Part One: The First Shah of Iran

recently and also my entire life, I'm Robert Evans, this is behind the bastards, a podcast about bad people, the worst in all of history, several of whom are currently in the Trump administration, where they have recently orchestrated what is already ramping up to be a bloody war with Iran, we're covering what's happening in an ongoing basis on our daily news podcast, it could happen here, but you know, that's not what we do over at behind the bastards,

you know, we're not breaking news here, our specialty is like pieces of shit and that makes us, I think well suited to talk about why is stuff, why is the Western world's relationship with Iran, what it is, like how did all of this shit start, like what was going on

“that kind of led to the present situation, and if you want to tell that story, you have to”

start with the 1700s and the 1800s in the period of like particularly what's called the great game, which is kind of this thing that happens at the height of British and Russian

imperialism, and you have to talk about the shot, the very first shot of Iran, because

it's the shots of Iran that lead us to the current regime in Iran and that lead us to a lot of things about the current conflict and why it's taken on the dimensions that it's taken on. So, in order to talk about all of this, we're bringing on my buddy and Dr. Kavehoda, also podcaster, much more impressive than Dr. I should have led with podcaster Kavehoda, welcome

to the show and music and musician, thank you so much. And musician, many things, a multi-talented, the key is to be bad at all of them, that's

“the key to doing this right, if you want to do more, that's a polycraft, not a polycraft,”

but yeah, you want to know what you are good at though. What am I good at? Being my friend. It's my best job. Also being the doctor, and the podcaster, I'm good at one of those three things.

Yeah, I'm hoping it's Dr. That's the one, that's really sort of the one, but the rest is you're going to find out listening to reviewer, not as much, but you know, give up my Darndest. The United States is doing, we've just killed a school full of little girls, like a lot of really ugly stuff, but if you want to, the story of why did the US start fucking around

with Iran, why is the current Iranian regime the way it is, that all starts well before the US gets involved, right, that starts with, you know, like most of our imperial ambitions, we cribbed off the notes of the Brits and the Russians from a century or so ago, and it's

those imperial powers who made sure that Iran wound up with a shot in the first place,

which is why, you know, we have a revolution, because the shots rule so badly that they inspire revolution, which brings us the Iatolas, and all of these are our stories in and in of themselves, but this week we're going to be talking about like the first shot of Iran of the Palavi dynasty, right, like that's where we're obviously Iran had previous shots, but we're talking about like the dad of the guy who got exiled when the current government

of Iran took over, and how much do you know about the first, about Rezakhan, like the first of all of that line of shots? So, first of all, the thank you for having me back on first of all, second, oh shit, I talked right over that, yeah, I'm so happy, no, I'm so happy that you're covering this topic, because you're exactly right, there is a long history of involvement of Western powers,

and as an American, the American powers, you know, really explicitly in 1953, as we're going to, I'm sure, talk about that really set off a chain of events that led us to where we are now, and you know, you could argue did a lot of damage and destabilize the region. So it, what bothers me the most is that it's a story that most people in the United States do not know, they, they don't know the real reason why people in Iran may have taken over

that embassy back in '79, you don't really know some of the anger, the anti-American feeling that happened at that time, because before that there was great relations for a while between the two countries.

“So, I think it's a really important story, I do know more or less the basics of it.”

I, I never, was that interested in the Shaz because like, I'm just the concept of a monarchy,

idea, I'm not into it, but there are these characters in there, which I'm sure we're

going to talk about like most of the, who are really interesting people, and there is a story here that really explains a lot about what's happening here. The, the Reza Khan, his son Mohammed Reza Khan, and now his, his son, who's now a player,

“and what's happened, currently the news, Reza Palavi, and from what Marilyn, right?”

Yeah, right. So, it is, it is something I know a little bit about, but part of the thing is it's like, when you grow up, Iranian, and your parents came over after the Revolution, a lot of these parents are very politically savvy, well read, studied, were politically active, but getting

a lot of information from them was hard about what happened during the Revolution, not just

because everyone has only their side of it, but because Iranians get so upset about it, but it'd be like, did that bastard, did this, and that's, that's son of a beach, did this, and then you're like, I'm, you're losing the story here with this, and you can't really get the story from your, your family. So, it is nice to, to, I think we're going to go into more depth about what actually happened now. And I, I get that in part, I think, because if I had,

if I got exiled and had to explain overseas, like, I want you to do different infighting around leftist movements, or like, I want you to do different right wing influ, grifters who got us here, I would probably just wind up cursing, like, right after a lot, right? Just, just, just, just, this son of a bitch, and this piece is shit. It's just a lot of that.

“Yeah. Yeah. You have to really work to be, and I, and I want to clarify,”

we're not even getting past. We're only going to have to 1941 in these episodes. I wanted to do both shots at once, but there's so much behind how the British and the Russians, like maneuver the situation that leads to this dynasty into being, and, and how the oil situation gets started that you have to really talk to. So, we will come back and we will do the sequel to these episodes, which we'll talk more about most of it as well. We're going to

talk about some of these episodes, but he's, like, becomes the prime minister, I think at 51. So, that's even a little past the era we're talking about, but this, this is really important, because this is what sets, this is what starts, like, everything into motion that we're seeing, unfortunately, come to very, like, a very bloody head right now. Right. This is an eye-heart podcast, guaranteed human. In 2023, bachelor star Clayton Eckard

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on the iHeart Radio App, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So we're going to start these episodes, talking about a period of time, this is going to be kind of over to the U.S., this is like happening in like the Civil War Reconstruction era, right? And in Europe, that's also a time of great change. And of war, not only is industrializing rapidly

you know, is kind of watching this. They're seeing Germany become a major world power,

“because Germany becomes a country in 1871, as the result of that war. And very suddenly, France”

isn't the primary land power in Western Europe anymore, Germany is. And so Britain, which had primarily been worried about France previously, has two growing and major concerns in this period, after 1870. One is that you've got this Kaiser, and he seems really interested in expanding Germany's military capacity, right? In the Brits are kind of fine with the fact that

Germany's got the most powerful army in Europe, you like, you Prussians can have your big army,

right? That's fine, as long as they stay on the continent. But once you start building boats, that's when the Brits are not happy with you, right? Yeah, no one else is allowed to have a navy. That's really the British Empire's primary, like foreign policy during this period. These are the Europe, it's like, are there people on boats? Wait a second, like hold the fuck up. Can I, can I also make a quick note? I love the way, when you say the Germans,

“I don't know if you even meant to do this, you slipped into the Germans. Is these Germans?”

That's very good. And they're nice. There's a beautiful case of a small town German man who went to New York City recently and had some salsa Verde on a taco, and is suing because like

the spice like destroyed his body and like said like the days made him ill. It was like New York

City salsa Verde. I was just the good man. Motherfucker, I can some barba coalesced week, they could wipe out all of Germany. If that's really the level of spice tolerance over there. I know this guy's just a hay seed grifter from a small town. I'm sorry, my German friends. I know you can handle spices. No, no, listen, we had a whole series of commercials in the 80s. Remember with their like pay up. Made in New York City, New York City got a role in New York City,

salsa. Yeah, it was like a whole very offensive to me. Yeah. I don't think they'll be allowed to have salsa. Anyway, yeah, so the Brits are looking at the, at the German start to expand their Navy and they're like, well fuck, like if Britannia doesn't rule the waves, like what do we really have? Right? We can't, we, the home islands are in danger. If we can't keep, if we can't keep control of the sea. So that's one of Great Britain's major concerns in this period.

