The goal of the paper is to survey the main Soviet and Russian sources dedicated to Iran in WWII, in particular those dealing with the Soviet presence and policies there. Some contentious issues still impact the relationship between Iran and Russia on social and political levels, including Iran’s Russian policy. The Soviet/Russian historiographical perspective on Iran during the war has been influenced by several factors: Iran was the only Middle Eastern country invaded by Soviet troops; Russian and British invasion of Iran in August of 1941 was the first joint operation of the allies; Tehran was chosen as the location of the paramount meeting of the three allied leaders in 1943; and the Soviet occupation of northern Iran after the end of the war caused tensions not just between the Soviet Union and Iran, but also between the Soviet Union and the world community. The Soviet/Russian narrative is sometimes politically motivated. For example, the paper discusses how Soviet and Russian historiography deals with the question of the Russian bombardment of Iranian cities in August-September of 1941, and how it tries to demonstrate that, in spite of the common perception, Iran was a relatively active participant in the drama played out during the war on its own territory. Another example is the forceful promotion of the claim that a Soviet spy network foiled an alleged Nazi plot to murder Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill during the Tehran conference. In this case, scholarly works about Gevork and Goar Vartanian, combined with fictional and semi-fictional sources and films, (both documentary and feature), publicity unusual for professional spies, and a high political profile including awards bestowed by Putin, have been used to create a narrative to fuel the patriotic feelings of contemporary Russian audience. Among recent seminal works discussed in the paper are those by Saleh Aliev, History of Iran. 20th Century (2004); Jamil Gasanli, SSSR-Iran. Azerbaijan crisis and beginning of the Cold War 1941-46 (2006); and Alexander Orishev, Iranian knot: Struggle of intelligence. 1936-1945 (2009). Using newly available archival materials, these scholars address topics that had previously been excluded from scholarly discussion, such as the Soviet interference in Iranian Azerbaijan or the work of Soviet intelligence in Iran. The survey demonstrates that, although Russian historiography provides abundant material for the study of Iran in WWII, a topic so far understudied in western historiography, it has been affected by certain biases and political motives.