Letter to CPSU Central Committee Secretary Khrushchev, from Engineer and Political Émigré Mir Aga Azari

TO FIRST SECRETARY OF the COMMUNISt party of the soviet union

to Cde. KHRUSHCHEV

from engineer and political émigré Mir Aga Azeri [sic], living in the city of Baku, Birmay Street, Dorogal Alley 15.

Letter

Dear Cde. Khrushchev, I wrote you the first letter on the 1^st of December 1954 and your secretary probably received it on the 16^th of December. In view of the fact that I did not receive a reply to this letter, on the 30^th of January 1955 I wrote you a second time and probably your secretary received the second letter on the 4^th of February. But since I did not receive a reply to this letter I turned to you a third time with a telegram which I sent on the 20^th of May. In view of the fact that a reply has not come to this telegram of mine I am forced to turn to you with a third letter.

The crisis which has arisen in the Azerbaijan Democratic Party has forced me to write this letter. Because unskilled, inexperienced, and unsuitable people who have found their way into the highest bodies of the Azerbaijan Democratic Party are trying to disband the Party and slander its most steadfast, oldest, and most capable Party members. The roots of this lie in the following:

At the present time the faction created back in 1946, that is, in the period of the most serious activity of our Party in Tabriz, continues its cause against the Party, especially against its Central Committee and Pishevari personally. This faction is headed by such traitors who were exposed at one time as Mohammed Biriya, Doctor Javid, Shebusteri, Mir Rahim Vilai, Cheshmazer, Padihan, and others. After Pishevari's death these factionalists tried to get into the governing bodies of the Democratic Party with the aid of the former secretary of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan. Using its authority they tried and are trying in every way to slander people who enjoy authority among the masses and those who were close to Pishevari.

Back in 1948 these factionalists not only severely criticized General Penahiyan, Hadji-zade-Salimi, Tarihpaymaan, and others, but called them anti-Party elements and pushed General Penahiyan out of the Central Committee; Tarihpaymaan, Hadji-Zade-Salimi, and several other people were even counted as villains and expelled from Azerbaijan. Not satisfied with this, they slandered, removed from the Party school, and expelled old and devoted Party members Hussein Chavushini, Enverini, Doctor Piri, and others. And not satisfied with this and seeing that their position in government was insecure and the ground was slipping from underneath their feet, they removed Gudret Shems and her brothers, some of most devoted comrades, from the Party.

The heads of this old faction, Cheshmazer, Gulyam Yakhya, Mir Rahim Vilai, and Rahim Gazi, who wanted to flee to Iran and, Kambakhsh known in Gesri-Gajar for his deeds, again began to accuse the comrades of an anti-Party attitude, espionage, and that they were supposedly enemies of the people.

These factionalists were denounced at a meeting of Party activists which was convened by the Central Committee on the 29^th of June, 1954.

Of the 70 devoted Party members who took part in the meeting of activists 51 voted for the expulsion of these factionalists from the Party ranks. Only seven of these unfit people were expelled.

This strongly frightened the factionalists who had accidentally gotten into the Party. Therefore they boycotted Party meetings for several months.

Ambitious and power-seeking factionalists, fearing that power was slipping from their hands, began to cook up a case against the most established, the best, and the most devoted Party members. On the 15^th of September 1954 they placed an unsigned article in issue 672 of the newspaper "Azerbaijan" and, referring to this article, they began to slight the most capable Party members. In places they expelled from the Party a large group of capable Party members under the pretext that they were anti-Party elements.

More than 100 Party members were reprimanded, severely reprimanded, and warned, and 20 of the most devoted Party members were even expelled from the Party. Giyami, a supporter of freedom and one of the oldest party members, was forced to leave the Party. A number of established Party members who saw all this turned their backs on these factionalists. A crisis began in the Party, which continues to this day.

Dear Cde. Khrushchev, these are outsiders.

Supposedly First Secretary of the CP CC of Azerbaijan Cde. Mustafayev pointed this out to them.

I am also among those expelled from the Party. I twice addressed Secretary of the CP CC of Azerbaijan Cde. Mustafayev about this by letter, once by telephone, and once by telegram. However, I cannot get an answer to a single appeal. Every time I sent a request Cde. Khalykov, an official of the CP of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan, insulted me instead of providing a reply to my letter. In view of the fact that did not pin my hopes on them I was forced to turn to you three times with a letter and once with a telegram.

I am guilty only of having strongly criticized these unworthy people and I know about a whole series of bad acts to which they have resorted. Therefore they are trying to scare even me in every possible way. Because of the fact that at one time Pishevari strongly criticized the factionalists and banned them from the first Congress they are trying to pay me back for this because I am his closest relative and pupil.

Dear Cde. Khrushchev, these factionalists still do not know what is an anti-Party element. How can I be an anti-Party element if not one of the eight members of my family is unaffiliated with the Party?

Not satisfied with what was said above, these people have begun to attack even the friends, family, and those close to Pishevari and annoy them.

Dear Cde. Khrushchev, what the traitor Beria did with the family of Ordzhonikidze is that same thing that Gulyam Yahya, Cheshmazer, and Rahim Gazi are doing with the family of Pishevari and his relatives.

I will only be able to speak about the characters of these factionalists and about who they are in a meeting with you.

In addition, the sons of those people who at one time held high posts in the Iranian government now occupy high posts in the CC of the Azerbaijan Democratic Party. In spite of the fact that the father worked as the chief of the Britain Department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the son is the dean of the Party school. One can assume that the correspondence of this person with relatives serves as a means to reveal our secrets. I can only tell you in person who appointed them to this work.

Dear Cde. Khrushchev, fearing the people's wrath, they were again forced accept comrades in the Party who had been previously expelled. In view of the fact that they have no proof they are trying to get letters written previously. They say: you write that [you] belonged to an anti-Party group. Some good comrades will give you economic aid, you write, that you belonged to an anti-Party group, then we will provide you with work and accept you into the Party.

This means to cast aspersions on hundreds of Party members and weaken the Party. This only plays into the hands of the enemy.

Finally, dear Cde. Khrushchev, it is impossible to trust the fate of five and a half million people to inexperienced factionalists.

Azeri [sic]

2 August 1955

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