The other thing that's really freaking them out is India, right? Protecting India. That is the jewel in the British Empire's crowd. It's their most valuable possession, right? And the Germans are nowhere near India. Thank God. But over the course of the 19th century, imperial Russia starts expanding, troublingly close to India, right? Like they start, there's a couple of different fits and starts where the Russians will, you know, expand their territory and they keep getting closer

to the British Raj. I want to quote from the article, a very British coup in the world policy journal by Shireen Brisek, quote, "The British watched nervously as the distance between the Russian Empire and India, 2000 miles with the beginning of the 19th century, shrank so much that by

centuries in, as the Russian Empire expanded eastward at the amazing average of 55 square miles per

day, as little as 20 miles separated the two empires and central Asia's premieres, squeezed between these expanding powers was Persia, described by George Nathan Kerson, one time Viceroy of India and subsequent foreign secretary as one of the pieces on a chessboard upon which is being played out a game for the domination of the world. It's real, we're real proud of being upon real proud of that one. Great. Thanks for calling this pieces out of chessboard. Fantastic.

Here's on, we're talking about them a lot in these episodes. I should do an episode on just him. He's one of these, like when we tell a British imperialists, he is like one of the imperialists of imperialists in the British Empire's history. And this is why Kerson's comment is why participants came to call this struggle in what's called, often it referred to as like the Near East, between Russia and Great Britain as the Great Game. This is a diplomatic propaganda

stick and sometimes military struggle between the British and Russian empires over central Asia. One part of the Great Game is that the Great Britain invades and occupies Afghanistan for a while doesn't work well. But that's part of why that happens, right? Is it part of the stupid game

“they're playing with the Russians? And it's all in the name of keeping India safe, right?”

They don't want Russia to get Afghanistan and they don't want Russia to get Persia. Right. Perfect. Yeah. The actual name the Great Game, I think, comes in 1840 is the invention of a British spy named Arthur Connelly. He was corresponding with a colleague in Kandahar Afghanistan and wrote, "You've a great game, a noble game, before you." Now, obviously,

great a game they fought that was by the end there. This is the thing. This is the thing that bothers me.

“I don't know much about this time period. So this is really interesting to hear. I do know a”

little bit more about the coup, as we mentioned, that you'll get to at some point in the future. In one nauseating fact about that is the callous nature in which he's like British and American spies and propaganda is how they talk about it afterwards. Like how much fun it was to over throw the game. This was a game. It's so much fun and they were good at it. And we won. It's just, it drives me baddie. Yeah. It then that millions of people's lives. And I take some

satisfaction that like Connelly and 1840 writes his colleague, "You've a great game, a noble game before you." In 1842, like the shattered remnants of the army that had marched into the first angle, during the first angle of Afghan war, like fleet because, you know, they get massacred, like very badly. So at least a lot of times these guys got shot, but not nearly an often enough Kava. That is going to be not nearly often enough. It's a recurring theme. A lot of people get shot

in this story, but not the right ones generally. Usually, some teenagers who got drafted from farms.

So always the kids. Yeah. Now before that term was invented, the great game, the Russians did have

one of their own. They called it the tournament of shadows, which is objectively cooler. Like that that is a cooler name. That sounds like a fantasy novel that I would probably read. Yeah. A tournament of shadows, right? It's a great name for like a prestige TV show. Right. Um, that will really disappoint you, and maybe like the seventh season. Right. Yeah. This is going to get weird. Yeah. So for the British, again, the whole goal of this stupid game is to protect

their territory in India. And the whole name of the game for the Russians was for the Tsar. Each subsequent Tsar to prove himself a good ruler. And the main thing you had to do as Tsar to be a good

“ruler is expand the borders of the empire. That's why people forget this because of how weak”

Russia seems entering World War One and is. But through the 1800s, again, 55 miles a day, the Russian Empire expands over the course of like years. It's crazy how fast this, I mean, and you look at the size of the Russian Empire. It's maximum extent. It's not that weird. So the Brits have a hard line of how close they want anyone in a European power to get to the

Raj. And the Russians feel like we have to expand constantly and it ultimately purge a winds up

standing in between both empires. So in Persia in 1785, you're going to help me with the pronunciation here. I think it's the the Quahar dynasty or Quijar dynasty. Hugh A. J. J. J. J. I think it's Quijar. Quijar. I think it's a, uh, an actual J. I'm going to preface this by apologizing to how many of her actual Iranian listeners you have that my fantasy is only nominally better than Roberts. I mean, it's better. But not as good as yours. And I'm sorry. I was born in Indiana.

You're lucky. I speak English much less far. So sorry. Yeah, the Quijar dynasty took power 1785. And they are the descendants of Turkmen from Central Asia and aren't seen as authentically Persian by a lot of people, right? Like authentically, that not seen as belonging in what's a whole Persia, right? Because there's a lot of different ethnic groups there. Now, because the

first Quijar king doesn't have like a really solid hold on power, he decides to put on a show

in order to convince everyone he belongs in the job, right? You know, a lot of people don't think I should be in Tehran at all. I have to really like make everyone believe I'm legitimately like God once me here, right? And so this first Quijar king is Fatali Shah and he's known his nickname is the super procreant because he has a lot of kids. But, by the way, and just just so it's if it's not obvious, the word Shah translates to like Emperor ruler king. Right. Because it

just in case people weren't aware of that. Somebody asked me that question like a few years ago

“and I was like, that's what I mean. So just in case. And it often in these names, it will come as like”

a last name, but that is his title, right? He's Fatali Shah is Fatali is the Shah, right? Um, yeah. Reza Khan will become Reza Shah, like when he becomes the Shah. And he gave the name Palavi, because it was like the ancient language version. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And we'll talk about that. Because that's that's important to this. There's a lot of ethnic groups in Persia at the time and he's only really, the Shah's only going to be really interested in one, right? And

that's kind of a big part of like what occurs in his reign. Right. But so the first Khajar king is known as the super procreant because he's he's fucking constantly. And that's also why the throne of the Shah's of Iran gets its name because it's called the peacock throne. Now for an explanation

called the Shah. Here's how they describe it. That superb and barbarist divine of a mammal and precious stones with its arabesque designs, brought of 26,000 gyms, brought back from India as spoils of war. It uses bright red rubies, deep blue sapphires and verdant greened emeralds and is flanked by two golden snakes each peering from one side. In the beginning, the peacock throne was called the sun throne. Its name was changed because the Shah who had close to a thousand wives

of quote diverse origin had a favorite concubine. This concubine was named Tevul and that name literally means peacock in Persian. And so this throne, the sun throne, they fuck on it. The night they get married and he starts calling it the peacock throne because he has sex with this lady whose name is peacock

“on it. That's why it's the peacock throne. Hey guys, I just want to clarify. This is one explanation”

I found in one book for why it's called the peacock throne and this represents like a popular story more than it does kind of the literal truth because there's peacocks carved into the throne. There's some, I think, I've heard some other stories as to like why it's called that, right, Iran is called the peacock kingdom or Persia is called the peacock kingdom at around this time too. This should be viewed as kind of a story that a lot of people told as to why the throne got its

name as opposed to like the absolute reason. Wow. Pretty cool name for a throne, story for a throne name actually. That is pretty, that is real game of throne. That is very, that's pretty. I like it better than the Iron Throne. It's a nicer story than a bunch of swords getting about to together. I'm going to fun night. Yeah, the peacock throne sounds better. The reality of these thousand women actually being into this guy. Pretty low. Probably not so. It makes it more

but less charming for me. But yeah, yeah, it's a great name. When you think about the relationship dynamics, it's less fun. But yeah, it's probably more comfortable than the Iron Throne. Way better than the Iron Throne. You wouldn't want to have sex on Iron Throne. Like you'd get

“like tetanus pretty badly, I think. I mean, Westeros has vaccines for that. And it's really”

cold, I think, to be on my mind. I think if you were naked, I think it would be really cold. I mean, there are things to hold on to. There's a lot of, a lot of grips. That's a good side. There's a lot of grips. Did I either if you watched the night of a seven kingdoms game of throne

show? I did. It's my first time venturing back into the world of Westeros since the original series.

