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The Participants of the 1979 Revolution
Tehran 1966, the Royal Carriage,
the Shah's 25th Reign anniversary
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The congress of Rastakhiz,
the Shah's single political party, mid 70s
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Tehran, the day after
the Bloody Friday, September 8, 1978
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Mobilizing mass protests and uprisings of the people against the dictators are the conclusion and final stage of any revolutions. A revolution takes form through years of dictatorship, injustice and oppression. There are two sides to a revolution, the people and the dictator; both sides carry their own responsibilities towards the evolution of a revolution. The Iranian people involved in the 1979 Revolution could be categorized in three groups.
The first group:
This group, including Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, was actively involved in dictatorship, corruption and injustice in Iran, phony elections, single party rule "Rastakhiz", thousands political prisoners, torture & execution of dissenters, heavy censor on the radio & TV programs, newspapers, magazines, books, movies, theatres, poems and songs.
Interrogation, torture and long term imprisonment by the Shah's secret police force, Savak, for reading or possessing any forbidden books. The prohibited books were removed from the book-stores and libraries; even the Tozih-ol-Massael, written by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, was forbidden.
A great amount of oil sales formerly were designated as the defense budget (to purchase military arms), and the rest as the budgets of the other branches of the Shah's government. The most common methods to steal from the budgets of various offices amongst the Shah's regime were:
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Payoffs to the phony contracts.
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Sending funds to the fake foreign companies for the goods and equipment that never reached the country (the Shah's Navy scandal and suicide of Captain Iraj Shafahi in the military jail, Keyhan Newspaper, late 1975).
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Kick back from over estimated contracts.
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High commissions from any purchase and development contracts, from domestic and foreign companies.
The military arms budget used to be deposited to foreign bank accounts under the Shah's name, as the military supreme commander, and in some cases partially to foreign bank accounts under his defense deputy general's name. In one occasion, General Hassan Toufanian (the Shah's defense deputy general) bought 500 helicopters with a phone call (the memoirs of General Fatollah Minbashian in France, December 1st, 1981). Most of the Shah's high ranking military commanders knew about those illegitimate military defense budget setups.
The second group:
This group was manipulated and misled by the first group to be used as a pawn and supportive shield. Most of them have been repeatedly and shamelessly telling: "The Shah should have killed more people to stop the revolution".
The third group:
The majority of the Iranian people (journalists, college
students, teachers, oil industry employees, bank
employees, government employees, some of the military personnel including 4-star General Hossein Fardoust, etc.) were silent dissenters or always fighting vigorously against the Shah's dictatorship and corruption until the Shah's collapse.
The military forces in any country are originally formed and armed to defend the country against enemy attacks. Unfortunately, the dictators use the military power against their own people to eliminate any anti-government movements, protests, and demonstrations. Therefore, when the dictatorships topple the high ranking commanders face court marshal or involuntarily retirement. It is necessary to mention that when the war erupted between Iran and Iraq in 1980, some of the military retired personnel including high ranking commanders, honorably and courageously volunteered to join the Iranian forces to fight against Iraqi attacks. However, the new government refused to use them.
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