The Fifty-Three

The Fifty-Three were a group of 53 Iranians arrested for involvement in communist political activities in 1937 and brought to trial in November 1938 in the most sensational of the political trials held during the reign of Reza Shah Pahlavi. Some, such as Dr. Taqi Arani, died in jail - the rest were released in 1941.

As a result of the similarity with the prosecution of the Old Bolsheviks in the Stalinist show trials in the Soviet Union in 1936–1938, some jested that Rezā Shāh was performing an imitation of Joseph Stalin.

The fifty-five were:


 * 1. Taqi Arani
 * 2. Abdul-Samad Kambakhsh
 * 3. Mohammad Bahrami
 * 4. Mohammad Shureshyan
 * 5. Ali Sadeqpour
 * 6. Mohammad Boqrati
 * 7. Ziya Alamutti
 * 8. Mohammad Pazhuh
 * 9. Mohammad Farjami
 * 10. Abbas Azeri
 * 11. Nasratallah Ezazi
 * 12. Anvar Khamei
 * 13. Nosrat-ollah Jahanshahlou
 * 14. Emad Alamutti
 * 15. Akbar Ashfar
 * 16. Taqi Makinezhad
 * 17. Mojtaba Sajjadi
 * 18. Bozorg Alavi
 * 19. Mehdi Rasai
 * 20. Iraj Eskandari
 * 21. Morteza Yazdi
 * 22. Reza Radmanesh
 * 23. Khalil Maleki
 * 24. Morteza Sajjadi
 * 25. Hossein Sajjadi
 * 26. Akbar Shandermani
 * 27. Mohammad Qodreh
 * 28. Taqi Shahin
 * 29. Morteza Razavi
 * 30. Seyfollah Sayyah
 * 31. Alinqali Hokmi
 * 32. Ezatollah Etiqechi
 * 33. Vali Khajavi
 * 34. Rahim Alamutti
 * 35. Shayban Zamani
 * 36. Abdul-Qassem Ashtari
 * 37. Hossein Tarbiyat
 * 38. Fazollah Garkani
 * 39. Yousef Soqfi
 * 40. Jalal Naini
 * 41. Rajbali Nasimi
 * 42. Bahman Shomali
 * 43. Mehdi Laleh
 * 44. Ehsan Tabari
 * 45. Abbas Naraqi
 * 46. Mehdi Daneshvar
 * 47. Hassan Habibi
 * 48. Nuraldin Alamutti
 * 49. Reza Ibrahimzadeh
 * 50. Khalel Enqelab
 * 51. Fereydun Manou
 * 52. Ana Turkoman
 * 53. Razi Hakim-Allahi
 * 54. Mohammad Ebrahim Moghadam
 * 55. Ahmad Mohammad-pour Nikbin