Do I need to watch it? What's the vibe? It's fun. It's good. I mean, it's much lighter. I think they kind of read the room and they're like, people don't want so much rape and incessed in all that. And they kind of like, they tried to mix it up a little bit. A little bit less castration in this one, which is a big plus for me. I was. I was trying to talk about this for hours. We're talking about the key

cock, sorry, sorry, sorry. We're going to talk about game of throne.

“I could totally do that for like an hour, conservatively speaking. I have a lot of thoughts about it,”

but yeah, solidly an hour. So we've got this new king. He's incredibly horny, famously horny. So horny that the throne is named for his hornyness, which is again, the coolest anyone would be in these episodes. Sorry, guys. It's all downhill from the peacock throne, getting named. One of Fathily Shah's most consequential decisions was that he signs a treaty in 1828 that gives a big chunk of Persia away to the Russians are and exchange for protection.

Persia is not a strong country. It doesn't really have a functional military. The military is kind of capable of keeping the people from rebelling against the Shah, but it can't defend the country from other countries. A lot of critics complain that this 1828 treaty makes Persia a virtual

satrap of the Tsar, basically Persia's just like a satellite state of the Russian Empire now.

So subsequent rulers in the Shah's line would veer towards the British whenever they get worried that the Russians are getting too much power. And part because they're getting criticized by the people, like the people are pissed that like you're getting everything away to the Russians. So they'd be like, well, maybe I'll make friends with the British. And then, you know, the Russians will have to kind of fight for my affection with the British. And maybe we can gain

a little more power that way, right? Really what the Shah and their success, they just are getting bribes from both these sides, right? And they're getting a shitload of bribes from the British, who are getting more and more power over the Persian court, over the course of the 1800s.

Basically, by being like, hey, those Russians, I don't think they're going to stop at the stuff

they got in their treaty. But, you know, we've got British guns and we've got, we can send some some supplies over from the colonies. You know, we can really keep an eye on your back, fellow. We, you know, if you just give us this little, this little bit of some mineral rights here in there,

your dealings with the British Empire. That's kind of what's going on over like the 70-year period. You like tea, we like tea. There's no harm that can come out of this relationship, ever.

Two groups of people who like tea could never hop one another?

Well, we'll say actually, fun fact, Iran is known famously for its tea consumption, like an insane amount of tea consumption. But we were the old school coffee. Like, we used to share all about coffee. I blame the British for becoming a tea country, which is, in my mind, something I'm not proud of. I want to go back to what's been

“a coffee country. I don't want to be a tea country. You must return to God. Really bothers me.”

I know. I know. No, because the Syrians are really like kicking all the asses in the coffee department, right? Oh, no, we lost our coffee must return to go. You know, I know. Well, they have hipster coffee shops now and Iran. You go to Iran, they'll do like the, the hipster latte, sort of art, and stuff. They have that. But I mean, we used to be like our thing, one of our things. Right. But yeah. So the situation going on between these British agents and these Russian agents all

competing with these various shots is complicated by the fact that this isn't just a contest for influence between England and Russia. Within the British Empire, there are two sets of competing on-voys that are in Persia and are fighting with each other, as well as with the Russians. One set of British on-voys are answering to the foreign office back in London, and another set are sent by the government of the British Russian Calcutta. And these guys, so they're like

representing British India in Persia. And they have this huge office on the Gulf Coast in a place called Boucher. And here's Shireen Brisak describing like the ministry from Calcutta. The government of India preferred a highly decentralized Persian regime. That means weak. So from the outset, successive residents, including Major Supersic Cox and Lieutenant Colonel A.T. Wilson, cultivated ties with nearby shakdoms. Kerson, an eventual visoroy of India,

visiting in 1889 spotted the Union Jack fluttering from the summit of the residency flagstaff, and wrote that it was no vain symbol of British ascendancy. The British resident is to this hour, the umpire to whom all parties appeal, having it his command an effective naval force, imposed it will, he may be entitled the uncrowned king of the Persian Gulf.

So basically Kerson realizes like because we've like like we're running the show by 1889 in Persia.

Outside of the areas, the Russians have like literally taken over by treaty, we are governing the

“country and all but name because we have all of the weapons here, right? That's what he's”

bragging about. Yeah. Um, so you do that. You do that really well. And it's weird. Like when you like get into that British character, it's not just the voice, it's the you, you, you can get that entitlement. Like you can't handle it. You can't handle it. It's a, yeah, that's right. So well, the shop benefits from having a close relationship with Great Britain because British naval power is effectively his as long as he does whatever they asked, right? As one such envoy

wrote of the shop, quote, he and his prime minister were worried by the Russian threat to Persian independence. They believed or hoped that by giving the British a large economic stake in the country, they would become committed to defending that independence. Basically, if we make, if Great Britain feels like we're an important part of their security and economic apparatus, they won't let us get taken over by the Russians, right? Now, the Russians meanwhile are stoking unrest within Persia,

often by bribing otherwise encouraging sheer clergy to preach against foreign involvement. Basically, to be like, hey, these bribes are taken over your country, guys, and their, their heathens, you know,

“like, you should be angry or about this. Why is the shop letting them get away with that, right?”

So the, the Russians are operating a very effective propaganda, like it's propaganda, but it's also accurate. Great Britain is running things in Persia. That is pretty messed up. Now, the Russians also want to run things in Persia. They're not any like better people here, really, but like, this is how they're choosing to kind of like, it's actually kind of similar to what Iran does in Iraq when the US invades with the Czech clergy and like Baghdad, interestingly enough,

where they're, they're realized like this group of people are particularly unhappy with the foreign power that's occupying the territory. So I'm going to like, basically fund them to build support for insurrections and like rubble movements within the country. Yeah, we learn how to play the Great

Game. We learn, we learn the Great Game. Yeah, yeah, right. Unfortunately, yeah, it's, it's never been

that great a game and always gets a lot more people killed than anything else. So these, like, Russian propaganda like instruments and whatnot within Persia, these attempts to stroke and rest within the clergy succeed in getting the shot a cancel a number of projects, including a

to stop a British agent from creating the imperial bank of Persia. In fact, the Russians are so jealous of the British imperial bank that they create a bank of their own in Persia, subsidized by the Zaris state, where the imperial bank was actually a functional banking institution that you could trust. That was the upside of it is the British do know how to run a bank that doesn't like go bust every 10 seconds. The Russians are not as good about running like a legitimate bank. And this,

the Russian bank of Persia, it's primary purpose is to bribe the Shah's top officials. Like it's not a real bank for people to use. It's a bank to issue loans to members of the governments that

they do what the Zaris wants them to do. So basically what you've got here is Great Britain's holding

kind of the whole country hostage by running the bank that the people who have money use. And the Zaris is influencing shit within the country by using the bank that he's created to bribe government officials. So this is what we've got going on here. This is like where the sort of Archie being

“quoted by Betty, I think in Veronica, where are the people fighting for Iran? Is it nice? This is”

like so far? Yeah, not so bad. But I also know that it just, it gets worse and worse. So like right now it's almost kind of cute. It's going to get worse than banks. Yeah, it's going to get all that worse than banks. Right. So Russia's fortunes in the area, Evan flow on a daily basis and they depended largely on the attitude of the reigning Shah. For example, in 1879, Nasser Aldin, who's the Shah at the time, visited Zara Alexander II in Russia. Alexander II, intent on staging

a good show for his neighbor, ensured that the Shah was wowed by a mass presentation of Kasex, the elite cavalry unit who had Kasex, I mean they're also like an ethnic group, right? But they primarily known as like a military unit or a series of military units. They'd started out for a long time had been enemies of the Zara, right? Like Kasex had fought the Zars for a very large bin of rebellion not all that long ago and had been converted over time into the Zara's

red right hand. And we're going to talk a little bit more about that. But first, my red right hand,

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life. His job was literally to seduce the wives of powerful Americans and he was really good at it.

