Since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, a new form of neoliberalism has affected all sectors and political processes in the country. One alarming effect is the reshaping of conflicts through sectarian and ethnic lenses. On the other hand, society is being de-ideologized and pushed into the abyss of consumerism. Meanwhile, communities have gathered (and continue to do so) around different ideologies to manifest their political visions and projects. As part of a historiographical project, this article highlights the overlooked history of leftist Kurds at the beginning of the Iraqi state and their commitment to class struggle and solidarity with oppressed peoples worldwide. Kurdish leftism has evolved in various forms over time, but this article only scratches the surface.
Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire under colonial rule and the establishment of a communist state in Russia, the Kurds continued to struggle against the colonial powers, except for those in the Caucasus region. From 1923 to 1930, they had been granted a semi-autonomous administrative unit called Red Kurdistan. Kurds established newspapers and radio stations in both Red Kurdistan and Armenia. Meanwhile, Marxism-Leninism became an influential ideology for all oppressed nations around the globe, including the Kurds. In 1934, two years after Iraq gained independence, the pro-Soviet Iraqi Communist Party (ICP) was formed. These events and global trends influenced the Kurds in Iraq, attracting them to Marxism and prompting them to organize around leftist and Marxist ideologies. Trends influenced the Kurds in Iraq, attracting them to Marxism, so they organized
Your Name Stays, Although You are Dead
No, Lenin! You Are Alive until Doomsday[1]
This poem first appeared in a small Kurdish magazine between 1943 and 1944. It glorifies Vladimir Lenin as a charismatic figure who supported oppressed nations. Kurds were attracted to Marxism because of the Soviet Union's brief support of the Kurds. This attraction is evident in the poem, particularly in the mid-1940s, when the world was at war and the British army reoccupied Iraq to control the resources of the Global South, thereby promoting capitalism in the region. Before delving into the relationship between the Kurds and the colonials, it is necessary to revisit the Marxist spirit.
The Seeds and the Founders
It was in the diverse city of Kirkuk, where the Kurds planted their first leftist seed in 1937. While many history teachers influenced by the Western nationalism looked up to Bismark and expected a similar figure in the Arab world to unify the Arab countries. Kurdish students, in contrast, admired the Carbonari group. They established the Wood Worker Society (Komeley Darker), led by a prominent poet Dildar[2], and Mukerem Talabani[3], a senior ICP member. This society dissolved in 1939, and became the Hiwa Party. Mukerem Talabani described himself as a bourgeois nationalist at that time, which made their society a reaction against the oppression of the nationalist teachers at their school[4]. Hiwa gathered all trends, while its young members were looking up to Marxism and the Soviet experience, until its dismissal in 1944. These leftists joined the ICP or Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), transforming it to a Marxist-Leninist party in the 1950s. They published newspapers, but without theoretical discussions[5], such as Yekêtî Tûkoşîn[6], Şoriş and Nîştiman. Hejar Mukiryanî[7], a prominent poet, also praised Joseph Stalin in one of his poems:
Long live Stalin, hail the hammer and sickle
[As] he saved the Kurds from tyranny[8]
During the 1940s, Iraq was going through a political crisis, ranging from a pro-Fascist coup, British re-occupation of the country, and worker strikes and uprisings against the British and the oppressive state. Marxist activists and politicians were intensely involved in supporting and organizing workers to face Fascism and Colonialism. One can easily name Jalal Talabani[9], Ibrahîm Ahmed[10], M. Talabani, and Behadîn Nurî[11] among those activists who later occupied senior positions in the Kurdish and Iraqi parties. Most of them came from the petite bourgeoisie class born to small business owners, merchants, or sheikhs/Mullahs[12]. Back then, they were students at the main colleges of law, engineering, and sometimes from informal religious schools. They read western philosophies in Baghdad, and interpreted the political and social crisis accordingly, and they got involved in coups, revolutions and movements in Iraq.
