half German descent). She was the daughter of the leader of the Persian diaspora in Europe Khalil Khan Asfandiyari Bakhtiyari and his German wife Eva Karl. Shah Mohammed loved the green-eyed beauty Soraya very much, but unfortunately they had no children.
Soraya Asfandiyari Bakhtiari (1951)
The Shah with his bride Saraya
Soraya Asfandiyari Bakhtiari (1960s)
The Iranian Majlis (parliament) demanded an heir. Mohammed thought about taking a second wife who would bear him a son, and also proposed changing the constitution of Iran so that after his death the throne would be inherited by his brother. Soraya was against the first option, and the Majlis was against the second. In March 1958, after 7 years of childless marriage, Mohammed was forced to divorce. They write that the shah suffered greatly, visited his ex-wife, gave gifts. Persuaded to be the first wife, in the presence of the second, which will give birth to an heir. Soraya refused.
Soraya spent the rest of her life in Europe, drowning in depression, the details of which she outlined in her memoirs - in the 1991 book The Palace of Solitude. Soraya Asfandiyari Bakhtiyari died in Paris at the age of 69, outliving her ex-husband by 20 years. About her life, they say, a beautiful but sad film "Soraya" was shot.
So, the shah divorced the first two wives, because he had no sons from them.
Shah needs a wife who will give birth to a son. A special physical culture parade was organized in Tehran, in which several hundred young girls took part. During the first parade, Mohammed was sad and failed to make his choice. The parade was repeated. Shah chose former basketball player Farah Diba.
Farah Diba
(1938-)
Farah Diba, an Azerbaijani from a noble and wealthy family of Tabriz. Her paternal grandfather at the end of the 19th century was the Iranian ambassador to the Romanov court. Farah was educated in Tehran and Paris. In her school years, she was fond of sports and even was the captain of the basketball team. Fluent in English, French, Farsi and some Azeri. The wedding of 21 year old student Farah and 40th Mohammed Reza Pahlavi took place on December 21, 1959.
Wedding photo (1959)
Queen Farah of Iran (1960)
Queen Farah bore the Shah four children (two sons and two daughters): Reza Kir Pahlavi (1960),
Farangiz Pahlavi (1963), Ali Reza Pahlavi (1966),
Leila Pahlavi (1970).
An heir, and not one, was born, the shah could be calm. On October 26, 1967, when the Shah became Shahinshah, the king of kings, 29-year-old Farah Diba received the title of shahban, which gave her the right to regency. The coronation surpassed the coronation of Napoleon in splendor. Of the three wives of the Shah, she was the only one who was crowned as empress (shahbanu). It was a sensation, at that time women in the East were not given such rights.
After the coronation. On the left is the Shah's daughter from his first marriage, Shahnaz. On the right is Empress (Shahbanu) Farah.
Empress Farah 1972
Shahinshah sacrificed love in vain. The Islamic Revolution of 1979 overthrew the Shahinshah and he and his family were forced to leave the country. Shahinshah died in exile in Cairo the following year.
After the Shah's death, the exiled empress remained in Egypt for nearly two years. A few months after the assassination of President Sadat in October 1981, the Empress and her family left Egypt. President Ronald Reagan informed the Empress that they were ready to receive her in the United States. Farah first settled in Williamstown, Massachusetts, but later bought a house in Greenwich, Connecticut. After the death of her daughter Princess Layla in 2001 (Layla Pahlavi was found dead in a hotel room in London. The cause of death was not precisely determined. The princess suffered from severe depression in her last years) Farah purchased a small house in Potomac, Maryland, near Washington , DC, to be closer to the eldest son and grandchildren. On January 4, 2011, Farah's youngest son, Ali Reza Pahlavi, committed suicide with a gunshot at his home in Boston.
Empress Farah lives and lives in America, next to her eldest son and grandchildren.
Empress Dowager of Iran Farah Pahlavi
Deeper, into the history of Iran, dig? There will be fewer pictures... Islam.
Unequal marriages in royal families can be said to be a modern trend. However, the eastern dynasties try to remain faithful to traditions. One of the few "violators" in the last century was the last Shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, who chose his beloved according to the call of his heart. Was it always like this and why did he manage to build a family nest only on the third attempt?