You probably won't believe it either. Okay, I don't think that's true. I'm telling you, because that was a spy. Did you know dog got cozy with the Roosevelt's? Play poker with Harry Truman and had a long affair with a congresswoman and then he took his talents to Hollywood where he worked alongside Walt Disney and Alfred Hitchcock before writing a hit James Bond film. How did this secret agent wind up as the most successful children's author ever and what darkness

from his covert past seeped into the stories we read as kids? The true story is stranger than anything he ever wrote. Listen to the secret world of roll doll on the i-heart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Lori Seagull, a longtime tech journalist, and consider my new podcast mostly human, your bridge to the future. Anyone can now be an entrepreneur, anyone can build an app and it's very empowering. Each week, I'll speak to the people,

building that future and we're going to break down what all of this innovation actually means for you. What I come to realize is that when people think the day of dating these AI companion, they're actually dating the companies that create this. We're experiencing one of the greatest tech accelerations in human history. And let's be honest, that can be messy. There's no playbook for what to do

from this moment. Mostly human will show you how. My goal is to give you the playbook, so you can benefit. The reason I say agency is because like if you can give power back to people,

“then I think that's probably the best thing we can do for your mental health. Listen to mostly”

human on the i-heart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. In 2023, former bachelor star Clayton Eckerd found himself at the center of a paternity scandal. The family court hearings that followed revealed glaring inconsistencies in her story. This began a years-long court battle to prove the truth. You doctor this particular test twice in selling stress. I doctor the test once. It took an army of internet detectives to crack the

case. I wanted people to be able to see what their tax dollars were being used for. Some likes the greatest disinfectant. They would uncover a disturbing pattern. Two more men who'd been through the same thing. Greg Olespi and Michael Marancini. My mind was blown. I'm Stephanie Young. This is LoveTrap. Laura Scottsdale Police.

As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences. Ladies and gentlemen,

“breaking news at America, for County as Laura Owens has been indicted on fraud charges.”

This isn't over until justice has served in Arizona. Listen to LoveTrap podcast on the I-Hart Radio App, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. Yay! So I want to quote from an article in CNN World News about the evolution of the Cossacks within Russia. During the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, the Cossacks fought for the Russian Crown in regional wars against the Russian people.

Gardening a reputation as the Zars henchmen, acting on behalf of the Russian Empire, the Cossacks carried out pogroms or massacres of the Jews in 19th century Russia. So the Cossacks go from these people who were these like nomadic horse warriors and didn't want to be governed to the government being like, but what if we give you money and exchange for murdering anyone who stands up against the Zars? And the Cossacks eventually are fine with this,

right? And they do a lot. There's a lot of genocide done by the Cossacks on behalf of the Russian Empire in this period, right? Like these pogroms are very ugly. There's one that kills something like a million people in the 1800s, like 700,000 or something like that. Pretty hideous stuff. Now, there had been a Cossack rebellion led by a dude named Pugachev in the late 18th century, and in general, any expert on Russian history would have told you that a powerful autonomous

cadre of warriors with zero accountability, sometimes rebel against, it's not always a good idea

for the government, right? To have like this group of warriors that you can't really tell what to do. Yeah, seems like a bad idea. Right. And the Cossacks had always been a double-edged sword even for the Zars, but Nasser Aldin, the Shah at the time, sees all these Russian Cossacks and he's like, "These guys look cool as hell. I want some Cossacks." And so he found his own Persian Cossack legion. This is kind of in the late 18, or yeah, the late 1800s. He found the Persian Cossack Brigade.

I had not known. There were Persian Cossacks. I thought that was just like, because like, like, Cossacks are like, from Ukraine, it's where a lot of like, Cossacks are rigidate from. So the fact that there's a Persian Cossack Brigade is kind of wild. We will take any concept and then we'll take it to an extreme that sort of what we do as a people culturally. If you've been to Los Angeles, you'll see that. But this Cajar dynasty,

what's interesting about is, I know very little about it. Other than the way they are presented the narrative is that they were just in a competent, ridiculous group of like people who were only interested in you know, procreating and spending wasting money on things. And Nasser Aldin is like, the one name I recognize as like the epitome of that. This is the most useful, terrible, dine terrible, saying something for all the other dines that have been found and went on.

“And it's important to note that they are this terrible because they're all,”

from the entire time this dynasty exists, they're not, they're always puppets of two different competing powers, right? Like they're never like from the beginning, any of these, for one thing, anyone who might be a decent ruler is not going to be allowed by the Russians or the Brits to do

fuck all, right? So they're going to make sure that guy never gets close to power in the first place

because they're orchestrating who is in power and they're doing that based on their own interest, not what's good for Persia. It happened not time and time again. This is the story. This is how it's laid out for time, time, they're on. Yeah. Yeah. And obviously like these individual shaws and their officials suck too, these are all really corrupt bad people, but they're corrupt

in Persia during this period of time. And it's not entirely on the regime, right? Like these two

foreign powers have a lot to do with it. Right? So the Tsar, Alexander II had had the Shah over and impressed him with these cassettes because he wanted something like this to happen. He wants Persia to have a Kossak brigade because the point of having Kossaks is that they're supposed to directly support the ruler. Like these are your, I've had a rebellion. I need someone to go and

“in massacre them. That's why you have an elite group of horse guards like the Kossaks. And so the”

shaws buying these Kossaks thinking like shit, this will help me anytime there's unrest. I'll be able to have these guys just murder my enemies. And Persia does in fact pay handsomely to equip train and maintain a brigade. And this brigade is pretty much for a lot of this period, the only effective military unit Persia has. And it's led by Russian officers, right? The Russians are kind of subsidizing this effort and they're sending their own military officers who report directly

to Russia's Minister of War. So if you're Russia, what you've done as soon as the the Shah

starts adopt this idea, starts hiring Kossaks, you've ensured the the Shah's bodyguard unit basically

is in controlled by your guys. That's a big win if you're Russian in this period, right? No, I think this is it's so interesting to learn about this. I'd heard about the Kossak brigade and yeah, a little bit of the connection to the the polivey family. But it's a big total. Yes,

“I don't, I don't entirely understand like the concept, is it like the Hessian soldiers that were”

in America that came over from Germany, like the kind of a mercenary force or is it more like a yes, but it's a formal like oh, what are the the bad guys in Dune, the the member like the one. And they're more like kind of more Sardachar and well, the Kossaks are there is like kind of an ethnic group, like these are basically, these start out as like tribal groups of, where Kossaks come from is you know how through most of human history, you've had like your settled civilizations

and then these groups of like nomads on horses who periodically take over everything, right? Well, Kossaks are one of those groups of people, they just happen to be around at the time that the modern world comes into being. And so they're those guys, but instead of like bows and arrows, they've got like rifles and eventually machine guns and as a general rule in this period of time, if you're going to brutalize a protest, you're going to use guys on horseback because horses

are really good at breaking up mobs. It's very scary to be charged by a bunch of guys with sabers on

“horseback. And that's the, the Russian Kossaks, that's what they do. These are the guys you”

send in when these villages are rebelling, kill them or we've decided we're going to ethnically cleanse this area of this group of people, send in the Kossaks, right? And once the shock gets his Kossaks, that's what they're going to be used for is brutalizing peasants to scare them away from doing disorder, right? Now, they're not good for much else. They're supposed to be body guards too. In 1896, Nasser is assassinated while at a shrine and his Kossak bodyguard failed to protect him.

