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A fanatic nationalist, in 1935 he changed Persia's name to Iran, which had been its name as a nation even before the great days of Cyrus and Darius and Xerxes. Persia ("Pars") was merely one of Iran's provinces. In the same spirit, he chose to add Pahlavi to his name. It means "the Parthian." In classic times, the Parthians were famed mounted bowmen.
Critics and Defenders. A man so furiously vigorous and drastic as the Shah in Shah is bound to have detractors. They contend he is nothing more than another Oriental despot who has caused shoals of his enemies to be murdered, tortured, kidnapped, imprisoned. They claim he slaps Cabinet Ministers in the face, beats up priests, kicks irksome subjects in the crotch. (It is said that for tiresome gabbling he once booted even Crown Prince Mohammed Reza into a palace fountain.) Iran is ruled entirely by fear, they insist; bribery is still prevalent, taxation overpowering; Iran's 136-man National Assembly, the Majlis, and all Cabinets are solidly enstooged. By this time, they add, the One-Man New Deal has turned into a One-Man Corporative State, owning everything worth owning and, furthermore, smoking opium.
On the other hand there are astute Occidentals who have watched the Shah work over a period of years and admire him greatly. First of all they argue that it is unfair to apply Western standards to Iran, and then they point to some of the flowers of civilization which have blossomed in the West since 1933. They recall that, unlike Kamâl Atatürk, he had no elite of European-educated intellectuals to help him.‡ "Reza Khan made Iran out of nothing," they say and, knowing Persia and Persians, they insist that force was the only way. As for opium, 60% of the population smokes it. Descended from generations of opium smokers, it is said they are largely immune to its effects.
Kismet, etc. One of the first acts of the new Government after the 1921 ride-in to Teheran was to tear up the treaty the bleak-brained Ahmad had signed with the U.S.S.R. The Bolsheviks condemned the aggressive policy of the Tsar, promised never to interfere in Persia's internal affairs, but reserved the right to occupy it temporarily in the event another power used Persia for an attack on Soviet Russia.
As the Shah grew in power, his mistrust of British Imperialism grew with it and he began to spit in the Lion's eye. In 1931 he forbade Imperial Airways to fly over Iranian territory. Spit most staggering to the Lion was his sudden cancellation in 1932 of the old William Knox D'Arcy contract which had now burgeoned into the monster British Government-subsidized Anglo-Persian (later Anglo-Iranian) Oil Co. Iran was getting 16% of the net profits. The Shah wanted 21%. The British took the squabble before the League of Nations. The Shah got what he wanted; the British 30 more years on their concession. Things were great. He began hiring German technicians to work his railroads, install his industrial plants and operate them. He detested Communism, but kept up friendly relations with Russia. Then came August 1939 and the Russo-German Pact. Things were greater. The war started. His British oil royalties waxed. Russia and Germany bought more goods and products. Nothing could harm Iran now. More & more Germans entered the country.