Mohammed Reza Pahlavi went down in world history not only as the last Shah of Iran, but also as a real hero-lover. The playboy politician had such a rich personal life that it could form the basis of a romance novel or melodrama. The former ruler of Iran was married three times, and each new lady of the heart turned out to be younger and more beautiful than the previous one.
It is interesting that the late shah was especially selective - his passions were so good-looking that they were often mistaken for Hollywood divas. So, for example, Mr. Pahlavi's contemporaries compared his first legal wife, the Egyptian princess Fawzia Fuad, with the main movie star of that time, Vivien Leigh.
Despite the fact that the last Iranian Shah was constantly surrounded by the first beauties and smart girls, until the end of his days he continued to love only one. Who managed to forever capture the heart of one of the most prominent men of the 20th century? In this material, we will recall the most famous episodes from the extensive love biography of Mohammed Reza Pahlavi and tell you why in the late 1950s he had to part with the main woman in his life.
Blue bloods?
Mohammed Reza Pahlavi was born in October 1919 in the family of the Iranian commander Reza Pahlavi, who six years later prepared the overthrow of the ruling dynasty and proclaimed himself the new Shah of Iran. Mohammed Reza came to power relatively early - he was barely 22 years old.
Pahlavi Jr. received an excellent education. He studied at the prestigious boarding school Institut Le Rosey in Switzerland, after which he returned to Iran, where he entered the officer's school. Even then, the stately brunette Mohammed Reza was known as a womanizer. The representative of the Iranian ruling dynasty beautifully looked after the girls he liked.
It is curious that in the mid-thirties of the last century there were rumors that Pahlavi Jr. was not really interested in women at all. Allegedly, while still studying in Switzerland, he became close to a young man named Ernest Perron. Mohammed Reza called Ernest, who never hid his homosexual orientation, a close friend. Moreover, in 1936, the son of the Shah invited a friend to move to the Marble Palace in Tehran. Subsequently, Perron became a personal adviser to Pahlavi Jr. and helped him make important decisions, including those of a state nature.
After the Islamic Revolution, opponents of Mohammed Reza Pahlavi published a book in which they openly accused him of having an intimate relationship with a friend. Allegedly for several decades they were lovers. However, representatives of the politician denied these data. Everything was motivated by the fact that Reza, who opposed sexual minorities, would never have allowed his eldest son, and even the heir to the throne, to transport a homosexual friend to the palace if they had an affair.
What role Ernest Perron actually played in the life of Mohammed Reza Pahlavi is still a mystery. Only one thing is known: the last shah of Iran usually ran to woo the girls he liked almost on the first day of their acquaintance.
Oriental tales
Mohammed Reza did not remain an enviable bachelor for long. In 1937, the Shah decided that it would be beneficial for Iran to "marry" with Egypt. Then he decided to bring his eldest son to the hand-written beauty, the Egyptian princess Fawzia Fuad. The blue-eyed brunette, who at the same time looks like Vivien Leigh and Hedy Lamarr, was only 17 years old when her father began to negotiate about the upcoming union. By that time, Fawzia managed to get an education in Switzerland. She behaved like a typical European girl of that time, and she dressed in Western fashion.
She didn’t want to follow royal traditions and live under the constant supervision of her parents in Fawzia’s palace, so she was not at all against the idea of getting married - it seemed to her the only way out. “Favzia rarely left the walls of the house. If she succeeded, then she was surrounded by a large retinue. While all her peers were having fun, she felt like a prisoner of a high position, ”the Egyptian author Adel Sabit wrote about the princess.
In May 1938, Fawzia Fuad and Mohammed Reza Pahlavi became engaged. Before the engagement, the future husband and wife saw each other only once, but this moment did not bother anyone then. A magnificent wedding was played a year later in Cairo. The next day, the newlyweds went to Tehran, where the daughter-in-law was very warmly welcomed by the satisfied father-in-law. All of Iran walked for a whole week on the occasion of the wedding of Pahlavi Jr. with an Egyptian princess.