As a general rule, they're not great at that part of the job. We don't protect, we hurt. That's not what happened. Oh, no. All I got to talk was at a hit people. We're more offensive thing. Less defense. Yeah. But once you've got these guys, you've got this

unit of powerful horse guards that are close to the shot. They're going to remain a powerful

force in Persian politics, which by the turn of the century, once the 1900s start going, are in a chaotic place to say the least. Shrine Bricec describes the country during this time as a playground of Russian and British spies. Tehran is very much the way Berlin is going to be during the height of the Cold War, right? It's the city where like spooks from all over the world are coming and executing plots as part of these different great power games. And neither Russia or Great

Britain trusted the local state security forces as far as they could throw them. So they brought in their own troops to protect their own agents in the country. The Russians brought in their own Kossak guards, right? Or used Persian Kossak guards, which were led by Russians, right? Whereas British consoles in the country brought supplies and Bengal answers from India to protect their guys. At the start of the 20th century, Russia and England had reached an accord, which Bricec

rights was settled without informing much less consulting the leaders of Persia. They split the country up into three spheres of influence. The British control southeast Persia, Russia runs the north, and the southwest is like a neutral zone where they're both allowed to do certain things as long as they don't like cross other certain lines. And again, no one asks anyone on the Persian government about this. They're not consulted. Their consent does not matter. Russia's chunk of Persia is most

valuable during this period of time. They seem to get off better, like the best of this treaty,

But here's the thing, in 1901, when this agreement gets kind of inked,

“neither power is really interested in Persia's oil fields. There's not a lot that's known about”

them. We'd only really figured out there were oil deposits in southwest Persia in like 1892. That gets discovered thanks to the work of a French archaeologist whose findings are brought to this French guy who's digging for evidence of earlier societies, finds oil. And his findings get sent onto the Commissioner General of Persia, so an actual Persian government official. And this says a lot about who was bribing the Commissioner General of Persia. He goes straight to Sir Henry Drummond

Wolf, who's a conservative parliamentarian in London. And he says, "Hey, we found oil in our country.

I figured I'd go to London first." And Wolf introduces the Persian Commissioner to a guy named

William Knox Darcy. I assume he's an actual descendant of Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice. Much less lovely. Because William Knox Darcy is a millionaire who's gotten rich speculating on

“gold at Australia. He sounds like that guy's kid or something. Still blows my mind that Mr. Darcy's”

also Tom Lohn's games from succession. I don't know that show. But they're apparently doing a new Pride and Prejudice. I know women love Mr. Darcy and I don't entirely understand why. Love Mr. Darcy. They love that scene where he brushes his hand and he like twitches like crazy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Big scene. So William Darcy gets introduced to the Persian Commissioner and this guy loves speculating. So he decides he's going to branch out an oil speculation as well.

In 1901 he offers the rulers of Iran 20,000 British pounds and 16% of annual profits gained from exploiting their oil reserves. This draws little initial outrage within Persia. As regular people have a lot bigger fish to fry, right? And nobody's thinking about oil as a huge industry. Yet it's 1901. The number of people who have like used gasoline for anything is very small. The vast majority its horses are walking from most people. And trains are a thing obviously.

So yeah, you've got this guy Darcy who gets involved and he basically bribes the rulers of Iran

with 20,000 pounds and a chunk of annual profits to exploit as much oil as he can find there. And nobody cares because oil is not worth all that much yet. In fact, Darcy nearly bankrupts himself paying for the deal and trying to build the infrastructure to start taking Persian oil to market. Because there's nothing there. Nobody's been digging or like nobody's been drilling or anything. As to do all of that like from the ground up, it's very costly. And even a very rich dude like

Darcy can't bankroll the project on his own. So he partners with a company called Burma Oil which is despite the name based in Glasgow. And Burma Oil has the capital necessary to make Darcy's rooms a reality. So Darcy's now in business with this Glasgow-based company and they're starting to build oil wells and whatnot and drill in Persia. And at the time, this is one of a bunch of numerable deals by which Persia's natural resources are being sold off for the benefit of foreigners. This is not just happening with oil.

“Everything valuable in the country is being sold to Russia or Germany, right?”

Like that's the way it's working for everything. So regular people in the country know they're being fleeced. They are not unaware of that. There's actually a very because the press is starting to become an increasingly significant thing in this period of time and literacy is fairly high in the cities. Regular people are very aware that they're being robbed by both the British and the Russians. And that their leaders are selling the country out for what amounts to middling bribes.

The current rule is the dynasty had their origins in a tribe of Turkmen warriors who'd served as the bulk of the Safavid military. And the Kujars had a Russian branch, which, again, because these are Turkmen people. This is all very complicated ethnic stuff. But the ruling dynasty in Persia at the time are Turkmen, which means they have Russian cousins who are nobility in the Russian Empire, which means the shahs of Persia are related to the Tsar,

which endears them to the Tsar, right? They're not directly related to the Tsar, but they're directly related to other royals within the Tsar Empire, right? And that's part of why a lot of people don't trust them, right? Is they're both stuages of the British? And well, you don't, you're not really like, at least a lot of Persians feel like you're not really a Persian, you're more Russian, unlike you're much more aligned with the Russian government. So there's a lot of reasons why people are

getting increasingly pissed off at their rulers, at this period of time, they're selling off the entire country, and they're doing it as if they're agents of other countries, right? That's increasingly how this dynasty is seen. As Sharia Kia wrote in an article for the National Council

had led Iran to financial ruin and a political crisis. They were weak against foreign influence

“and oppressive of citizens." So by 1905, people are sick. They are fed up with the Shidya's”

dynasty, and the king is, you know, Nasser had gotten assassinated, and his successor by this point, is aging in ill. And there's enough unrest with elites in the capital that they form a parliament, right? There's this, like, National Assembly formed in Persia called the Mojlis, as the result of a lot of work, by a lot of different activists within the country, a lot of differently, very brave people who want the government, that the people of the country deserve,

that will actually functionally govern and modernize the country, and won't be taken advantage of, as hideously, as the Shah's regime had. And the Mojlis draft a constitution which was approved regretfully by the Shah right before he died, and the Shah's kind of in this position of, like, if I don't approve this, it's allow this bit of democracy or have a rebellion, right? That's

“the dire situation he sees himself in. So once this parliament gets going and starts passing a”

constitution, the Russians are like, "Well, we can't have this." These guys aren't working for our best interests. They're working for their own best interests. That's not great. So they immediately set to work, pushing their allies in the Shia clergy to sabotage this new experiment and functional self-governance. Historian Ruhola Ramazani writes that they "destroyed the foundations of this new government twice in about four years." Right? So the Mojlis keep trying to install functional

parliamentary governments and these clerics and other agents of the Russians that are working with in-person society, keep sabotaging these efforts because they don't want this to happen. And this is the same thing. This is the same thing that happens with a national front later, the same sort of dynamics they use to play against the second or more secular elements, the religious elements, they use them the same exact manner. Guys, it's an easy playbook.

It's always, it's so, it's really frustrating when you play it all out like this.

