Development of Poland-Iran Relations in the 1980s

The topic of Poland-Iran relations after the overthrow of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi has not yet been of interest to researchers. The visit of the Shah to Poland in 1977 is though one of the many confirmations that Poland-Iran relations were much better before the 1979 Revolution. Extreme changes of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, in the area of religion and politics, did not appeal to Polish policymakers. Despite this reluctance and overall difficult geopolitical situation, Teheran and Warsaw, built economic and diplomatic relations in the last decade of the Cold War. In my paper I will showcase the nature of Poland-Iran relations on the eve of the Revolution and discuss two countries’ geopolitical similarities and differences between 1979 and 1989.
While researching Poland-Iran relations I reached for the books devoted to the history of Iran e.g.: All the Shah’s Men. An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror by Stephen Kinzer (2003) and The Fall of Heaven: The Pahlavis and the Final Days of Imperial Iran by Andrew Scott Cooper (2016) as well as history of Poland e.g.: Historia dyplomacji polskiej (History of Polish Diplomacy) ed. by Wojciech Materski and Waldemar Michowicz (2010). Moreover, lately declassified documents allow us to present a full overview of Poland-Iran relations in the 1980s and to illustrate the attempts at political and economic rapprochement. Presentation of the picture of these relations was made possible thanks to the conducted research of the documents of the Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Central Archives of Modern Records, and the Institute of National Remembrance in Warsaw, Poland, as well as, of the materials of the National Archives in Washington, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan Presidential Libraries in the United States. An addition to these materials is an interview conducted with a former Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Marian Orzechowski. His visit to Teheran in February 1987 represents the culmination of Poland-Iran relations in the 1980s.
My paper is going to be a part of the pre-organized panel devoted to the topic of Poland and Iran the 20th century. It will take the panel towards the end of the Cold War, and will examine the relations between Poland and Iran in an era of rapid transformations, with the 1979 revolution and its consequences in Iran as well as introducing the martial state, the collapse of communism and the emergence of the ‘Solidarity’ movement in Poland.