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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",
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        "President's Secretary's Files (Truman Administration)",
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    "productionDates": [
        {
            "day": 1,
            "logicalDate": "1947-08-01",
            "month": 8,
            "year": 1947
        }
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{
    "seq": 43,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
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    "ocrText": "SECRET\nb. Irano-Soviet Cultural Relations Society.\nThe Irano-Soviet Cultural Relations Society, which cooperates closely with\nVOKS and, in some of the provincial centers, is almost indistinguishable from the\nlatter, has its headquarters in a large building at Tehran. Information is available\nconcerning the general organization and purposes of the Society (SSU A-68630, 14 May\n'46), the 1946 membership of the board of directors (SSU A-68657-c, 29 April '46), and\nthe location of provincial branches at Meshed, Isfahan, Resht, Tabriz, and Rizaiyeh\n(MA Teh. R-8-44, 9 Sept. '44).\nAccording to its constitution, the Society has as its primary goal the develop-\nment and extension of cultural relations between the peoples of Iran and the USSR in\nthe fields of science, art, literature, and sports. It is intended to conduct programs\nwhich include lectures, motion pictures, theatrical presentations, etc.; to publish\npapers and periodicals and sponsor translations of scientific books; and to sponsor\ntourist travel groups, congresses, and archaeological work in Iran and the Soviet Union.\nThe majority of these activities were being carried on during 1945-1947.\nIn the spring of 1946 the majority of the board of directors of the Society at\nTehran consisted of Tudeh Party members or strong pro-Soviet sympathizers, such as\nSaid Nafisi, Mme. Sayah, wife of the Iranian Ambassador to the USSR, and Dr. Yazdi\n(II-1) (SSU, A-68630, 14 May '46). The amount of money spent by the USSR in\nsupport of this Society probably averages at least $75,000 a year.\nMost of the programs held by the Society through 1946 were \"rather heavy\ngoing.\"\nLong speeches were standard while the lectures usually lacked popular appeal,\noffering accounts of obscure Russian writers or programs in commemoration of various\nanniversaries. The monthly magazine of the Society, published in Persian and entitled\nPayam-i-No (\"New Message\"), contained lengthy, dull articles. In September 1947\nSoviet sources claimed that some 800 people attended a meeting of the Society held to\ncelebrate the 800th anniversary of the founding of Moscow (Radio Moscow, Home\nService, 18 Sept. '47).\nA Soviet school opened at Tabriz in 1944 was a unit of the local branch of the\nSociety. Directed by a Soviet Azerbaijani, the school had an enrollment of 750 students\nduring its first year, and 1,000 in 1945. The school ranged from the first through the\ntenth grade and gave instruction in various subjects in the Russian, Persian, and Turki\nlanguages. There were also evening classes for adults (OSS A-62974, 29 Oct. '45; SSU\nA-66174, 26 Jan. '46; and OSS A-40757, 28 Sept. '44).\nC.\nCultural Relations Societies of Satellites of the USSR.\nCultural and informational activities are also carried on in Iran by Soviet\nsatellites.\nDuring World War II an Irano-Polish Cultural Relations Society was estab-\nlished at Tehran, which published at least two books. In 1946 a Yugoslav-Iran Cul-\ntural Relations Society was active at Tehran (SID Iran, Chap. VII, Subversive). The\npresident of the Society was a leading Iranian figure, Allahyar Saleh, head of the Iran\npolitical party (MA Teh. R-247-46, 9 Nov. '46). In August 1946 the Information Sec-\ntion of the Yugoslav Foreign Office at Tehran distributed pamphlets in Greek which\nIII-9\nSECRET"
}