So in 1908, Russian interests install a new Shah on the throne, Muhammad Ali Shah. And he celebrates his newfound power by imprisoning his own prime minister, who had been semi-democratically elected by the Mojlis. Percherine Brisex article. With a loan underwritten by the Russian bank and with his own crown jewels as security, the Shah hired rioters to storm the Mojlis. When the assembly successfully resisted, the Russian officered Persian Kossak brigade

moved rapidly to dissolve parliament into impose martial law. The Kossak sheld the parliament building, igniting a blaze that destroyed its records and killed eight people. The Russian commander proclaimed himself military governor of Tehran. That's fucking nuts. So there's new Shah, hires rioters, and the parliament fights off the rioters. So they have to blow up the building with our, it's fucking nuts. That's insane. And obviously very sad. Yeah. And the Mojlis,

I mean, I don't know if you know this, but like, so there are parliament, because I know that I was thought they're like a senator or something, but I don't entirely understand, they were like the parliamentary force. It's partly like, I don't think any of these are like quite perfect. It's like a national assembly type deal, right? Like it's a semi-democratic body

basically. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. But does it translate perfectly to senators and Senate? And that's

“sort of thing. Not, I mean, it's kind of its own like thing. Like I think the word literally”

means like like a place to sit basically and it comes out of tribal councils. But yeah, it's like it's a it's a type of parliament basically. That's that's that's close enough for our purposes, right? So the Russians have massacred a bunch of people and sheld the parliament building and installed of Russian military commander as governor of Tehran. And this is not popular. In fact, it inspires a mass uprising. And this is one of these beautiful moments where particular people in Tehran and

in the areas outside of it are so fucking pissed off at what the Russians have done, that all of these different normally up, normally opposed political groups, unite together in resistance of Russian domination. And there's this mass uprising that pushes the Kossat guards out of the capital. And Muhammad Ali Shahbe comes one of the shortest rand shahs in history. He is he is not around much longer. Now because feudalism is a really bad system at the best of times, he is succeeded by his son

Ahmet when Ahmet is 12 years old. The reason why this is generally seen as good by the power that's backing this succession, the British is that Ahmet is too young to rule on his own. That means he needs a region. And the region who gets picked to rule in his stead is a very close friend of British

this mass movement forces them out of power and forces the Shah to abdicate. But then the guy who

“takes over is a huge for the British government. Again, right? If this, they can't get out of this,”

you know, and in the movie, the region is played by Ben Kingsley. That's exactly who plays that character. He's half Indian, half white to my understanding. And he has played in Iranian in

like four movies. And it's, and they're never good. They're never good characters. Never.

No. So what you've got now is a fucking region who's running things in Tehran and everybody's tired because they've just thrown the Russians out. And the British are kind of come in as the winners in this round of blows in the great game. And shit like this, the fact that Great Britain kind of sits back while Russia commits a bunch of horrible war crimes and then winds up in charge is why England, part of why they get their reputation being perfidious Albion,

is everyone's like, how the fuck did you wind up winning? Wait a second. Like, we were fighting them. How, how did you wind? What the fuck? That's, that's, that's the way the British plays stuff for his period of time. Great. Yeah. Wow. Now, one reason why you had this popular uprising against the Russians and why like the Majlis are able to gain and maintain a degree of power is that regular Persians are fairly well informed about what's happening in their country, starting to be in this period.

Because especially once the Majlis come, like, into power, Persia has a shockingly free press during this whole period of time. From like the, about this point in the story forward, up until we get the, the last dynasty of Shah's, there's like a really vibrant media ecosystem, particularly in Tehran. The, the first Majlis had put an end to the stifling control. The aristocracy had exerted on media. And so even when the Persian people lacked the power to stop

Great Britain or Russia from doing something, they at least knew that they were being fucked.

“Right. That's an important dimension of the story is that people are not in the dark.”

Because there's a pretty good media at that time, which I was also unaware of. So folks are especially aware of the rampant corruption within the Shah's court. Public opinion of it is so negative that the Regents Foreign Minister sends men out to find him a disinterested American expert to come to Tehran and fix the Persian economy. Now, that fact alone should give you an idea of very different regard Americans were held in

during this time, that like foreigners who are meddling in a still other foreign countries economic system are like, we need someone reliable, trustworthy and unbiased to fix this economy. Let's find it American. The fact that that's the way things work back then is, it is wild, but I will say, you know, until the whole 1953 coup, like there was a real, there was an, then afterwards, you know, if you talk to your rank and file Iranian now, they do and they have

for many years now, love the Americans. But before this, they used to have a lot of contempt

for the British. They used to have a lot of contempt for the Russians. And they used to always

sort of know that they are meddling, but there was like a real warmspot for American because of the Americans that would come over and help them with the finance stuff. I must be against them. But like, there's a, there's a few. Yeah. Yeah. So then there was a real, like, you know, warmth. And this guy, this guy isn't bad at his job. I don't think his name is W Morgan Schuster. He's a middle-aged lawyer who had worked and he'd been like a customs guy after the U.S. had

taken Cuba from the Spanish and he basically rebuilt the tax system for the Philippines after the United States took over the Philippines. Schuster is the first American that I'm aware of, who has a significant political impact in the Persian government. And his experience couldn't have been more different from the Americans who would follow. For one thing, Schuster seems to have

“genuinely welcomed and desired by many Persians because the economy is completely fucked up, right?”

And he's as popular with like the local people as much as he is hated by European expats living in Tehran who rightly see his crusade for financial solvency as something that's going to cut into their graft because Schuster actually wants the Iranian people to have a functional economy. And when he realizes they're being robbed blind, he's pissed about it. He's like,

"Well, you're never going to have a happy country with a good economy if you rob them

blind like this. If the goal is for the like the Persia to be a functional country, you're screwing them." In 1911, Schuster, who's now the Treasury Secretary, sparks outrage with the Russians when he confiscates the home of the former Shah's brother who was a Russian citizen. Schuster was in the right by any rational observation. The exiled Shah's brother had not been paying taxes for years. But the British and the Russians filed formal complaints against this guy with the Mojli's

killing many pro-independence liberals and clergy members. They shell this the capital and kill

a bunch of people because this guy's shuster takes one dude's house for not paying taxes. The Russian army also shell Shia Holy Sites, as the British look on but avoid direct intervention themselves. On Christmas Day, 1911, Schuster is forced to leave Persia. He goes back to the United States and he writes a book called The Strangling of Persia, which is all about how European powers are robbing the country blind and murdering any chance of it having a functional government.

Like, as far as I can tell, he seems to genuinely be like offended on behalf of the Persian people. Yeah, and there are, in this whole story of all these terrible people, like it's, there's not a lot of heroes, but they're, we're not humble. I mean, it's a nice guy's. Yeah, yeah, there was a couple.

They tried, yeah. Yeah, right. They, at the end of the day, most of them couldn't affect things

in a positive way, but they were a couple of Americans that that did try to do the right thing.

“They tried to do the right thing like the Spike Lee movie. And you know what else is like a Spike Lee movie?”

It's, it's, it's, it's probably, and you know, I'm a good test taker. I learned that in medical school probably the ads and services that are going to be presented in these, uh, commercials. Thank you, Bang. Yeah. Why hasn't a woman formally participated in a Formula One race weekend in over a decade? Think about how many skills they have to develop at such a young age?

What can we learn from all of the new F1 romance novels suddenly popping up every year? He's still smelled of podium champagne and expensive friction. And how did a 2023 event called Waga Getting change the paddock forever? That day is just seared into my memory. I'm a culture writer and F1 expert Lily Herman, and these are just a few of the questions I'm tackling on no grip, a Formula One culture podcast that dives into the

under explored pockets of the sport. In each episode, a different guest and I will go deeper into the wacky mishaps scandals and sagas, both on the track and far away from it, that have made F1, a delightful, decadent dumpster fire for more than 75 years. Listen to no grip on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You know real doll, the writer who thought I'd Willy Wonka,

“Matilda, and the BFG. But did you know he was also a spy?”

Was this before he wrote his stories? I must have been. Our new podcast series, the secret world of role doll, is a wild journey through the hidden chapters

of his extraordinary controversial life. His job was literally to seduce the wives of powerful

Americans, and he was really good at it. You probably won't believe it either. Okay, I don't think that's true. I'm telling you, because that was a spy. Did you know doll got cozy with the Roosevelt's? Play poker with Harry Truman and had a long affair with a congresswoman, and then he took his talents to Hollywood, where he worked alongside Walt Disney and Alfred Hitchcock, before writing a hit James Bond film.

