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{
    "localId": "486498778",
    "label": "Report, Central Intelligence Group, Iran, Situation Report 6",
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    "id": "486498778",
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    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Report, Central Intelligence Group, Iran, Situation Report 6",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/486498778",
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        "President's Secretary's Files (Truman Administration)",
        "Intelligence Files"
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    "url": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/486498778",
    "naId": 486498778,
    "levelOfDescription": "item",
    "productionDates": [
        {
            "day": 1,
            "logicalDate": "1947-08-01",
            "month": 8,
            "year": 1947
        }
    ],
    "recordType": "description",
    "ocrSource": "nara-archive"
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{
    "seq": 42,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602196/875497/875497-01-042.tif",
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    "ocrText": "SECRET\noffice of this agency (SSU A-69561, 28 May '46). The current director of Intourist is\nalso head of Iransovtrans (SO 8177, end June '47). Intourist is currently reported to\nhave hired a number of muhajirs.\nk. Irano-Russian Forestry Exploitation Company.\nThis company, which has its central office at Pahlevi, owns a private telephone\nline along the Caspian coast, between Pahlevi and Karganrud (Teh. desp. 136, 25 Sept.\n'46). No further details concerning this company are known.\n4. SOCIAL AND CULTURAL.\nThe Soviet program of cultural relations, on which the USSR spends large sums,\nis not designed for the mass of the population, but for the rather restricted number of\nintelligentsia of Iran. Its success has been greatest among school teachers, college\nstudents, and younger writers, some of whom have been attracted by the offer of jobs\nor of grants for writing and research. Since 1946 smaller numbers of Iranians have\nbeen attending Soviet cultural programs, but current Soviet efforts, expenditures, and\npersonnel are maintained at the earlier levels.\nThe Soviet program, the most extensive program of its type in Iran, is divided in two\nparts: the informational activities are conducted by the Soviet Embassy, and the cul-\ntural by the Consul General in Tehran, acting through VOKS (All-Union Society for\nCultural Relations) (Teh. desp. 588, 31 Dec. '47).\nIn addition to its general cultural relations program, the USSR has employed such\ndevices as medical facilities, religious missions, and groups of entertainers to foster\ngood relations in the cultural field. Such activities are also known to have provided\nopportunities for the collection of intelligence and other clandestine operations in Iran.\na. VOKS (All-Union Society for Cultural Relations: Fse-Soyuznoe Obshchestvo\nKulturnoy Sviazi)\nVOKS, which is in charge of Soviet cultural relations with all foreign countries,\nmaintains a \"House of Culture\" at Tehran, opened in January 1945, in the spacious\nformer Japanese Legation (SSU A-68630, 14 May '46, and Teh. 35, 29 May '46). At the\nend of 1946 its staff numbered at least twenty Soviet citizens.\nThe organization contains nine sections for the following cultural activity:\nscience, medicine, sports, music, fine arts, theater, films, rural reconstruction, and\nindustrial arts. Each section is supervised by a Soviet national, and in Tehran in 1946\nat least eight staff members were teaching the Russian language to some 800 students\n(MA Teh. R-247, 9 Nov. '46).\nVOKS maintained representatives at Meshed and Resht, at Tabriz (SSU\nA-66174, 26 Jan. '46), at Bandar Pahlevi (MA Teh. R-24-47, 11 Feb. '47), Kermanshah\n(CIA 35474, 28 Aug. '47), Isfahan, and Ahwaz. There were reading rooms in several\ntowns (MA Teh. R-8-44, 9 Sept. '44), including Quchan, Darajaz (?), and Rizaiyeh (Teh.\ndesp. 588, 31 Dec. '47); that at Tabriz was in operation in the summer of 1947 (Tabriz,\n21 Aug. '47). The chief representative of VOKS in Iran is automatically a member of\nthe board of directors of the Irano-Soviet Cultural Relations Society.\nSECRET\nIII-8"
}