The Secret War in Iranian Kurdistan: Soviet Intelligence Against the Abwehr and SD

This paper analyzes the struggle of Soviet intelligence to neutralize German agents in Iranian Kurdistan during WWII. The author presents the reasons for the collapse of the German Command’s plans for winning the Kurds over to their side, arguing that among the leaders of the Kurdish national liberation movement, Soviet propaganda for Threatened Peoples was significantly more effective than Goebbels's thesis about the "revolutionary war" of the Third Reich for the freedom of the peoples of the East. Nazi theories purporting the shared Aryan origins of the Germans and the Persians offended the national dignity of the Kurds and undermined any potential for Nazi Germany to become attractive to those fighting for an independent Kurdistan. The countermeasures of Soviet intelligence also played an important role: well-trained agents were sent among the Kurdish tribes disseminate propaganda, and establish contacts with tribal leaders. These measures were taken immediately after the German invasion of the USSR.
This paper leverages materials previously unknown to historians, including documents from the Foreign Policy Archives of the Russian Federation and the Central Archives of the Ministry of Defense, in order to shed light on these events and to lift the veil on the secret intrigues of the Nazis in Iranian Kurdistan.