How did this secret agent wind up as the most successful children's author ever, and what darkness from his covert past, seeped into the stories we read as kids? The true story is stranger than anything he ever wrote. Listen to the secret world of role doll on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Laurie Seagull, a longtime tech journalist, and consider my new podcast mostly human,

your bridge to the future. Anyone can now be an entrepreneur, anyone can build an app, and it's very empowering. Each week, I'll speak to the people building that future, and we're going to break down what all of this innovation actually means for you. What I come to realize is that when people think that they're dating these AI companion, they're actually dating the companies that create this. We're experiencing one of the greatest

tech accelerations in human history. And let's be honest, that can be messy. There's no playbook for what to do when an AI model hallucinates a story about you. But it's my belief that we should all benefit from this moment. Mostly human will show you how. My goal is to give you the playbook, so you can benefit. The reason I say agency is because like if you can give power back to people,

“then I think that's probably the best thing we can do for your mental health.”

Listen, and mostly human on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. In 2023, former Bachelor Star Clayton Eckard found himself at the center of a paternity scandal. The family court hearings that followed revealed glaring inconsistencies in her story. This began a years-long court battle to prove the truth. You doctor this particular test twice in selling stress. I doctor the test once. It took an army of internet detectives

to crack the case. I wanted people to be able to see what their tax dollars were being used for.

who'd been through the same thing. Greg Olesby and Michael Marancini. My mind was blown.

“I'm Stephanie Young. This is LoveTrap. Laura Scott Stelpoise. As the season continues,”

Laura Owens finally faces consequences. Ladies and gentlemen, Breaking News at America

Copa County as Laura Owens has been indicted on fraud charges. This isn't over until Justice has served in Arizona. Listen to LoveTrap podcast on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. So, well, all this is going on. And while Persia is both finding itself split between British and Russian influence and fighting for its own autonomy, a boy was born and starts growing into a man. His name was Resa Khan Mirpangi.

And he came into the world on March 15, 1878, an in-a-town called Alasht in the province of Masandaran. His father, Abassali, was a Persian man and a major in the army. His mother, Nush Afarin, had immigrated from either Georgia or part of Armenia, both were owned by the Russian Empire at that

“point. But she's Caucasian, like literally from the Caucasus region. We don't know exactly where”

she's from because paperwork isn't anybody strong suit. But Resa from the beginning is like an example of how mixed Persia is at this point in time, right? He is himself mixed. And that's interesting because he is not going to govern in that way. Resa's dad is a war hero, but he's the kind of war hero who dies when his son is eight months old. After this, Nush moves the family to Tehran to live with her brother. When she remarries in 1879, Resa's a year old. And she abandoned him

to start a new family and leaves her firstborn son in the care of her uncle. This is not a wildly uncommon thing for a lot of people to do at the time all over the world. I've read a bunch of

stories like this, but it is pretty fucked up, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. She's basically like,

I got to try with a new family kid. Sorry. Here's an uncle. You know, hopefully he'll take care of

“you. Explains a lot. Yeah. Goodness. It's not great. Now from what little detail we get about his”

early life, we can conclude that Resa's family saw him as an opportunity to increase their fortunes and little else. In 1882, his uncle sent him off to live with a family friend who was a rare Persian officer in the Cossack Brigade. This helped him get entrance to the Cossack Brigade when he's, well, not an adult. It's unclear exactly how old Resa is when he joins the military. I've heard both 14 and 16 and either is really plausible. You can get a hint of why,

by looking at this 1909 photo of a unit from the brigade and look at the differing ages of those soldiers. Because one of those, actually, there's a lot of them all. That's a child. Clearly, in like their 50s and there's like a nine-year-old. There's a few people who look like their kids. That's an actual child. Straight up boy. Yeah. That nine-year-old, those seems to have medals, which is pretty cool. There's the story there, I like to hear. A nine-year-old killed a lot of men,

right? He's seen some things. He's a hard nine. So Resa was a literate as a young man.

He had basically no formal education and his first job in the Cossacks was as a stable boy.

He was, however, tall and handsome and extremely charismatic. He is very good at making the right friends, which is sure that he eventually rises to have a cushy job guarding the Dutch console general. He does fight in a couple of wars. He's a good soldier. He's particularly good with a machine gun. And he becomes like his unit's machine gunner. They call him machine gun Resa. That's his nickname, which is pretty cool. God, Wu Tang, plans sort of vibe to it. So,

right, right. That work. He rose rapidly through the ranks. And by the 19 teens, he's one of the highest ranking officers in the Cossack Brigade. Sharia Kia writes that he was also quote, "known for his role as a leader of religious bands and as a community enforcer in religious ceremonies." In her article, Shrine Briceck adds, "He earned a reputation of being a fireman, someone who was sent to quote disturbances or round-up thieves." So basically, this guy's kind of

stupid, but he's well liked by his peers, which are the most functional military unit in the country. And he's also kind of like known as being a religious hardliner. Like, he's in very good with the clerics. He spends a lot of time making sure other people are doing the things they're supposed to do, like religiously in his community, so that the clerics like him. And he just generally, he's the guy who, if people are breaking the rules, he'll kick their asses. Like, that's who's

the heaviest. And that's the reputation. He's the heaviest. Right. There's the tough that you send in. So basically, he was cooked up in a lab to become a Western back dictator, right? All that was

Iran's vast oil reserves. Anglo-Persian oil, the company Darcy eventually establishes, enjoyed

“a monopoly on Persian crude oil for years. But it's not until 1914 that the world gets a”

good, I look at just how big a deal this is going to be. Because in the lead-up to World War I, great Britain is hungry for any advantage. They can get over the rise in power of imperial Germany. I talked about that at the start of the episode, right? Germany's building a fleet that can compete with the British Royal Navy, and so great Britain needs an advantage. This enters into the picture, Admiral Sir John Fisher. He was described into the by the press in his time as Britain's primary

naval oil maniac. This means he was the first admiral with power in Britain to be like,

we should switch to oil from coal, right? That's a good idea to become an oil-based navy. There's benefits to doing this, right? Your ships can go further on oil than they can on coal, without needing to refuel. They can go faster. There's a number of like logistical benefits to eventually doing this, but it's a hideous cost. When you're thinking of the whole navy over, you're spending a shitload of money, and there's not a lot of oil exploitation yet, right?

Either. So, Great Britain doesn't necessarily have it on oil to exploit. Darcy seeks out in Bephrine's the admiral in 1903, at a Bohemian spa where Fisher engaged his main pleasure outside of being an oil maniac, which was dancing. So Darcy basically, that code for something, or is it legitimately dancing? He's just a dancer, and I did a Darcy for Frinson dancing at this spa, and they become buddies. Straight buddies, I'm sure. I've been doing a lot of spas.

