Twitterati have opined on the absence of prominent Iranian dignitaries from 80th anniversary commemorations in Moscow for the Great Patriotic War. However, the WWII era is not occasion for celebration in Iran, especially with respect to Britain and Russia. Millions of Iranians died during the Anglo-Soviet Occupation, 1941–46.
Reza Shah, 1921–41
General Reza Khan, a Cossack, seized power on 21 February 1921. He overthrew the despotic Qajar shahs (1789–1925), ruled as khan, and in 1925, proclaimed himself shah, and established the Pahlavi dynasty (1925–79). Reza Shah, although poorly-educated (or semi-literate?), was intelligent, tough, decisive, and visionary. He wanted Iran to become a rich and modern state, and assume its rightful place in the world.
Reza Shah developed the organs of state (bureaucracy and military); fashioned a powerful Iranian national identity and nationalism to unite disparate ethno-linguistic and confessional communities; marginalized the clerics; and pulled Iran into modernity. He erected schools, colleges, universities (including the University of Tehran), medical colleges, hospitals, roads, highways, bridges, railroads, etc.; and sent thousands of Iranians overseas to study STEM subjects or to be trained as teachers (e.g., at Teachers College, Columbia University).
Reza Shah was a fierce nationalist. He said, c. 1921, that “his government was determined to eradicate British influence and pursue a policy of strict neutrality in foreign affairs.” Britain, however, is like genital herpes; it lingers, leading to painful outbreaks.
UK in Iran, 1941–45
On 29 December 1940, HM Government founded BBC Persian to propagandize against the Iranian government and peoples (BBC Persian still does this). BBC Persian tried to turn Iranians against their government (BBC Persian continues to do this) in preparation for British de-stabilization operations inside Iran (on British assessments on Iran, see India Office Record, IOR/L/PS/12/551, “Persia: situation leading up to, and after, the Allied occupation”).
Operation Barbarossa, the 22 June 1941invasion of USSR by Third Reich, hastened British intrigues in Iran, and gave impetus to Operation Countenance, invasion of neutral Iran. USSR, should Wehrmacht breakthrough, risked losing access to oil in the Caucasus. USSR was dependent on Anglo-American shipments by sea to Murmansk and Archangelsk (convoys commenced in August 1941).
A land bridge through Iran—“Persian Corridor” or “Bridge to Victory”—to supply the USSR was the Anglo-Soviet solution. This came about, ironically, because Reza Shah had developed an extensive system of highways; and the 1,394 km Trans-Iranian Railway that connects the Persian Gulf to the Caspian Sea in the Iranian northeast (completed, 1938).
British and Soviet troops invaded Iran on 25 August 1941. Reza Shah was deposed and exiled to South Africa. His son, Muhammad Reza Shah (1941–79), was installed. Muhammad Reza was the opposite of Reza Shah: over-educated (fancy school in Switzerland), pampered, arrogant, indecisive, malleable, and subservient to his Anglo-American masters (although installed by London, he became America’s lackey). His son, Reza Pahlavi, the pro-Israel wannabe shah of Iran, is lousier than his father.
Britain plundered Iran’s oil, 1941–45, and extracted more revenue than did the nation of Iran. Following the 1951 nationalization of Iranian oil by the Majlis (Parliament), CIA and SIS launched Operation Ajax, the August 1953 coup against Prime Minister Muhammad Mosaddeq.
USSR in Iran, 1941–46
The Soviet Union, pursuant to astute Marxist-Leninist economic thought, experienced food shortages—occasionally famines—from birth to its long-delayed death (1991). USSR stole Iranian agricultural produce. Famines followed.
Iran’s population in 1940 was 15,000,000, and growing at the reasonable pace of 2% per annum (based on earlier demographic surveys). However, in 1944, Iran’s population was recorded at 12,000,000. An estimated three million Iranians (possibly 4 mil., if we include births after 1940) died between 1940 and 1944. In short, more than 20% of Iran’s population had been starved to death by the Soviet Union. This topic has been treated extensively by Mohammad Gholi Majd, Iran Under Allied Occupation in World War II: The Bridge to Victory and A Land of Famine (University Press of America, 2016). The Red Army withdrew from Iran in 1946, one year after the British Army.
U.S. in Iran, 1942–45
The U.S. joined the Anglo-Soviet occupation after Pearl Harbor. There was no specific zone for the United States. The U.S. technically ended its occupation in 1945, but as we know, it took the Iranian Revolution of 1979 to evict the Americans and their sock puppet.
Conclusions
The “Churchill-Stalin Pact” on Iran led to the occupation and subjugation of a neutral country, and the deaths of three million, possibly four million, Iranians. The “Churchill-Stalin Pact” (Iran edition) has parallels to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, specifically, the clause to partition Poland. Both pacts led to the subjugation and deaths of millions of innocents.
Iranians have no cause to celebrate Victory in Europe Day or the Great Patriotic War. It is an era of national humiliation, and the source of immense historical resentment towards the United States, Britain, and Russia—the dominant component of the USSR.
Perspectives 
You must be logged in to post a comment.