In October 1940, the couple had a daughter, whom they named Shahnaz Pahlavi - then everyone finally believed that everything was endured and fell in love. In fact, family life did not bring the couple any pleasure. The mother-in-law did everything to make life difficult for her daughter-in-law, and believed that Fawzia was poisoning the existence of Mohammed Reza. Pahlavi Jr. did not even try to hide from the public that he did not love his lawful wife. The heir to the Iranian throne often appeared in public with other women. In 1941, the Shah had to abdicate in favor of his son, since then the relationship between husband and wife has completely deteriorated. Fawzia lived her life, and Mohammed Reza lived hers.
The young wife of the Shah began to experience depression. She could not get out of bed for days on end and only played cards with her servants. The brunette with a languid look almost did not communicate with her husband - they only exchanged on-duty phrases, and even then in French. At first, the princess enthusiastically studied the Persian language and wanted to impress the faithful with her knowledge, but the fuse quickly dried up.
It all ended with the fact that Fawzia began to get sick: either a cold or malaria. The woman's health became so weak that the doctors insisted that she return to Egypt for a while. “Bony, frighteningly pale… Fawziya’s shoulders became so sharp that she looked more like a dried fish than her former self,” Egyptian author Adel Sabit wrote about Pahlavi Shah’s wife.
The recovery period dragged on for many months, and everyone realized that Fawzia would never return to her husband.
She became active in the social life in Cairo and ignored messages from Mohammed Reza. In 1948, The Times newspaper announced the divorce of the spouses. “Princess Fawzia returned to Egypt to undergo a full course of treatment for malaria. Doctors forbid her to return to Iran. Because of these circumstances, by mutual agreement, their marriage broke up with the Shah, ”the message said.
Because of the dissolution of the marriage with the ruler of Iran, the young and flourishing Fawziya had no time to grieve: by that time, she had already lined up with admirers. Just five months after the divorce, she married a second time, this time successfully. With her husband, Colonel Ismail Shirin, they were separated by death - in 1994, the man died.
Mohammed Reza also did not complain about the lack of personal life. One mistress succeeded another, and it seemed that this vicious circle would not be interrupted in the near future. But soon after the divorce, he met the one with whom he was ready to spend all the years allotted to him.
What a woman!
Mohammed Reza fell in love with the beautiful Soraya Isfandiyari-Bakhtiari - the daughter of the Iranian ambassador to Germany Khalil Isfandiyari and the German Eva Karl - in the truest sense of the word at first sight. An acquaintance of the newly divorced Shah Farukh Zafar Bakhtiari showed him a portrait of his relative, who had just graduated from the Institute of Noble Maidens in Switzerland. The girl in the picture turned out to be a miracle how good, and the ruler of Iran insisted on a personal meeting with her.
The acquaintance ended ... with a marriage proposal. After talking with an intelligent brown-haired woman with amazing green eyes, Mohammed Reza finally capitulated. That same evening, he went to Soraya's father to ask for blessings for the marriage. The girl did not expect such a turn of events, but she was very happy - she also liked the boyfriend.
In October 1950, the couple's engagement was announced. On the occasion of the betrothal, the generous Shah, who by that time was 31 years old, presented the 18-year-old darling with a huge diamond ring of 22.37 carats. The ruler of Iran was incredibly happy and planned to get married as soon as possible. However, conservative locals did not approve of his choice, because the bride looked and thought like a girl from the West. “I was so stupid. I knew nothing about the history of my native country, about legends and religion,” Isfandiyari-Bakhtiari wrote years later in her memoirs.
It was expected that the wedding of Shah Pahlavi and his young bride would take place as early as December 1950. But Soraya became seriously ill, and the doctors even feared that she would not live to see the marriage registration ceremony. Doctors for a long time could not make an accurate diagnosis. At first they said that the girl had the usual poisoning, then there was a version that she had malaria. As a result, the best Iranian doctors convened a council and agreed that the brown-haired woman was suffering from typhoid fever.
For several months, Soraya was bedridden, but in February 1951 she nevertheless became the lawful wife of Mohammed Reza.
The wedding died down in the Marble Palace with an unprecedented scale. The bride, who did not have time to fully recover from a serious illness, shone in a luxurious Christian Dior wedding dress. The creation of the legendary French fashion designer was decorated with diamonds, pearls and weightless marabou feathers. To create an outfit that weighed 20 kilograms, it took more than 33 meters of silver lamé fabric. Due to the fact that the winter turned out to be unusually cold and snowy, Soraya even had to put on a snow-white mink coat.