Don't remember anything about dancing, just saying. A lot of dancing at spas. They were different back then. So, let's be real. That sounds pretty fun. Like a spa where you just like

“relax in the hot tub and be dance, a dance spa. I think that's what Dirty Dancing is pretty much”

about. That's right. That's right. There's a Dirty Dancing scenario, right? That's very integral to the story. And he had the time of his life at the time of his life. And Darcy's, this is Darcy, and I'm sorry, who's a person again that he is according to Admiral Fisher. Yeah, Admiral Fisher, the oil maniac. Yeah. And in 1904, after he

and Darcy become friends, Fisher becomes the first sea lord, which is a real job in the British

military hierarchy. Oil maniac, the sea lord. That's not bad. That's right. He's the first sea lord. That's crazy. That spot was a job for Aquaman, but okay. I'm thinking Elron Hubbard. The commander. Yeah. So Fisher keeps on talking up this idea. And by 1911 or so, Winston Churchill has come around. And Churchill is like, we need to switch the navy over to oil, right? And so Darcy has by 1911 successfully gotten this idea that primarily financially benefits him, because he bought

access to all of Persia's oil into the halls of British power. In 1914, the House of Commons supports up proposal to switch the navy over to oil. Per an article in the Fair Observer, the goal was to ensure energy security for Great Britain where the Royal Navy switched from coal to oil to compete against the fast rising German navy. After World War I broke out, Persia remained neutral, but supplied oil to Britain. In fact, Persian oil arguably led

to Allied victory. The conversion of the British fleet to oil gave them advantages over the German fleet powered by a coal greater range and speed and greater refueling. And keeping with their imperial tradition, Britain paid a pittance to Persia for oil. So that's fucked. It plays a role in their victory. I wouldn't say it led to it, but it's certainly not an insignificant factor in the efficacy of the British fleet, the fact that they've switched over to oil. And again,

Great Britain is fucking Persia. They're bribing the shop, but the Persian people are getting very little for their resources. Again, something real, the pattern that will play out many for a long time. This is fucked up, but the real fuckery is still to come. During the war, World War I, Persian territory is a battleground between Ottoman forces and Russian and British forces, right? And Russian and British are on the same side, this time. So they go from

“competing to being on the same side, but they're fighting the Ottomans in parts of Persia, right?”

Now the realities of the war massively disrupt agriculture in Persia, because farmers are constantly due to fight over their fields and shell them, so they can't grow as much food. And also, you have all of three different armies in the area. They're not growing their own food. They're confiscating it from the people who live there to feed their own soldiers. So people in Persia

start to starve in huge numbers. Azara Edalati and Majid Amani, right in an article for third world

quarterly. A well-known Iranian chronicler wrote in a newspaper entry of 19th April 1917

in Kuhm in the center of Iran currently 50 die each day, and Hamidon 30,000 have registered as

“destitute. And this heart-winning description he further stated that people in Tehran were”

taking sheep's blood from the slaughterhouse to feed themselves in their children. In fact, several Iranian newspaper reports in 1917 to 1919 highlighted the occupying forces attempts to seize food and grains and block people's access to food. So no one really debates that what happens next is a human engineered or at least a human influenced famine, right? Is this intentional or is this just a bioproductive armies being armies, right? There's debate over that, but it's caused by the

fact that these foreign forces are in the country, right? Now there is a huge debate as to who is more at fault. Given the similarities between the Great Persian famine and the big gulf famine of 1943, a lot of people understand and believe blame the British from that same paper, quote, "highlighting the role of the occupying powers in the Great Persian famine, some scholars have pointed to the issue of oil capitalism during the 20th century. The financial policies adopted by

Britain, for instance, they were fused to pay oil revenues to Iran in the middle of the Great Persian famine, indicates their lack of concern for Iran's starving people. For the occupying powers, Iran was mainly a strategic military asset. The dominant consequence was a lack of access to food among large parts of the population and what a martyrsian called entitlement failure. Thus, besides natural factors, pandemics, socio-historical context and the incapability of the

central government, the Great Persian famine was also caused by the occupying forces that pursued the war at the expense of the lives of many Iranians. And there's a lot of people involved in this catastrophe, again, as well as some stuff that is just happening at the time. There's disease,

“which is still related to the war, and there's some environmental concerns. It's important I”

emphasize that the Russians are also hugely involved here, too. With the early stages of the Russian Civil War, once that kicks off, various Russian forces start seizing like housing materials, roofing, and firewood, and other basic supplies for their bases. And these are things that thousands of Persians need to keep their homes habitable, and like 100,000 Persians are made effectively homeless just by this. 10,000 villages are abandoned largely because Russian forces are

seizing everything that makes them habitable. 10,000 villages are abandoned.

I'm just, I've never heard, I'm sure there's a listener right now, some auntie who's going to be

yelling at me right now, because I didn't know this, but I never, I never knew about this. Oh, wait, tell you here the scale of this disaster. So British diplomat Harold Dicklesson wrote quote, "Persia had been exposed to violations and suffering, not endured by any other neutral country and World War I. And it's hard to argue with that point. 8 to 10 million people roughly half the pre-war population of Persia perished in the Great Persian famine. Like about

40% of the pre-war population die over the course of like World War I up to like 1919. Wow. Uh, as a result of all this. Hey guys, I just want to let you know, the Great Persian famine is vastly understudied and there's a wide range of scholarly disagreement over the death toll at the time and for a very long time contemporary reporting suggested to

a two and a half million dead was a very reasonable, you know, range. But there's also

scholars who are arguing with that more like 8 to 10 million is very likely. So this is not a kind of thing where because of sort of the possibility of the scholarship on this at the moment, I don't, I don't feel comfortable saying like one is definitely right. I do kind of tend just on other because of other famines ever. I have about to lean towards the large numbers, but we don't really know perfectly. I did not realize the scale of this. We don't talk about this.

Yeah. Because it's a very complicated famine. It's not as simple as just Russia or Great Britain starved around there were a lot of factors, including some environmental ones and aspects of local government. But like Russia and Great Britain and the Ottomans play huge role in white to 10 million half of fucking Persian yearly, starved to death. And nobody talks about it anymore. That's the same. It's not really. Yeah. Wow. I have to say, I really appreciate,

this is a total, this is the kind of thing I'm supposed to say at the end when we're off air. But I really appreciate how you synthesize all this information. This is not easy. There's so many, there's a lot of stuff. A lot of stuff. I know I've left stuff out. And obviously we're only going up to like 1941. But like this is like when we're we're looking at the hideous,

“the heinous death toll of US actions already in Iran. It's also important to just like know,”

this is the latest in a long string of just like the horrific human consequences to imperialist fucking around in that part of the world. It's all bad stuff. So, it is not until 1921

given that the Zariske government had collapsed by this point leading to civil war in Russia,

“throughout the most of the worst of the famine educated Persians blamed the British for it,”

because they saw the British as being the controlling power in their lives. And there's an element, a sizable degree to which this is fair. The British for their own part are less concerned with Persia for its own sake. And more worried about something else, which is that the Bolsheviks are now in charge of a lot of Russia. They're fighting a civil war for control of what had been the Russian Empire. And it sure does look like Persia might become communist too.

And that is going to tee up part two. Copy. Oh, how do you feel it? I can't wait. I want to hear it now.

Oh, well, you'll hear it in a second. You'll hear it in a minute. Copy. But first, let's hear your

plug-ables. So, my podcast is called The House of Pod. It is a medical/science podcast. It is a look at the world of science and health through an approachable manner. We've tried to make things as fun and as less scary. If that's the word that I can use into a terrible job, explain my show. You think after five years of doing this, I'd be much better. I'm not. But the show is actually fun. If you like this show, you're going to like the podcast "The House of Pod" because we also take a

look at medical grifters. And we look at all kinds of different medical malarkey. That's out there. Trying to present you the science in the way that is, um, I think honest and nuanced and clear. So,

“I think you will enjoy it. You should listen to it. And you will hear some episodes with both of these”

lovely people on that podcast "The House of Pod." You can find it anywhere you find podcasts. Alright. Excellent. Well, listen to the House of Pod. And, you know, do something nice in your own house. Or not. I don't control your life. Neither do you, probably. Well, do any of us? Are we all just flocks of floating through cosmic debris? Yes. Good bye. Maybe, but I'm definitely in control here. Bye. Behind the bastards is a production of cool zone media.

For more from cool zone media, visit our website, coolzonemedia.com. Our check us out on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Full video episodes of Behind the Bastards are now streaming on Netflix dropping every Tuesday and Thursday. Hit remind me of Netflix. You don't miss an episode. For clips and our older episode catalog, continue to subscribe to our YouTube channel, youtube.com/at behind the Bastards.

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