Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Shawkat, Ḥamīd
- Abstract:
- This collection is comprised of newsletters, newspapers, journals, pamphlets, booklets, reports, and other writings issued by the Confederation of Iranian Students National Union (CISNU) and other Iranian student groups in Europe and abroad. These materials relate to political conditions and civil liberties in Iran, focusing primarily on the campaign for the rights of political prisoners; political opposition to the Pahlavi monarchy; the spread of Marxist-Leninist thought in Iran and among Iranian students abroad; the aftermath of the coup d'état against Mohammed Mosaddeq.
- Extent:
- 38 manuscript boxes (15.2 Linear Feet)
- Language:
- Persian
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Hamid Shawkat collection, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
The collection is comprised of newsletters, newspapers, journals, pamphlets, booklets, reports, and other writings issued by the Confederation of Iranian Students National Union (CISNU) and other Iranian student groups in Europe and abroad. The materials relate to political conditions and civil liberties in Iran, focusing primarily on the campaign for the rights of political prisoners; political opposition to the Pahlavi monarchy; the spread of Marxist-Leninist thought in Iran and among Iranian students abroad; and the aftermath of the coup d'état against Mohammed Mosaddeq in 1953.
Hamid Shawkat (or Hamid Shokat, as his name appears in published works) collected materials issued by CISNU and dozens of other Iranian student groups in Europe and the United States. Although primarily comprised of circulated newsletters, bulletins, and memoranda, the CISNU issuances provide insight into how Iranian students abroad were able to communicate, organize and, consequentially, create a united ideological front for defending the political and human rights of Iranian citizens.
Largely operating out of West Germany, between the 1960s to late 1970s, CISNU and its many chapters played a role in the proliferation of propaganda and demonstrations denouncing Reza Shah Pahlavi and his secret police, the SAVAK, for their violent suppression of political activists. To illustrate this violence, a number of articles and news bulletins included in the collection discuss the murder of German student Benno Ohnesorg in a 1967 protest organized by CISNU.
Although CISNU lost much of its student membership in the early 1980s, other revolutionary and student groups, including the National Front of Iran, Tudeh Party, Association of Iranian Writers in Exile, and People's Fedaii Guerillas of Iran continued to operate abroad, spreading awareness of their respective political views throughout Europe, Iran, and the surrounding Middle East.
Aside from publishing serial newsletters and circulating memoranda, Iranian Marxist, Communist, and Socialist parties, such as the United Communist Fighters, Party of Labour of Iran, and the People's Mujaheddin, distributed Farsi translations of notable works by Lenin, Lunacharsky, and Guevara. In addition to these works, 8 complete publications of writer and activist Mostafa Sho'aiyan are included in the collection.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Hamid Shawkat was born in Tehran, Iran in 1949. At the age of 20, Shawkat moved to the United States and became involved in the student activist movement, which was united in opposition to the Pahlavi monarchy and the actions of its secret police, the SAVAK. He returned to Iran in 1978, amidst the turbulence of the Iranian Revolution. Soon after his return, Shawkat helped create the National Democratic Front of Iran and worked as an editor for the group?s central publication, Azadi. In addition to the National Democratic Front, several other groups, including the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, National Republicans of Iran, and the Left United Council for Democracy and Independence, joined the struggle for democracy in Iran. Since his time as a student activist, Shawkat has written heavily on the topic of Marxist theory and the rise and fall of the Iranian student movement, as embodied by the Confederation of Iranian Students, National Union.
Source: Hamid Shokat (2010). http://www.shokat.com/english.html.
- Acquisition information:
- Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library Archives in 2002.
- Arrangement:
-
The collection is organized into 7 series: CISNU Administrative Materials, CISNU Issuances, German CISNU Administrative Materials and Issuances, Other Revolutionary Groups' Issuances, Printed Materials, Clippings, and Miscellany.
- Physical location:
- Hoover Institution Library & Archives
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
The collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual or digital media material in the collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.
- Terms of access:
-
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Hamid Shawkat collection, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
- Location of this collection:
-
Hoover Institution Library & Archives, Stanford UniversityStanford, CA 94305-6003, US
- Contact:
- (650) 723-3563