Iranian Intellectuals, Nationalism and Nazi Germany

Abstract

The article analyzes the situation in Iran before and during the Second World War, when the warring parties represented by England, Germany and the USSR tried to bring the Iranian intelligentsia to their side. The author shows that on the eve of the war, German propagandists achieved the greatest success in this field. The main issues that could become the basis for the rapprochement of Nazi Germany and the Shah’s Iran are shown: the propaganda of the «Aryan brotherhood» and the positioning of the Third Reich as a defender of Muslims. The channels of influence of Nazism on the Iranian intelligentsia are revealed. The main scientific result: the evolution of the national consciousness of the Iranian intelligentsia is shown, and the main reasons for the final collapse of the German ideological expansion into Iran are determined.