Letter, Ali Reza ekmat to CPSU Central Committee Secretary Khrushchev, via Ram, General Secretary of the People's Party of Iran

Translation from the Persian

TO CPSU CC SECRETARY Cde. KHRUSHCHEV VIA Cde. RAM, GENERAL SECRETARY OF THE PEOPLE'S PARTY OF IRAN [NPI]

from Ali Reza Hekmat, NPI

member and political émigré

Please permit me to again describe to you my past and my present life with the hope of the fairness of Marxism guided by the CPSU and you personally, and also with complete confidence that greater attention will be paid to my requests and decisions and with respect to me taking into account my health and material circumstances.

I arrived in the country of socialism, my second homeland and bulwark of the freedom-loving peoples of the world, in 1947 as a political émigré and after participation in the liberation struggle of the peoples of my country. In 1948 I was arrested in Moscow and was imprisoned in Siberia for six years and three months. I lost the best years of my youth and fell seriously ill (tuberculosis, heart disease, a general disorder of the nervous system, rheumatism, and hemorrhoids). I didn't want to complain to anyone about my past and to forget about this. However, my current situation has forced me to describe all this to you so that you would be better able to understand my mood. The most terrible and difficult period of my life were those seven months when I was under investigation. The tortures of the Beria system were employed against me, after which my nerves and heart gave out and [my] hair turned gray. I repeatedly lost consciousness and could not move for several months from the blows of rubber clubs on [my] head (in order to force a confession from me that I had come to the USSR for espionage purposes). Now I suffer from strong headaches.

The tortures took away my health and youth, but my unwavering faith and convictions remained.

After Beria's arrest, when they released me, I had an opportunity to return to Iran and knowing that my elderly father and mother want this, and I also was in acute need of rest and treatment. I ignored all this, refused to return to Iran, and showed that no tortures can turn me from the true path. Instead of going to the Iranian Embassy for the money which my family had sent me to return to Iran I arrived in Moscow with a heart full of hope and went to the CPSU CC, where I declared my wish to remain in the USSR. I was confident that the comrades from the CC and my Party comrades would support me. NPI CC members officially informed the CPSU CC of my desire to remain in the USSR. In my letter to you I personally requested that I be permitted this and be settled in Moscow.

However, unfortunately after 10 months of waiting, I was sent to Tashkent at the suggestion of representatives from the CPSU CC. They told me that good conditions would be created for me in Tashkent, work would be offered me, and that I would be provided with housing. They assured me that I would be able to settle in there well. I left for Tashkent on 15 April and arrived there on 19 April. As I was told in Moscow, I turned to the CP CC of Uzbekistan, to Cde. Ponomarev, and asked him about work in the Institute of Oriental Studies, and also about an apartment. He said that there had been no discussion with him about my arrangement in the Institute of Oriental Studies. Some days later he recommended I turn to this Institute myself. In the Institute they told me that they cannot accept me without a decision of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences.

Regarding my apartment Cde. Ponomarev said that it is very difficult with housing in Tashkent and there is nothing right now that they can offer me. They put me in a hotel and gave a letter to the OVIR [Visa and Registration Department] where it indicated that I would live in the hotel for a month. I spent 45 rubles in one day's stay in the hotel and for all the days I was there, 500 rubles. I understood that I have no possibility of such expenditures.

Some time later they told me that I will be offered a room in a new building being constructed outside the city on Lunacharsky Highway in a children's community 10 km to which it takes an hour and a half on the road to reach from the city. (There is no water or heat in this building). Considering that this building is located so far from the center of the city this alternative did not suit me in any event since during the time in Tashkent my health became even worse; I turned to a doctor and he told me that based on the condition of my health the Tashkent climate is not suitable for me since my health might worsen during the heat which comes in the summer. In view of the fact that life in Tashkent was not possible for me and dangerous I notified the CC of this and left. I am ready to return the money (1,400 rubles) left from that which was given me by the Red Cross, but I will return the remainder when I begin work.

As a person who has lost everything but in whom remains a great will to fight and a devotion to that cause for which he has fought, I again ask for your instructions so that I am given any work you consider necessary, but which I will be able to perform, considering my condition. I also ask that I be given a room in Moscow so that I can create my home, live quietly close to comrades from the NPI CC, and restore my strength for the struggle.

If the CPSU and Soviet organizations do not have sufficient political trust in me then I request it be taken into consideration that I have refused to return to Iran (I decided this 10 months ago, immediately after release when I was given a full opportunity) and allow me to go to one of the countries of Europe where I, having received material aid from my family, will live quietly as a political émigré until the fate of my Party comrades and the freedom of my homeland is decided. Please help me in my departure.

I am pinning my hopes on a Marxist judgment and your conscience.

Ali Reza Hekmat

5 May 1955

3lv

[several handwritten pages in Persian follow, also dated 5 May 1955, presumably the original]