Abstract
One crisp morning in the winter of 1971, thirteen young Iranians armed with rifles, machine guns, and hand-grenades, attacked the gendarmerie post in the village of Siakal on the edge of the Caspian forests. Killing three gendarmes, they tried to release two colleagues who had been detained a few days earlier, and, failing to find the prisoners in the gendarmerie post, escaped into the rugged mountains of Gilan. Unknown both to the participants and to the outside world, this famous ‘Siakal incident’ sparked off eight years of intense guerrilla activity and inspired many other radicals, Islamic as well as Marxist, to take up arms against the Pahlavi regime. But despite the importance of the guerrilla movement, its history is being rapidly distorted, misused and misinterpreted: partly because almost all the original leaders have been killed, partly because their followers are more interested in making history than in writing history, and partly because the new regime, like its predecessor, is eager to dismiss and denounce the revolutionaries as ‘terrorists’, ‘atheists’ and ‘foreign agents’.
Ervand Abrahamian, ‘The Guerrilla Movement in Iran, 1963–1977’, MERIP Reports, No 86 (March/April, 1980) pp. 3–15. MERIP Reports, Box 1247 (New York, NY 10025, USA).
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Notes
Amnesty International, Annual Report, 1974–75 (London, 1975).
The history of the Fedayi has been obtained from the following sources: The Fedayi Organisation, Hasht Sal Mobarezeh-i Maslehaneh (Eight Years of Armed Struggle) (Tehran, 1979) pp. 1–29;
The Fedayi Organisation, Tarikhcheh-i Sazman-i Cherik-ha-yi Fedayi (A Short History of the Fedayi Guerrillas) (Tehran, 1979) pp. 1–29;
The Fedayi Organisation, Tahlil-i Yek Sal-i Mobarez (Study on One Year of Struggle) (n.p. 1974) pp. 1–28; Anonymous, ‘Life of Poyan’, Iranshahr, No. 11 (5 January 1979) p. 5;
H. Ashraf, Jam’iband-i Seh Saleh (An Evaluation of Three Years) (Tehran, 1979) pp. 1–107;
Y. Zarkar, Khaterat-i Yek Cherik dar Zendan (The Memoirs of One Guerrilla in Prison) (Tehran, 1973) pp. 1–241;
A. Dehqani, Hameseh-i Moqavemant (Epic of Resistance) (n.p. 1974) pp. 1–248.
P. Poyan, Zarupat-i Mobarezeh-i Maslehaneh va Rad-i Teor-yi Baqa (The Need for Armed Struggle and the Rejection of the Theory of Survival) (n.p. 1972) pp. 7–9.
B. Jazani, Tarikh-i Siy Saleh-i Iran (Thirty Year History of Iran) (Tehran, 1979) pp. 69–89.
Jazani Taukh-i Siy pp. 8–67, Ahmadzedeh, Mobarezeh-i Aslehaneh pp. 12–13, The Fedayi Organisation, I' dam-i Inqelab-i' Abbas Shahriyar (The Revolutionary Execution of' Abbas Shahriyar) (n.p. 1974) pp. 71–142.
'A Nabdel, Azerbayjan va Masaleh-i Melli (Azerbayjan and the National Question) (n.p. 1973) pp. 18–32.
F. Javan, Cherik-ha-yi Khalq Cheh Meguyand (What Are the Guerrillas Saying) (n.p. 1972) pp. 1–33;
E. Tabari, ‘This is Not Marxism-Leninism,’ Donya, XII, 4 (Autumn 1971) pp. 31–41;
N. Kianouri, ‘On Methods of Struggle’, Donya, I, 2 (July 1974) pp. 1–10; Anonymous, ‘Message to the Fedayi’, Donya, I, 5 (November 1974) pp. 1–7;
N. Kianouri, ‘Again a Message to the Fedayi’, Donya, II, 3 (June 1975) pp. 7–16;
N. Kianouri, ‘The Fedayi and the Tudeh Party’, Donya, II, 4 (July 1975) pp. 2–10.
M. Akhgar, ‘Views on the Writings of the Fedayi’,Donya, III, 2 (April 1976) pp. 11–18.
For a history of radicalism among the Gilan peasantry, see F. Kazemi and E. Abrahamian, ‘The Non-revolutionary Peasantry of Modern Iran’, Iranian Studies, XI, 1–3 (1978) pp. 259–304.
