Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – June 21, 1989

I woke up at four in the morning. I stayed awake. I read the text of the agreement, which is the basis of cooperation with the Soviet Union for two thousand years, and which I had to sign. I wrote the memories of yesterday. I listened to the news of Farsi radios in England and America. They don't hide their concern about Iran-Soviet agreements, but they don't speak negatively either.

We had breakfast with family members at the residence. We went to the site of the Unknown Soldier next to the wall of the Kremlin Palace. They had a military ceremony. A wreath was laid. Previously, there was a possibility that we would perform this ceremony at the [tomb] of Lenin's body, which we did not agree on due to considerations.

From there, we went to the town of Stars, twenty kilometers north of Moscow. General Dikov was the Deputy General Staff [of the Armed Forces] traveling in my car. He has a lot of information and is talkative. There we met with a warm welcome from a group of distinguished astronauts. In a large hall there was an example of the ships that have been launched into space. They gave sufficient explanations about the Mir station and the ships that joined it or were built and the ships that left and returned. Inside the ships, good explanations were given about the conditions, clothing, food, etc. of the astronauts.

In another hall, in a huge pool of water that created vacuum conditions, we saw the training of astronauts to move in vacuum. Then we saw a film about the same thing and the museum of Yuri Gagarin and his statue, and a wreath was laid. We returned to the residence.

Mr. Dikov's explanation about the destruction of missiles with the agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union was interesting and strange to me. After lunch and rest, we went to the Kremlin again. We had two consecutive meetings with Gorbachev, the first one was public and summarized the discussions of the committees, which was positive, and the second one was private and the result of their review on arms and defense cooperation. They happily announced that their political office has approved to give all our demands: giving MiG-29, Sam-5 missile, T-80 tank, sea-to-sea missile, etc. with manufacturing technology. We agreed on Afghanistan, which was very important to them, and also on Iraq.

We visited some of the halls and churches of the Kremlin; It is interesting. From there I went to the bank of the Moscow River, which is connected to the five seas around Russia, with canals that have been built. Bakhshti can go from Moscow to all these five seas. We returned to the residence. We had a short break and went to the Kremlin to attend Mr. Gorbachev's dinner.

We had private friendly talks with Gorbachev at the dinner table. We both gave speeches. He recited, but I gave a speech without writing; Although a text was prepared, they did not bring the Persian text and the Russian text was distributed; Examples of our diplomats' enthusiasm. My unwritten talks were noticed.

We returned to the residence at night. On the way, we visited the Moscow subway and moved two stations in the subway; It is interesting. Then, Red Square was visited on foot. I prayed Maghrib and Isha prayers at half past ten and slept. Mr. Mohsen Rezaei came and discussed tomorrow's negotiations with the Soviet military. Chastity had a meeting with Mrs. Gorbachev today; is satisfied