Avetis Sultanovich Sultan-Zade (born Avetis Mikaelian; Russian: Аветис Султанович Султан-Заде; Persian: آوتيس سلطانزاده; Armenian: Ավետիս Սուլթան Զադե; 1889 – 16 July 1938) was a Persian-born ethnic Armenian communist revolutionary and economist, best remembered as one of the founders of the Communist Party of Iran.
Sultan-Zade was a delegate to the Second World Congress of the Communist International in 1920 and was for a time one of the leading figures of the Marxist revolutionary movement in the so-called "East."
Following his demotion from the leadership of the Iranian Communist Party and the Comintern in 1923, Sultan-Zada lived in the Soviet Union where he worked as a government functionary in the banking industry.
[4] Mikaelian was enrolled in a seminary near the city Erevan, Armenia (then part of the Russian Empire), where he first became involved in radical politics through participation in Marxist study circles established amongst the students.
[6] He was also appointed head of a "Special Section" of the fledgling Communist International in charge of producing revolutionary propaganda for the semi-colonial nations of Asia bordering Russia.
[4] He was elected to the Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI) by the 2nd World Congress as the designated representative of the nationalities of the Middle East.
[3] Hailing from the oil-rich Caspian basin seems to have led Sultan-Zade to interest in the "oil question" and the growing importance of this basic commodity.
[12] This study lead Sultan-Zade to the publication of his second full-length book, Krizis mirogo khoziaistva i novaia voennaia groza (The crisis of the world economy and the new threat of war), published in Moscow.
[15] While Sultan-Zade was again a delegate to the 3rd Enlarged Plenum of ECCI in June 1923, this marked the end of his participation in the top leadership of the Persian Communist Party and the Comintern apparatus.
[3] In that year Sultan-Zade was once again made part of the governing Central Committee of the Communist Party of Iran, marking a return to the leadership circle of that organization.
[19] On June 9, 1956, Sultan-Zade was formally cleared of the 1938 charges which led to his execution and legal rights were restored to his heirs through posthumous rehabilitation.