From Baghdad Back to Kurdish Society
Graduates of the Iraqi École Normale Supérieure and Baghdad colleges taught and became activists in the Kurdish areas during the 1940s. They envisioned a modern society and influenced the later generation. J. Talabani recalls the return of the college students from Baghdad as an inspirational event to change his life, “they were propagating nationalistic and patriotist ideas”, and giving the youths pictures of Kurdish leaders and political statements.[13] Izzadin Mustefa Resûl[14]A communist figure wrote about the teacher who explained a communist pamphlet to him in primary school in Sulaimaniyah.[15] The lives of these figures were marked by political organization; they were subscribers to communist or KDP bookstores and circles. J. Talabani mobilized a student group in his school against a misconducting teacher. they were involved in many protests and faced legal consequences. The first generation of graduates from the École normale supérieure succeeded in politicizing the young generation and involving them in the political sphere. To give some examples: M. Talabani defended the Oil Company’s laborers in Kirkuk at the court, when they went on strike against the company.[16] I. Ahmed was working as a judge in a few cities, propagating his ideas and perspectives.
The Central Question and Ideological Dispute
State-building in a multi-ethnic and diverse country necessitates ongoing negotiation to establish a national identity. The question that overshadowed Kurdish intellectuals within the ICP and KDP was escalating: Are Kurds a nation? Having two parties with the same ideology within the same state borders contradicted Leninist principles, which aimed to unite all workers and the oppressed within a country. J. Talabani recalled his arguments for a Kurdish nation based on Stalinism[17], which considers a common language, territory, economic life, and culture to be characteristics of a nation.[18] In 1937, Ibrahim Ahmed wrote a pamphlet titled "Kurds and Arabs" for the first time, urging both groups to unite and show solidarity while acknowledging each other's right to self-determination.
Ahmed and his comrades returned to their smaller cities and towns with a stronger Marxist background. They circulated newspapers and other limited publications and advocated for Marxism in bookshops. In his diaries, Resûl illustrated literacy and reading in Sulaimaniyah, where a few party-affiliated bookshops provided newspapers to read or books to borrow for a fee. Arabic and sometimes Kurdish newspapers were published in Baghdad and arrived in Sulaimaniyah the same day. Mainstream books were by Stalin, and Stalinism was a symbol of the struggle against imperialism and Colonialism.[19] The Marxists of that time also discussed Dialectical and Historical Materialism, as introduced by Stalin, and presented it to the youth.[20]
New Spirit back to Baghdad
Influenced youths returned to Baghdad at a time when the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nuri al-Said, intended to sign the Portsmouth Treaty. They participated in uprisings that sparked unease and anger against the Iraqi government, causing the cabinet to collapse. This unrest resulted from the exploitation of the working class, ethnic discrimination, and political suppression by different government cabinets. However, the specter of colonialism haunted the entire country. At that time, Behadin Nuri joined the ICP as a student, organizing other youths and relatives and spreading communist ideas. During the 1948 Al-Wathba uprising, Nurî called for a revolt against colonialism in his village. Soon after, the Sulaymaniyah protested the “Cultural Center”, a symbol of the British state. During this turmoil, the Monarch ordered an open elections for all. The communists and the Marxists won the majority, but were later persecuted.
As much as the Al-Wathba radicalized communists[21], it also intensified the political life in Iraq. After the uprising, the Kurdish schools sent their delegations to Baghdad to hail the martyrs and show solidarity.[22] This movement aimed to institutionalize a student body in Iraq, where Jalal Talabani represented the town of Koya. Communists and Marxists held hegemony among the students, despite the presence of others. The rage and energy of the Al-Wathba uprising did not decline; instead, they developed into another uprising in 1952, namely the Iraqi Intifada. Parallel to this uprising, the Egyptian Free Officers toppled King Farouk, and Mohammad Mosaddegh led the oil nationalization movement in Iran. These events inspired the Iraqi uprisings significantly, ultimately leading to the 1958 revolution, another episode of decolonization in the Middle East.