One and a half tons of the Shah's future wife's favorite flowers - orchids, tulips and carnations - were delivered especially to decorate the palace from the Netherlands to Iran. Numerous guests were entertained by circus performers who arrived for the celebration from Rome. The wedding took place on such a grand scale that no one had any doubts about the endless love of Mohammed Reza for Soraya.
Sorry, goodbye
Shah Pahlavi idolized his wife and was ready to fulfill her every whim. The couple traveled a lot: they managed to pay an official visit to the USSR, India, Turkey, Spain, the USA and other countries. Soraya started doing charity work and showed great interest in how ordinary people live in Iran.
The fans of the couple were worried about only one thing: why in a couple of years of marriage they never had children. Before the wedding, the brown-haired woman was examined by a doctor - no pathologies that prevented the appearance of babies were found. The absence of heirs did not bother the spouses: Mohammed Reza even wanted to change the constitution so that the throne eventually went to his younger brother Ali Raza. However, in 1954, the young man died, and the ruler of Iran again had to deal with issues of succession to the throne.
Meanwhile, Soraya was undergoing fertility treatment. The young wife of the Shah even flew to the United States, where she consulted with the best specialists. Alas, the treatment did not bring results.
Mohammed Reza loved his wife very much and did not want to hurt her at all. But according to the Iranian constitution, he must have had a male descendant - otherwise, the entire line of succession to the throne would be interrupted. Pahlavi was not going to divorce Isfandiyari-Bakhtiari and even came up with a way out: he decided to take a second wife so that she would give birth to his son. Soraya did not want to hear about it - the girl became ill at the mere thought that she would have to share her beloved man with another woman.
In early 1958, Soraya left Iran and settled with her parents in Germany. Then the representatives of the wife of the Iranian ruler published an official statement on her behalf in the New York Times. “Since it is important for Mohammed Reza Pahlavi to have a direct male heir, it is with great regret that I sacrifice my own happiness for the well-being of the whole country. Thus, I announce that we are parting with His Majesty, ”the message said.
On March 21 of the same year, the weeping Shah Pahlavi announced on the radio that he had divorced his wife and did not plan to marry in the foreseeable future.
After breaking up with his wife, Mohammed Reza often visited her - filled her with flowers and luxurious gifts. He insisted that Soraya retain the title of princess, she even had a diplomatic passport with which she could travel freely around the world. In addition, the shah himself decided to pay alimony to his ex-wife in the amount of seven thousand dollars a month (a colossal amount at that time). After parting with her husband, Soraya was able to keep her jewelry and all the gifts from him.
A few years after the divorce, Isfandiyari-Bakhtiari decided to fulfill her old dream - she took acting courses and even starred in several films. However, the pictures "Three Faces" and "She" were unsuccessful. According to rumors, it was not without the intervention of Shah Pahlavi, who could not bear to watch the woman he loved kissing other men on the screen. Allegedly, Mohammed Reza bought up all copies of films and destroyed them.
Unlike the ex-spouse, Soraya was never able to arrange her personal life. In the 1970s, she dated the Italian director Franco Indovina. In 1972, he tragically died, and since then nothing has been known about the love affairs of Isfandiyari-Bakhtiari. Years later, she settled in Paris and wrote her autobiographical book The Palace of Solitude there. The main woman in the life of Shah Pahlavi died in 2001. She was 69 years old.
Male happiness
Mohammed Reza's dream of heirs still came true. In the summer of 1959, at a reception at the Iranian embassy in Paris, the Shah was introduced to a pretty architecture student named Farah Diba. A few months later, Farah returned to her native Tehran, where she again met with Mohammed Reza. Shahnaz, the only daughter of the Shah at that time, intervened in the matter, and she began to actively woo him yesterday's graduate of a French university.
Then everything was in a blur: in November of the same year, the couple announced their engagement, and in December the wedding took place. Yves Saint Laurent himself, who at that time collaborated with the Dior fashion house, was engaged in creating a dress for a happy bride.