To Haydari-Begund, Teor-yi' Tabliq-i Maslehaneh Enheraf Az Marksism-Leninism (The Theory of ‘Armed Propaganda’ Deviates from Marxism Leninism) (n.p. 1978) pp. 1–81.
The history of the Mojahedin has been obtained from the following sources: The Mojahedin Organisation, Sharh-i Tasis va Tarikcheh-i va Vaqa'eh-i Sazman-i Mojahedin (An Account of the Formation, Short History, and the Major Events of the Mojahedin) (Tehran, 1979) pp. 1–87;
The Mojahedin Organisation, Az Zindeg-yi Inqelabiyun Dars Begirim (Let Us Learn Lessons from the Lives of Revolutionaries) (n.p. 1974) pp. 1–32;
The Mojahedin Organisation, Ali Mehandoust va Mehdi Rezai (Ali Mehandoust and Mehdi Reza'i) (n.p. 1973) pp. 1–135;
The Mojahedin Organisation Modaf' at-i Mojahedin (The Defence Speeches of the Mojahedin) (n.p. 1972) pp. 1–101;
The Mojahedin Organisation, Akharin Dafa' (Last Defence) (n.p. 1971) pp. 1–22;
The Mojahedin Organisation, Matn-i Dafa' at-i Shahid Sa'ed Mohsen (Text of the Defence Speech of Martyr Sa'ed Mohsen) (n.p. 1972) pp. 1–45;
The Mojahedin Organisation, Sazmandi va Taktikha (Tactics and Organisational Matters) (n.p. 1974) pp. 1–131;
The Mojahedin Organisation Qesmati Az Dafa' at-i Mojahedin (Extracts from the Mojahedin Defence Speeches) (n.p. 1972) pp. 1–29.
A. Shariýati, Eslam Shenasi (Islamology) (n.p. 1972) Lessons 1–2, pp. 88–93.
A. Shariýati, Shiia Yek Hezb-i Tamam (The Shiia A Total Party) (n.p. 1976) p. 55.
The Mojahedin Organisation, Dafa' at-i Naser Sadeq (The Defence Speech of Naser Sadeq) (n.p. 1972) p. 24.
The Mojahedin Organisation, Pasokh Beh Etemat-i Akher-i Rezhim (An Answer to the Regime’s Latest Slanders) (n.p. 1973) pp. 10–13.
The Mojahedin Organisation, Biyanyeh-i E'lami-i Movaz′i Ideoluzhek (Manifesto on Ideological Issues) (n.p. 1975) pp. 1–246.
M. Taleqani, ‘Letter to My Father’, Mojahed, no. 6 (July 1976) pp. 131–44.
The Mojahedin Organisation, Masa' il-i Had-i Janbesh-i Ma (The Critical Problems of Our Movement) (n.p. 1977) pp. 1–392.
The Fedayi Organisation, Nashrieh-i Vazheh-i Bahas Darun-i Dow Sazman (Special Documents on the Debate Between the Two Organisations) (n.p. 1977) pp. 1–76.
P. Lewis, ‘Iran’s Elite Army Was Routed by Civilians’, The New York Times, 13 February 1979.
P. Balta and D. Pouchin, ‘Les Combats de Guerilla Dans Tehran’, Le Monde, 13 February 1979.
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Abrahamian, E. (1985). The Guerrilla Movement in Iran, 1963–77. In: Afshar, H. (eds) Iran. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-17966-4_8
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