On June 9, 2009, the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences hosted the Russian-Iranian international conference "The Personality and Views of Imam Khomeini", dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the death of the ideological inspirer and organizer of the Islamic revolution in Iran and the country's spiritual leader. The conference was attended by representatives of the scientific circles of Moscow and Tehran, employees of the Embassy of Iran in the Russian Federation and the Cultural Representation of Iran in Russia, as well as graduate students of the Institute of International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences and other Moscow universities. 15 reports were presented, which examined Imam Khomeini's contribution to the theory and practice of socio-political and cultural development of Iran.

The conference was opened by the Deputy Director of the Institute of Information Technology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, corresponding member. RAS V. M. Alpatov. In his opening remarks, he noted the significance of Khomeini's personality for the history of the twentieth century, its complexity and inconsistency, and in this regard, the importance of organizing such a conference.

Iranian Ambassador to Russia Mahmoud Reza Sajjadi described in detail the versatility of Imam Khomeini's personality-a politician, thinker, public figure, military specialist, as well as just a person - a father, grandfather, husband. The Ambassador noted that when Khomeini started the revolution, few people believed that the Shah would leave Iran and an Islamic republic would be established in the country. It was the Imam's conviction of the right choice and the solidarity of his associates that led them to victory. Khojat-ol-eslam Ejei, the representative of the leader (Rahbar) for working with foreign student associations, elaborated on the main points of Khomeini's biography. He analyzed how and to what extent it was connected with global political events that took place both on a global scale and inside Iran during the XX century. Khojat-ol-eslam Ejei described in detail the years of Imam Khomeini's emigration, as well as the moment of his return to Iran in 1979. The speaker drew the audience's attention to Khomeini's manner of communication with the people, emphasizing that the language of this communication was extremely simple and understandable. Abuzar Ebrahimi Torkaman, head of the Cultural Representation at the Iranian Embassy in Moscow, addressed the question: why did the Islamic revolution take place in Iran?

Priest Georgy Roshchin, Deputy Chairman of the Church and Society Department of the Russian Orthodox DECR, spoke about the dialogue between the Orthodox Church and the Muslim community of Iran. He stressed the exceptional fruitfulness of such a dialogue, which is expressed in joint events organized every two years in both Moscow and Tehran on issues of mutual interest and based on exceptional respect for each other and love for God.

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On behalf of Russian Muslims, Farid Asadullin, a representative of the Spiritual Board of Muslims of Russia, stressed the importance of joint activities of Russia and Iran in various fields. Thus, the Russian Federation, with the assistance of the Islamic Republic of Iran, was admitted as an observer to the OIC.

Greetings from the head of the Organization for Cultural Affairs and Islamic Relations with the Russian Federation Mehdi Mostafavi, President of the Russian-Iranian Friendship Society A. I. Polishchuk were read out to the conference participants.

Speaking with memories of Imam Khomeini's return to Iran, G. P. Yezhov (ISAA of Moscow State University) shared his impressions of those days in Tehran. The growth of the revolutionary movement, which literally engulfed the entire country, forced the Shah to look for a way out of this situation, and he began to change prime ministers, hoping that the new government would be able to find a common language with the clergy and return the country to normal. These included Shah Sharif-Emami's confidant, General Azhari, who imposed martial law, opposition leader Bakhtiar, who released some political prisoners, including Ayatollah Taleghani, and paid tribute to Mohammad Mosaddegh by showing on television for the first time the house where the disgraced prime minister, who gave his life fighting for nationalization, lived in recent years. the place where he died and is buried. But flirting with the people and their memory could not change the situation. Khomeini returned from Paris, and a meeting was prepared for him in Tehran, which was not awarded to any monarch. Along the 32 km stretch from the airfield to the Beheshte Zohra cemetery, where the returning leader was expected to address Iranians, people were standing in a dense corridor greeting the imam. The jubilation of the crowd, as the speaker recalls, cannot be expressed in words. It was the apotheosis of many months of bloody struggle for the right to live in an Islamic country. The time of struggle was over, and the Iranians were facing the future that the imam, who had fought against the influence of the West and the vehicle of this influence, the Iranian monarch, had told them about for many years. Of course, at that time, no one thought that there would be years of struggle to get closer to this dream.

