By 1941, when Reza Shah was deposed by the occupying British, his government had had some success in "pacifying" Kurdish tribes. In 1943, an important Kurdish party was established in Iran – the Committee of Kurdish Youth (Komala-i-Zhian-i-Kurd) – and in 1945 the movement transformed into the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI). Both parties challenged the central Iranian government after World War II.The separatist conflict escalated in 1945, fuelled by Soviet Union support to the Kurds, and eventually leading to the Iran crisis of 1946, which included an attempt of KDPI to establish the independent Republic of Mahabad in Iranian Kurdistan. The attempt failed, with the military victory of the Iranian forces and the Republic was abolished, with its leaders executed. Some 1,000 died during the crisis. In the aftermath of Mahabad’s collapse, the KDP‐I "effectively ceased to exist", with an exception of a handful of exiles in Iraq. The party’s urban supporters essentially disappeared into obscurity and, for the next 15 years, there was virtually no Kurdish political activity. The absence of a local Kurdish armed force in Iran, and of a large urban population ready to be mobilized against the central government, left Iranian Kurds waiting for an external shock to provide an opportunity, much as the Second World War had.