The Post-quiet Period (1934–1937)

Abstract

This chapter narrates the tumultuous period in the life of Taghi Erani that preceded his arrest and downfall (1934–1937). We learn that during the prior period of tranquility, he made a number of contacts with political activists showing that he had not abandoned his belief in the necessity of political action to bring about radical societal change. A detailed account of the Donya project is given, the scientific-philosophical journal that became the nucleus of the formation of his intellectual circle. We learn of his journeys back to Europe, stints in Berlin under the Nazis, Paris, London, and Moscow, his entanglement with Comintern, meteoric rise in Reza Shah’s administration during the height of rapprochement with the Third Reich, and his dramatic fall ensnared in the midst of a treacherous intelligence minefield.