The Tudeh Party had been created in 1941. The Tudeh's ideology was Marxist–Leninist, and it supported policies of the former Soviet Union. The Party had played a major role in Iran's political scene until it was banned for the second time following the August 19, 1953 coup. After the 1979 Revolution, the Tudeh Party declared Ayatollah Khomeini and the Islamic Republic regime revolutionaries and anti-imperialists, and actively supported the new government. Although the Party never opposed the Islamic Republic, it became the target of government attacks in 1982, and most of the Party's leaders and members were imprisoned.