Khomeini's letter to Mikhail Gorbachev

Khomeini's letter to Mikhail Gorbachev
Khomeini's letter to Mikhail Gorbachev
Created	7 January 1989
Author(s)	Ruhollah Khomeini
Media type	Letter
Subject	Invited Gorbachev to consider Islam as an alternative to communist ideology

On 7 January 1989, Ruhollah Khomeini, supreme leader of Iran, sent a letter to Mikhail Gorbachev, the General Secretary of the Soviet Union.^[1] This letter was Khomeini's only written message to a foreign leader.^[2] Khomeini's letter was delivered by the Iranian politicians Abdollah Javadi-Amoli, Mohammad-Javad Larijani, and Marzieh Hadidchi.^[3] In the letter, Khomeini declared that communism was dissolving within the Soviet bloc,^[4]^[5] and invited Gorbachev to consider Islam as an alternative to communist ideology.^[3]^[6]

^ "Imam Khomeini's historic epistle to Gorbachev". Archived from the original on 22 April 2017. Retrieved 3 January 2017.
^ Goodman, Melvin Allan (1991). "Afghanistan". Gorbachev's Retreat: The Third World. New York City, New York, United States: Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 61. ISBN 9780275936969 – via Google Books.
^ ^a ^b Khomeini, Rudollah (2003). "Translator's Introduction". The Greatest Jihād: Combat with the Self. Alhoda UK/Institute for Compilation and Publication of Imam Khomeini's Works. p. 15. ISBN 9789643355579 – via Google Books.
^ Saivetz, Carol R. (1990). "The Soviet Union and Iran: Changing Relations in the Gorbachev Era". In Rezun, Miron (ed.). Iran at the Crossroads: Global Relations in a Turbulent Decade (1 ed.). New York City, New York, United States: Routledge. pp. 181–198. doi:10.4324/9780429043376-11. ISBN 9780429043376. S2CID 195489148.
^ Axworthy, Michael (2013). "5. The End of the War, the Death of the Emam, and Reconstruction: Khamenei and Rafsanjani, 1988—97". Revolutionary Iran: A History of the Islamic Republic. New York City, New York, United States: Oxford University Press. p. 301. ISBN 9780199322268 – via Google Books.
^ Rzepka, Marcin (1 January 2013). "Religion, diplomacy and identity. Some remarks on the ayatollah Khomeini's letter to Gorbachev" (PDF). Orientalia Christiana Cracoviensia. 5 (2). Kraków, Poland: Pontifical University of John Paul II: 79. doi:10.15633/ochc.1034. Retrieved 30 January 2022.