V. I. Sazhin (IB RAS) spoke about how the Iranian people perceived the death of Imam Khomeini. He noted that he was struck by the openness of the Iranian media at that time: TV cameras were installed right in the Ayatollah's hospital room, and in the last days of his life, stunning footage of Khomeini's farewell to his children and grandchildren was broadcast live. When the leader of the Islamic Revolution and founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran passed away in the early hours of June 4, 1989, the country fell into deep mourning. Thousands of Iranians marched through the streets of Tehran day and night to bid him farewell. The farewell ceremony continued at the glass sarcophagus of Khomeini installed in the north of the Iranian capital. The funeral turned into a mass mourning and a demonstration of unity with Ayatollah Khomeini and his ideas. Such unity of the nation and the leader, as the speaker emphasizes, he has never seen in his life. It was a farewell to a man who is on a par with only a few outstanding personalities of the XX century, who turned the course of history.

N. I. Prigarina (IB RAS) devoted her report to the literary work of Imam Khomeini - his poetic experiments. In her opinion, Khomeini's poetry is similar in language and style to classical Persian. However, only poems that are tinged with philosophical and mystical moods, full of allegories, deep insights about the essence of being and the incomprehensibility of its riddles, about the purpose of man and his dramatic history of God-seeking can be truly successful with the Iranian audience. It is the intensity of the spiritual life of the lyrical character in Khomeini's poems, the originality of his behavior-rebelliousness and humility-that make the imam's poetry so attractive and stimulating to think. The poems are dedicated to the wanderings of the human spirit in search of God. It is a story of the soul's ups and downs, captured in short narratives about each stage of progress on the path of knowing God. In most cases, it is symbolic, and behind the images of a friend, beauty, love and wine, the attentive reader opens up other horizons and depths, but not the biographical circumstances of Imam Khomeini's life. In his "Divan", of course, there are hints about the political situation, poems written in the wake of certain events, addressed to relatives, etc. Khomeini's poetry is fueled by a spiritual reality: the religion and philosophy of Islam and Irfan. His ghazals are full of motifs of chanting a friend, wine, love madness and ecstatic intoxication. These are Sufi symbols (or symbols of Gnosticism irfan) - God seeking the truth, the way of comprehension, being in God and self-denial. Rational knowledge is powerless, and insanity, love obsession (Majnun) can move the seeker to the goal. In general, Khomeini's ghazals recreate the poetry of understanding the truth at different stages of the Path to it. His poems at the same time and

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a poetic confession, and a story about multiple discoveries in the world of the spirit, and a poetic testament to like-minded people.

In her speech, N. M. Mammadova (Institute of Internal Affairs of the Russian Academy of Sciences) considered the Institute of Rakhbar in the state system of Iran. According to her, various forecasts of the transformation of the status of Rakhbar as an institution of power and assessments of the evolution of the real influence of Rakhbar on the country's politics, especially after his death, have periodically appeared in the foreign press, including the Russian one. Indeed, in some periods, the level of direct intervention of Rahbar in public policy was less noticeable, while in recent years it has been more obvious. Despite the fact that this peculiar institution of power, created by Imam Khomeini, has manifested itself in various ways, it still remains the main post in the system of state power, not only in terms of its structure, but also from the position of real participation in the government of the country.

Khomeini's political will was the subject of research in the report of E. V. Dunayeva (Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences). She noted that by developing the theory of Islamic power and becoming the head of the anti-Shah popular movement, Khomeini managed to lead it to victory, and then lay the foundations of the Islamic state. Carefully analyzing the processes taking place in the country and in the world, he tried to foresee further developments in order to protect the achievements of the Islamic revolution and promote the strengthening of the role of Islam. Khomeini's "Religious and Political Testament", written by him in 1983 (1361 according to the solar calendar), and published, according to his instructions, after his death, is devoted to these issues. The "Testament" contains advice and instructions addressed to the people of Iran and the country's leaders, and is a sample of research on a number of sociological issues. This is also an attempt at scientific foresight, since Khomeini sought to look into the future and predict the course of events, in order to identify the main difficulties that the new government will undoubtedly face, and warn the defenders of the Islamic revolution against possible challenges and threats. The following years have shown that some of Khomeini's predictions, both in terms of the development of the international situation and the domestic situation, were not far from reality, and many of the potential challenges that he justified more than 20 years ago remain relevant to this day. The action plan outlined by Imam Khomeini has been implemented for two decades. This is evidenced by the consolidation of Islamic power in Iran and the successful development of the country in the economic, social and cultural spheres.