Marxism-Leninism ideology became the backbone for any movement or party to thrive in the country. This atmosphere also pushed KDP to embrace the ideology[23], where the leadership and the influential figures were Marxists with national leanings. KDP supported farmers, laborers, the oppressed, and students, but at the third congress (January 1953) and after adopting a Marxist-Leninist stance, it put this support into practice by organizing them.[24] This precedent was another win for the peasant populations in Kurdistan. Besides this, ICP was also consolidating its organizations among the peasants strongly, resulting in a peasant riot in Erbil against the feuds.[25]
From Baghdad to the World: Internationalizing the Kurdish Issue
The 1950s marked the beginning of the decolonization of African and Asian countries. Meanwhile, socialist countries organized international festivals and events, hosting the representatives from democratic and socialist countries, and “third world” countries. The first festival to host the Iraqi Kurds was the third World Festival of Youth and Students in Bucharest, Romania. Hejar Mukiryanî, who once praised Stalin and Lenin, participated through the ICP. For the first time, he politicized the Kurdish clothing and language to the global audience. He represented the Kurdish issue and was criticized by the Iraqi delegation for his persistence on the subject and for focusing on the Kurds as a nation[26].
Talabani participated in the fourth festival in 1955 in Warsaw and the fifth in 1957 in Moscow. At the 1955 festival, whose motto was "For Peace and Friendship — Against the Aggressive Imperialist Pacts," Talabani met Nazim Hikmet, a Turkish communist poet, and Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian representative who would later become the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Talabani's trip could be understood as diplomatic, as he was also invited to China in the same year to represent the Kurds. There, he met Soong Ch'ing-ling (Madame Sun Yat-sen), who was the vice chairman of the standing committee of the National People's Congress at that time[27].
Moreover, Iraqi Kurds identified themselves as part of the liberation, anti-imperialism, and anti-colonialism movements, and corresponded with world and regional leaders. This is evident in the dedications of their books. Jemal Nebez[28], a socialist figure, in one of his early books, “Struggle of the Kurds” published in 1956, dedicated his book to Gamal Abdel Nasser[29], the central figure among the Egyptian Free Officers. Nebez was in correspondence with Nasser through the Egyptian Embassy in Baghdad[30], resulting in the establishment of the Kurdish Section of Cairo Radio[31]. I. Ahmed dedicated his 1937 pamphlet to the “enemies of war and colonialism” and “to those who aid the enslaved people and exploited classes in the East and West”[32]. Newspapers shared a common theme: opposing colonialism and imperialism, showing solidarity with the oppressed, and providing alternatives for unity and cooperation among groups, peoples, and ethnicities.
The Kurdish leftist movement played a pivotal role in several significant moments of the modern Iraqi state. Until the end of the monarchy, Kurds participated in the anti-colonial movement, urging solidarity between all the ethnicities in Iraq. In 1958, Abdul-Karim Qasim transformed the country into a post-colonial project, establishing a state for the “Kurds and Arabs”. This solidarity did not last long. The collision of Kurdish and Arab nationalism, along with the clash of different Arab nationalist projects, gave rise to new chapters of struggle. Until that time, Kurds had embraced the Stalinist ideology and theorized “Kurdayetî”[33] accordingly. However, due to the absence of a state, they were confronted with theoretical paradoxes. The Transformation of Kurdish leftism to Maoism and other ideologies began in the mid-1960s, positioning the Kurdish struggle alongside global liberation movements, including those of Palestinians, Iranians (of all ethnicities), and Vietnamese. This topic requires further examination and research.
[1] Jemal Nebez, Govarî Nîştiman [Nîştiman Journal], Kurdish Academy of Science and Art, Stockholm, First Edition, 1985, Part II, P. 131.
[2] Yûnis Reûf, known as Dildar, (1918-1948) was a Kurdish poet and political activist, best known for his poet, Ey Reqîb, which became the Kurdish national anthem.
[3] Mukerem Talabani (1923-2025) was a political activist, author, senior member of ICP and minister during 1970s.
[4] Mukerem Talabani, Barîkerêyekanî Jiyan [Narrow Paths of Life], Aştî Cultural Center, Erbil, 2023, P. 71.
[5] Jemal Nebez, Govarî Nîştiman [Nîştiman Journal], Kurdish Academy of Science and Art, Stockholm, Second Edition, 2009, Part I, P. 111.
[6] Jemal Nebez, Govarî Komonîstaney Yekêtî Têkoşîn (1944-1945) u Idologî Wirdeborjiway Marksîstî Kurd [Communist Journal of Union of Struggle and the Ideology of Marxist Petite Bourgeois Kurd], Kurdish Academy of Science and Art, Stockholm, 1988.