Soon after the wedding, the newlyweds began to be attacked with questions about when the long-awaited heir would appear.
Less than a year after the marriage, Farah gave birth to her first son, whom they named Reza Kir.
Two and a half years later, a daughter, Farahnaz, also appeared in the family. In 1966, Farah gave her husband another boy, Ali Reza, and in 1970, a girl, Leila.
The third wife of Shah Pahlavi coped with her duties "excellently". She took an active part in the life of the country: she was engaged in charity work, developed medicine, and fought for the rights of women. In 1967, Farah Diba was even crowned as the Empress of Iran - she was officially given the title of Shahban.
Farah turned out to be the very woman who is ready for her husband to both rise into the sky and fall into the abyss. In 1979, Iran was shocked by the Islamic Revolution, because of which the Shah had to abdicate the throne and, together with his family, seek refuge either in Egypt or in Morocco. By that time, Mohammed Reza was already struggling with oncology, and because of his experiences, his condition only worsened. In the summer of 1980, Pahlavi died.
Shortly thereafter, US President Ronald Reagan invited the Shah's widow and his youngest children to move to Washington. All these events dealt a heavy blow to the psyche of the youngest son and daughter, Farah and Mohammed Reza. In June 2001, Layla, who worked as a model, died due to an overdose of painkillers. And exactly ten years after that, Ali Reza took his own life.
Ironically, the Shah's eldest son, Pahlavi, has three daughters who are not destined to continue the dynasty. But it was precisely for the sake of this that Mohammed Reza agreed to a divorce from the beautiful Soraya many years ago.
Last Shah of Iran “When in power, with money, or with the crown, the fate of people tosses like kittens. Well, how did we miss the place of the Shah?! - Our descendants will not forgive us for this. The Shah signed in complete incompetence. Take it here and replace it! Where to get? We have any second in Turkmenistan - Ayatollah, and even Khomeini!(V.S. Vysotsky)
Aircraft of the Voronezh Aviation Plant in 1972 lured the last Shah of Iran to our city, Voronezh was visited by Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. Of course, he did not arrive alone, but accompanied by his wife, Shahin Farah, and a delegation of about 60 people. In those years, there was no newspaper that did not write about one of the most beautiful couples in the East ... They wrote about his unthinkable state, about his ceremonial uniform (on which there were more than two hundred and forty diamonds), about his love for aviation, and, of course, about personal life and much more.
But first things first.
FROM BATTLE TO GENERAL.
Reza Shah the Great. ...................... During the Russian-Persian war of 1828, a soldier-escort and a Georgian woman fled to Persia, and half a century later, on March 16, 1878, in Alashta, in a small village in northern Iran, a boy was born who was destined to turn the tide of Persian history. Nasser ed Din Shah visited St. Petersburg and was delighted with the sight of the Russian Cossacks. At his request, Alexander II formed a Cossack Persian brigade. Nasser-ed Din-Shah, who belonged to the Turkic Qajar dynasty, did not know then that the brigade would bring up the one who would overthrow this very dynasty. Reza Pahlavi grew up with his mother, his father died when the boy was not even a year old. In 1893, he entered the service as a batman to a Russian officer. In 1916, Reza himself became the commander of the Cossack brigade. He walked for the rest of his life in a Russian uniform, and the Cossacks-Old Believers (who served with him) called him "Tsar-Father". On October 27, 1919, his son is born - Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, the hero of our story. February 1921. Reza Khan, leading a campaign of 2 thousand Cossacks against Tehran, organizes a military coup, removes the Qajar dynasty from power, eliminates Iran's political dependence on England and forces it to remove troops from Iranian territory.