A. I. Polishchuk (Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences) gave a brief analysis of Khomeini's statements published in the 20th issue of the Imam's selected works on the topic "Modern History of Iran from the point of view of Imam Khomeini". The speaker provides new data on the imam's views on the activities of individual political leaders, groups and trends, as well as on the political structure of the country after the victory of the Islamic revolution. Khomeini's statements about the monarchies that ruled in Iran are strongly negative. He criticized the shah's regimes ' attitude to Islam, traditions, and their inability to protect the country's national interests. Criticism of the regime of Reza Shah Pahlavi and his successor, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, is of key importance. The imam paid much attention to the problems of combating moral violations, corruption, social ills of the country, and criticism of the pro-Western orientation of the ruling elite of Iran. At the same time, he highly appreciated the role of the Iranian clergy in defending national interests and considered Islam and Jafari Shiism to be the only force capable of resisting foreign religious and political forces.

Two reports were devoted to the influence of Khomeini's ideas on the foreign policy of Iran. L. M. Kulagina (IB RAS) highlighted the role of Khomeini in determining the foundations of Iran's foreign policy. The main priorities of foreign policy, put forward and developed in his numerous works, were the orientation towards Islamic countries, the spread of the Islamic revolution beyond Iran, and the strict correction of relations with Western states. However, due to changes in both the domestic and foreign political situation, Iran was forced to reconsider a number of political attitudes. Foreign policy has become more flexible and moderate. The current leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran conducts an independent foreign and domestic policy course, based on the teachings of Imam Khomeini and taking into account modern realities. I. E. Fedorova (IB RAS) noted the role of Khomeini in shaping relations between Iran and the United States. The Iranian Revolution of 1978-1979 radically changed the post-World War II system of relations between Iran and the United States. Partnership formed in the 70s of the XX century for

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The Gulf region has collapsed, and Iran, once the United States ' mainstay in the Middle East, has become its antagonist. An important role was played by the fact that in Khomeini's worldview, rejection of the United States was not something secondary. His belief that slavish submission to the United States and cooperation with Washington were the main features of the Shah's regime largely determined the anti-American orientation of the Iranian revolution. However, even after the revolution, relations between the two countries continued to be the central aspect of Iran's foreign policy, and many other areas of foreign policy activity of the country's leadership, in particular in the field of relations with Europe, depended on it. In general, according to the speaker, the foreign policy of the state was determined primarily by the will of Ayatollah Khomeini, and its main principle was the liberation of Iran from the influence of superpowers.

The report of M. S. Kameneva (Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences) was devoted to the analysis of Khomeini's views on the cultural revolution and future transformations of Iranian culture. Imam Khomeini set himself the task of changing and renewing Iranian culture immediately after the Islamic Revolution, as part of the cultural revolution initiated by his decree in 1980. The Iranian Cultural Revolution was a complex and controversial phenomenon that had both positive and negative features. Its main slogan was to create a new, distinctive Iranian culture imbued with the spirit of Islam and based on Muslim traditions, while completely denying the entire cultural heritage of Iran, including that created under the Shah's regime. Khomeini in this period understood a distinctive Iranian culture as one that simultaneously rejects both the cultural heritage of the West and Iran's own pre-Islamic culture. Now, 30 years after the Islamic Revolution, it is safe to say that some of the tasks set by Khomeini in the field of transforming Iranian culture have been completed. At the same time, there are still a number of unresolved issues, first of all, the creation of a completely independent culture, free from Western influence and from its historical past.
The topic of A. N. Fedoseenkova's speech (IB RAS) is Islamic democracy. The speaker analyzed different concepts of democracy, compared the understanding of this term in the European and Islamic traditions. Special attention was paid to the views of Ayatollahs A. Montazeri and A. Soroush, who, in the 30 years that have passed since the Islamic Revolution, have increasingly focused on the development of democratic institutions in the system of Islamic government.

The report of S. M. Ravandi-Fadai (Institute of Islamic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences) described the great influence on the formation of world public opinion about the Islamic revolution by two works devoted to this issue. One of them was published in the United States, translated into 32 languages and was called "Reading Lolita in Tehran". Its author is the Iranian writer Azar Nafisi. Another book, Persepolis, published in France and translated into 16 languages, is by Marjan Satrapi. It formed the basis of the plot of the animated film of the same name, which in 2008 won the jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival and was also nominated for an Oscar. It was these works that helped to create an idea in the West about how the Islamic revolution took place in Iran and how it affected the fate of people.

The discussion concluded with presentations of several new books published in Moscow in 2009: "The Koran-a Book of Guidance "(about Imam Khomeini's views on the Koran), collections of articles "30 Years of the Islamic Revolution" and "Iran and Islamic Countries", as well as a collection of poems by L. E. Avdeeva dedicated to Iran.

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