[7] Hejar Mukiryanî (1921–1991) was a Kurdish writer, poet, lexicographer, linguist, and translator. He was one of leading poets admiring Soviet Union and its leadership.
[8] Ibid, P. 117.
[9] Jalal Talabani (1933-2017) was the former Iraqi President (2005-2014) and former secretary of Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (1975-2017) and the very first theorizer of Kurdayeti from a Marxist perspective.
[10] Ibrahîm Ahmed (1914-2000) was the former secretary of PDK (1953-1964), translator of Marxist books and novelist.
[11] Behadîn Nurî (1927-2020) was the former secretary of ICP (1950-1954).
[12] Hilmi Ali Sharif, Dw Lêkolînewey Sîyasî [Two Political Essays], ed. Nawshirwan Mustefa, Sardam Printing and Publishing House, Slemani, 2001, P. 7
[13] Jalal Talabani, Dîdarî Temen [The Interview of Life], Karo Publishing House, Slemani, 2017, Volume I, P. 29 - 30.
[14] Izzadin Mustefa Resûl (1934-2019) was a Soviet-trained scholar rejuvenated Kurdish Studies in the Soviet academy through a Marxist lense.
[15] Izzadin Mustefa Resûl, Beşêk le Yadewerîyekanim [A Part of my Diaries], Sardam Printing and Publishing House, Slemani, 2001, P. 38
[16] Mukerem Talabani, Barîkerêyekanî Jiyan [Narrow Paths of Life], Aştî Cultural Center, Erbil, 2023, P. 101.
[17] Jalal Talabani, Dîdarî Temen [The Interview of Life], Karo Publishing House, Slemani, 2017, Volume I, P. 31.
[18] Joseph Stalin¨Marxism and the National and Colonial Question, Foreign Language Press Paris, 2021, P. 7.
[19] Izzaddin Mustafa Rasul, Beşêk le Yadewerîyekanim [A Part of my Diaries], Sardam Printing and Publishing House, Slemani, 2001, P. 46
[20] Ibid.
[21] Hanna Batatu, The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1978, P. 561.
[22] Rafiq Salih, Sidiq Salih and Abdullah Zangana, Gelawêj, Zheen Center for Documentation & Research, Slemani, 2016, Volume VIII, Part I, P. 6578 – 6598.
[23] The Encyclopedia Board of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), Mêjuiy Partî Dîmokratî Kurdistan: Kongre w Konfirans [History of Kurdistan Democratic Party: Congress and Conference], - , 2021, Volume I, P. 73.
[24] Ibid, P. 86-87.
[25] Muhsin Dizayee, Wêstgekanî Jiyanim [The Stations of My Life], Aras Publishers, Erbil, 2009, Volume I, P. 68.
[26] Hejar Mukiryanî, Çêştî Micewir [Mixed Meal], Mihregan Printing and Publishing House, - , 2007, P. 178. Digitally Available at: https://books.vejin.net/ck/book/205
[27] Jalal Talabani, Dîdarî Temen [The Interview of Life], Karo Publishing House, Slemani, 2017, Volume I, P. 99 - 108.
[28] Jemal Nebez (1933-2018) was the most well-known socialist activist and author, and Assistant Professor at Free University of Berlin.
[29] Jemal Nebez, Kifah al-Akrad [Struggle of the Kurds], - , - , 1956.
[30] Jemal Nebez, Memories of the Author as Schoolboy, University Student and Teacher in Southern Kurdistan and Iraq, Collected Works No. 11, - , Erbil, 2012, P. 134 – 139.
[31] Mey Dost, Kurdish Broadcasting from Cairo: A Pioneering Voice in Exile Media, Kurdistan Chronicle, 2004. Digitally Available at: https://kurdistanchronicle.com/babat/3397
[32] Ibrahim Ahmed, al-Akrad wal-Arab [Kurds and Arab], Nejah Publishing House, Baghdad, 1937.
[33] Jalal Talabani, Kurdayetî: Bizutnewey Rizgarî Netewayetî Gelî Kurdistan [Kurdayetî: National Liberation Movement of People of Kurdistan], 4th edition, - , 2023.