Innovating tradition. A small Persian notebook

If we think about the narrative that has accompanied Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution, we cannot help but reflect on how it has often been misleading. Of the three great revolutions of the 20th century – Russia in 1917, China in 1949, and Iran in 1979 – all of which brought a completely new ruling class to power, Iran is the only one among them that has not, if only because of a recent genesis, abandoned its initial ideals. Lenin’s were swept away by Gorbachev’s reforms and resulted in the dissolution of the Soviet Union; Mao Tse-tung’s state economy was supplanted by Deng Xiaoping’s free market initiatives and the expansionist policies of his successors, Xi Jimping in particular. On the contrary, the heirs of the revolution of Ayatollah Khomeini, while alternating between moderate and traditionalist positions, have managed to maintain a line that was in some way coherent with their predecessors.

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