Reza fought illiteracy, built highways, schools, railways, airports, built a university. Prince Mohammed received an excellent education, studied in Switzerland. Meanwhile, his father Reza Khan, meanwhile, was carried away by the Aryan theory of Hitler, who came to power in 1933, and even ordered to call his country not Persia, but Iran, that is, the “country of the Aryans”. Photo of the 1930s, women of Iran - without the veil:
The prince returned to Tehran in 1937, remarkably versed in economics, finance, history, having studied several European languages. He did not get into state affairs, and, in fact, his imperious father did not allow anyone into this sphere of activity, even the heir to the throne. I will not describe in detail the various subsequent political events, but as a result, in 1941, British and Russian forces invaded and occupied Iran, and Reza Pahlavi abdicated in favor of his son. Reza himself, under the escort of the British, was taken first to Mauritius, and then to Johannesburg (South Africa), where he died on July 26, 1944. ...............LAWS OF EASTERN HOSPITALITY. Tehran-43. ............... Mohammed Reza Pahlavi was proclaimed Shahinshah at the age of 21. In 1942, he signed an alliance treaty with Great Britain and the USSR, and in September 1943 he declared war on Germany. I’ll add on my own, I was always amazed by this declaration of war against the Nazis precisely in 1943, when there was already a clear advantage in the direction of the Soviet Union. Before that, everyone, like hares, hid in the corners and waited, whose side to take. Okay, digressing from the topic. During a meeting in Tehran of the Big Three, the young Shah met with F.-D. Roosevelt, W. Churchill and I. V. Stalin. Iosif Vissarionovich showed a high-class knowledge of diplomacy, although he should not understand the laws of oriental hospitality.
Marshal of Long-Range Aviation A.E. Golovanov recalled: “Upon the arrival of the heads of the three powers in Tehran, the Shah of Iran asked for an audience with Churchill and Roosevelt to greet the guests. Arriving at the British embassy, he waited quite a long time until Churchill came out to him. Roosevelt's wait was less long, and finally the phone rang to our embassy asking when His Excellency Stalin could receive the Shah of Iran. The embassy asked to wait to agree on the time of the visit. Quite quickly, an answer was received that read: “The head of the Soviet delegation asks when the Shah of Iran will find time and be able to receive him?” The caller to the embassy said in a somewhat bewildered voice that he was misunderstood that the Shah of Iran was asking when he could come to Stalin. However, the answer was that he was understood correctly, and Stalin was asking exactly when the Shah of Iran could receive him. The caller said that he had to report to the Shah. After some time, a call followed and the embassy was informed that if they understood correctly and JV Stalin really wants to visit the Shah of Iran, then the Shah will be waiting for him at such and such a time. At the precisely appointed hour, Comrade Stalin visited the Shah of Iran, greeted him and had a long conversation with him, stressing that every guest should pay tribute to the host, visit him and thank him for his hospitality. Questions of attention in general, and in the East in particular, have a certain meaning and significance. The Shah was then very young, he was fond of aviation and received a light aircraft as a gift from us. Stalin's personal visit to him further strengthened the friendly relations that subsequently existed for many years between our states. Indeed, it would seem an insignificant case, but in fact it is politics, and considerable ... ". The young monarch highly appreciated Soviet military equipment, especially combat aircraft, on which he himself flew no worse than first-class pilots, and declared "his sympathy for the Soviet Union and the Red Army." He, like Peter I, "cut a window to Europe", tried to make Iran one of the largest industrial powers in the world.
The changes in the country were grandiose: metallurgical and machine-building plants, petrochemical complexes, automobile enterprises. The foundations of shipbuilding and aircraft building were laid, and even steps were taken towards the creation of nuclear energy.
EGYPTIAN PRINCESS...................................
The first wife of the Shah - Fawzia Fouad - was an Egyptian princess, the eldest daughter of the daughter of the Sultan of Egypt and Sudan Fuad I and his wife Nazi Sabri. Fabzia was born in Alexandria on 11/05/21. A representative of the Muhammad Ali dynasty. She became the first wife of the Iranian Shah. The wedding took place in Cairo, and after the honeymoon was re-held in Tehran. The marriage was fragile and not happy, it lasted from 1941 to 1945. After the birth of her daughter Shahnaz, Fawzia filed for divorce, after which she moved to Cairo. 
However, the divorce was legalized by the Iranian authorities only three years later, in 1948. She remarried in 1949 to a distant relative, Colonel Ismail Hussein Shirin Bey, and became known as Fawziya Shirin. After the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, she was stripped of her royal privileges and titles and is still treated respectfully using her title. I understand that Fawzia is still alive. Photo taken from here.(external reference)
SORAYA......................................
