Forty-seven years after its founding, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) remains one of the most powerful and consequential institutions in Iran. But how was it created, who signed its first orders, and why was a heated debate over whether it should answer to the government ultimately resolved in favor of the Supreme Leader? Javad Mansouri, the IRGC's very first commander, sat down with Khabar Online to answer those questions on the anniversary of the Corps' establishment.
Planning Before the Revolution
According to Mansouri, the idea of forming a dedicated revolutionary force predated the Islamic Revolution itself. Speaking to Khabar Online, he explained that in 1978 — before the Shah's regime had fallen — he and a group of fellow activists in Tehran and other cities reached a shared conclusion: every Iranian revolution or popular movement over the preceding century had ultimately been hijacked by outside forces. From the Constitutional Revolution to the nationalization of the oil industry, ordinary Iranians had paid the price of struggle without reaping its rewards.
"We concluded that a body of revolutionary forces had to be organized to protect and guard the revolution," Mansouri told Khabar Online. At the time, the activists expected the process of overthrowing the Pahlavi monarchy to take years. In the event, events moved with unexpected speed, and the regime collapsed in February 1979.
A Spontaneous Beginning — and a More Ambitious Vision
In the chaotic weeks after the revolution, the Revolutionary Committees (Komiteha) sprang up organically across the country to maintain basic security. Mansouri acknowledged their importance but noted they were not what he and his colleagues had envisioned. "What we had in mind was a comprehensive, multi-dimensional organization," he said.
Crucially, the founders saw no existing model to copy. Most comparable institutions elsewhere in the world were either purely security-focused or purely military. The IRGC was designed from the outset to be political, cultural, and social as well as defensive — "an institution that could accompany the people during and after the revolution, keep them engaged, and help improve their quality of life," as Mansouri described it to Khabar Online.
The drafting of a charter began in March 1979 and was completed by April, incorporating the merger of several revolutionary groups.
The Pivotal Debate: Government Control or Supreme Leader?
The most consequential decision made during the charter drafting, Mansouri stressed, was a structural one: who would the IRGC ultimately answer to? One camp argued forcefully that the Corps should operate under the government, on the grounds that the state needed such a body to run the country. The opposing view — which ultimately prevailed — held that the IRGC was not simply a law-enforcement or administrative instrument. It was an institution meant to serve the revolution in its entirety, across all dimensions.
"If the IRGC had been placed under the government, it might have been dissolved," Mansouri told Khabar Online, pointing to the fate of other post-revolutionary bodies. "Just as institutions like the Construction Jihad (Jihad-e Sazandegi) or the Komiteha were later dissolved, the IRGC could have faced the same fate. And even if it had survived, successive changes of government and management would have gradually turned it into a purely administrative organization with increasingly limited functions."
After extensive debate, the charter was written to place the IRGC under the authority of the Supreme Leader of the Revolution. The founders then lobbied the Assembly of Experts drafting Iran's new constitution to both formally recognize the IRGC's existence and enshrine its direct subordination to the Supreme Leader — a goal they achieved. Mansouri called this "one of the most important events in the history of the revolution."
Shahid Beheshti Signs the First Orders
The charter envisioned the IRGC being led by a seven-member Command Council, each member assigned a specific mission area. The founders expected the Revolutionary Council to appoint those seven figures; instead, they were told to elect them internally. An internal vote was held, seven names were selected, and the Revolutionary Council ratified the result.
On April 22, 1979 — the date now commemorated as IRGC Day — the late Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti formally issued the appointment decrees for the Command Council members. The orders were handed to the press, and the IRGC officially began operations as a formal pillar of the Islamic Republic. Mansouri noted that revolutionary activities had in fact been underway even before the February revolution, but it was from that April date that they assumed official, institutional form.
Even the choice of name carried ideological weight. According to Mansouri, there was debate over whether to include the word "Iran" in the full title — making it the "Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran." The founders rejected the addition. "We believed this movement was addressed to the entirety of the Muslim nations and to transformations beyond national borders," he explained to Khabar Online. The word "Iran" was therefore omitted from the final name.
The Basij, the Quds Force, and 47 Years of Expansion
In December 1979, on Ayatollah Khomeini's instruction, the Basij (Mobilization of the Oppressed) was established as a mass-membership wing within the IRGC, extending the Corps' reach to the general population. Over the following decades, the IRGC played a decisive role in suppressing separatist movements, fighting the eight-year Iran-Iraq War, and projecting Iranian influence across the Middle East through its Quds Force.
"If we want to summarize the IRGC's performance and achievements over this period, the most important has been the protection and preservation of the Islamic Revolution," Mansouri told Khabar Online. He added that the emphasis on "Islamic Revolution" — rather than "Iran" — was deliberate: the mission, as conceived from the start, was never limited to Iran's geographic borders.
Illustration: Gemini