Iranian Exiles and Stalin’s Great TerrorState Violence in the 1930s Soviet Union

Examines how Iranian nationals fell victim to Stalin’s Great Terror

• Uncovers the untold history of Iranian political exiles and migrant workers during Stalin’s Great Terror
• Draws on newly accessible Soviet archival sources to reconstruct individual lives and state violence
• Bridges multiple fields including Stalinist repression, Soviet-Iranian relations, and global communist history
• Highlights the vulnerability of foreign nationals under authoritarian regimes and the politics of forced disappearance
• Challenges dominant narratives by centering marginalized voices affected by ideological purges

While Stalin’s Great Terror has been extensively studied, this is the first book to uncover the fate of Iranian communists and migrant workers in the Soviet Union during the 1930s purges. It reveals how foreign nationals, particularly Iranians, were caught in the machinery of repression during one of the darkest chapters of Soviet history. Using newly accessible Soviet archives, it tells the human stories behind political repressions – stories that were buried for decades and have been entirely absent from both Iranian and Soviet historiography.

By reconstructing the lives and fates of those silenced, this book challenges established narratives and emphasises the human cost of political repression. The authors provide detailed individual case studies of Iranians who were arrested, deported or executed, most of whom have never appeared in the historical record before. Speaking to enduring themes of displacement, political persecution and the vulnerability of migrants under authoritarian regimes, it is a vital contribution to both historical scholarship and contemporary political reflection.