Soraya Asfandiyari Bakhtiari (Soraya Esfandiary), the second wife of the Iranian Shah Reza Pahlavi, Soraya, the daughter of the leader of the Persian diaspora in Europe and his German wife Eva Karl, was born on June 22, 1932 in Isfahan. The eldest daughter of a representative of an old noble family has been accustomed to politics since childhood. My father was the ambassador to West Germany for a long time, my uncle is the leader of the constitutional movement in Iran.
Unfortunately, she could not have children, and the Iranian Majlis (parliament) demanded an heir. Mohammed thought about taking a second wife who would bear him a son, and also proposed changing the constitution of Iran so that after his death the throne would be inherited by his brother. Soraya was against the first option, and the Majlis was against the second. In March 1958, Mohammed was forced to divorce. However, several times a year, he flew from Iran to Switzerland (where his second wife lived) on a plane that he himself flew. The second wife became, as they say, the love of a lifetime. I completely agree with this. As you know, if a person does not get along with his personal life, he goes headlong into work. Shah, after the divorce, actively engaged in the transformation of the country. By the way, Soraya also enjoyed popular recognition and respect. Soraya was nicknamed "the sad-eyed princess". After her divorce from the Shah, the princess tried herself in the cinema. As an actress, she took part in the Dino Di Laurentiis project. It was supposed that she would embody the image of the great Russian Empress Catherine on the screen, but the project failed.
Soraya Asfandiyari died in 2001 at the age of sixty-nine in her apartment in Paris under unclear circumstances. ............................Empress Farah............... .................
The legend of the choice of the third wife is as follows: twice a special physical education parade was organized in Tehran, in which several hundred young girls took part. During the first parade, Mohammed failed to make his choice. I had to repeat the parade. The Shah pointed to Farah, who became the new queen. The wedding of 24 year old student Farah and 40th Mohammed Reza Pahlavi took place on December 21, 1959. Farah Diba (b. 1938), came from an old rich Azerbaijani family. Her great-grandfather was ambassador to Russia before the revolution. Farah was educated in Tehran and Paris. In her school years, she was fond of sports and even was the captain of the basketball team. Fluent in English, French, Farsi and some Azeri.
Iran finally got an heir to the throne. In total, Farah gave birth to four children: Reza Kir Pahlavi (1960), Farangiz Pahlavi (1963), Ali Reza Pahlavi (1966), Leila Pahlavi (1970). The first and only of the three wives of Shah Farah received the title of Empress (Shahban). It was a sensation, at that time women in the East were not given such rights.
In the 1970s, the empress developed a stormy activity. While her husband revived the power of the country, using its huge oil reserves (and, by the way, achieved a lot in this direction), she managed the cultural part. With her participation, all historical values and Shah relics were returned to Iran, she founded the largest museum in Asia, fought for women's rights, and became a trendsetter. Wealthy Iranians sent their children to study in the West, ballet schools were popular.
At one time, Muslim Magomayev was fascinated by her: “Shahinya Farrakh was dazzling: chiseled features, Persian velvet eyes, a pearly smile... A real movie star. Her Majesty's visit to Baku was official, and she behaved within the strict protocol... There, in the palace, an incident happened to me, which, however, was forgiven. After the cavatina of Figaro, at the request of the Shah, I was taken to His Majesty. He flattered about the performance of Neapolitan songs. Having finished the conversation, I turned to move away from the Shah, and heard a restrained hum in the hall. According to etiquette, they do not leave the shah, but move away from him backing away. But no one warned me about this. Nevertheless, in the history of the Shah's palace, I, apparently, was the first to violate strict etiquette - I showed my back to the ruler of Iran.. .......................................VISIT TO VORONEZH........ ......................
During the reign of Nikita Sergeevich, relations with Iran were difficult and wary.
In July 1972, with a huge delegation of 58 people, the Shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, arrived in Voronezh with his wife, Shahin Farrah. Mohammed wanted to purchase a Tu-144 aircraft from an aviation plant. An advantageous agreement was then concluded between the USSR and Iran on the supply of Tu aircraft to Iran. A brilliant married couple was given a hotel, which is located at the intersection of Taranchenko and Karl Marx streets and is popularly called "Steamboat" and "Ship". This hotel has always received only high-ranking guests of the city.
