We heard plenty of stories pre-revolution too. I get the feeling that the Iranians understand the long-term, almost like a lifetime or two is not really that significant. A few decades or centuries mean nothing to them. I suppose having ~8000 years of history counts for something!

We Iranians do not have 8000 years of Iranian history. That is rather too generous.

Those bits of artifacts and archeological sites that do date to 8000 years ago are pre-Elamite and Elam and Susiana were themselves not not an Iranian people. Iran is not a geographic construct: it is (and remains in the current diaspora), true to its nomadic Aryan roots, a portable civilization of mind, heart, and spirit.

Proto-Iranians date to 2nd millenium B.C. The Medes were the first Iranian urban civilization in the Iranian Plateau and they date to 3000 years ago. The Pars ("Persians") - a related Iranian tribe (Achaemenid Shahanshah Cyrus's grandfather was the king of the Medes) - followed. Subsequent to Alexander, there was a period of Greek occupation, followed by 2 lesser known, but actually culturally more influential than Achaemenids, Iranian empires: the Parthians and the hugely influential Sassanian.

Elam: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elam

Mede: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medes

Pars: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achaemenid_Empire

Seleucids (Greek occupation): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seleucid_Empire

Parthian (of the Parthian 'shot' fame): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthian_Empire

Sasanians: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sasanian_Empire

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Iran

Thank you. Yes, maybe a bit too generous but certainly long, colourful and complex.