If the Shah of Iran had wanted to pave the way for a theocracy in Iran ...

[Boojatta]

[Boojatta]

1. Kick to elicit some replies and some more votes. e.o.m.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. The Shah was in denial about the possibility of being toppled

from his throne, run out of his country, and exiled until his death. He believed that his secret police, Savak, would be able to keep a lid on dissent by executive terror and prison/executions. If Savak couldn't take care of it, then his benefactor, the U.S. (who put him in power after it dissemimated a legitimate democracy in Iran) would come to his rescue. His arrogance, shortsightness, and denial reminds me of how the Alexander, the last tsar of Russia, lost it all to The Revolution.

[Boojatta]

3. re Russian revolution(s)

His arrogance, shortsightness, and denial reminds me of how the Alexander, the last tsar of Russia, lost it all to The Revolution.

According to my sources:

There was a revolution in 1905 that led to the establishment of a government body (the Duma) of officials elected by the people. A revolution in February 1917 toppled (but did not kill) the czar and did not topple the Duma.

According to many Marxists of the time, a nation couldn't have a socialist revolution until capitalism had created the conditions for it. Russia and Germany were at war. With help from a German government that wanted chaos in Russia rather than a stable Russian government to negotiate peace with, Lenin arrived at the Finland Station in Petrograd in the late evening of April 16 (April 3 by the calendar then being used in Russia) and had a significant influence that led to the October revolution (of 1917) against the provisional democratic government. The majority of Bolsheviks (including Stalin) initially opposed a revolution against the provisional democratic government.

Russia's Constituent Assembly convened in Petrograd in January 1918. The Bolsheviks won only 25 percent of the vote and Lenin dispersed the Constituent Assembly. There was a civil war, the Bolsheviks won, and the general public did not get another opportunity to vote against Lenin.