Says the former commandant of the hotel: “During the visit of the Shah, I was appointed commandant of the mansion on Karl Marx Street. The operational staff of our department and representatives of the Moscow 9th department of the KGB of the USSR carried out the necessary preparatory measures. All security measures have been taken. However, this time, we ran into additional problems. The fact is that Mohammed's wife, Shahin Farrah, was almost all the time in the mansion. She was unwell, and she left the residence only four times: she was at an aircraft factory, at a concert at the Opera and Ballet Theatre, at the Yu.E. Shtukman and at a banquet in the Slavyansky restaurant (for some reason, the Shah was absent at the last event). The rest of the time, the shahinya was in the apartments of the residence. She hardly went outside, spending time surrounded by servants. We were given the command not to let any of the Soviet citizens near her. An exception was made only for the deputy chairman of the regional executive committee I.I. Razdymalin (responsible for receiving the delegation) and the chief sanitary doctor of the region V. A. Kamensky (who personally checked all the products brought to the residence these days). In addition to them, at the request of the shahini, a doctor was once delivered to the mansion, to whom, after examination and consultation, Farrakh presented a gold watch ... " They had less than six years to rule.
… ...................... The collapse of the 2500-year-old monarchy .................. ................
The monarch-reformer was a serious competition to the country that "defeated" the Indians. Fortunately for them, the very rapid economic growth of the country (and the people, for the most part backward, do not have time to get used to and accept a new way of life) and the introduction of Western technologies and culture, naturally caused panic among ordinary Eastern citizens. Religion is all that remains of a familiar and familiar life for Muslim residents who do not want to accept modernization. And this was to America's advantage, Washington began to actively support the opposition, headed by Ayatollah Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini, who propagated that the Shah "sold his soul to the Western devil" and opposes the model of a pure pious people's Islamic state to the "depraved" and pro-Western Shah's regime. 
Ayatollah Khomeini... A very interesting figure. A tough revolutionary who promotes religion (a paradox in fact). However, that's another story... Mohammed was inspired by success and transformation, and for a long time did not notice the clouds hanging over him. January 1978 arrived. In the holy Muslim city of Qom, the Shah's troops shot down a demonstration, the participants of which demanded the restriction of the Shah's power and a return to the laws of Islam, killing more than 70 people. For the opposition, this was a chance. The clergy organize mass demonstrations. True, they say that the army command offered Mohammed to deal with popular uprisings. To which Pahlavi replied: “I cannot reign on the blood of my subjects. Which country will I give to my son?” Mohammed Reza was no longer in control of the situation and was forced to leave the country on January 16, 1979 with his family. In February 1979, power in Iran passed into the hands of the clergy, headed by Ayatollah Khomeini (a religious leader who was then in exile in Paris), who proclaimed the creation of an "Islamic Republic". Everything that was done by the Shah was destroyed, and the development of the country was thrown back centuries ago. Mohammed lived in Egypt, Morocco, the Bahamas and Mexico. The Islamic authorities of Iran demanded his extradition, and former friends shied away like a leper, fearing Khomeini's revenge. The health of the former monarch deteriorated, he was diagnosed with lymphoma. The arrival of Mohammed Reza for treatment in the United States caused in November 1979 the seizure of the American embassy in Iran by Muslim extremists and an acute international crisis. The deposed Shah left the United States and moved to Panama, and then back to Egypt, where he died and was buried in the Cairo al-Rifai mosque. ............................... DESCENDANTS .................... ......................
The eldest of the three sons of the monarch, Reza, went to America in 1978, even before the revolution. After graduating from the US Air Force Academy, he entered the political science department at Williams College. Then he graduated from the University of California. Now Reza Pahlavi lives in Maryland with his wife and three daughters. The Iranians call him "the Shahinshah in exile", or - the crown prince, that is, after 30 years, they do not believe the current government, or what?
It was not possible to find information about Farangiz Pahlavi.
Prince Ali Reza Pahlavi (April 28, 1966) is the youngest son of Muhammad Reza Pahlavi and his third wife, Empress Farah:
http://www.wikella.ru/post130005725?upd
