Memoirs of Nosratollah Moinian, the Shah’s Last Chief of Staff [Persian Language]

Description

Nosratollah Moinian (1924–2024) was a highly influential Iranian politician and a key behind-the-scenes, figure during the reign of Shah Mohammad-Reza Pahlavi, serving from the early 1950s until the 1979 revolution. He was born in Isfahan in 1924 to a merchant family tracing its lineage back to the notable theologian Mohammad-Baqer Majlesi.
In 1938, his family moved to Tehran, where he attended the Franco-Persian school (Razi High School) and studied at the railroad technical college. He began his career in the education department of the national railway system. Soon after, he also ventured into journalism, eventually leading the editorial teams of prominent opposition and anti-communist newspapers of the era, including “Seda-ye Vatan” and “Atash.”
Over the course of his career, Moinian transitioned into high-level government service, serving as the head of the Department of Publications and Radio, Minister of Roads, and head of the Imperial Commission. His final and most prominent government role was serving as the head of the Shah’s Personal Secretariat (Chief of Staff) from 1966 until the 1979 revolution. Following the revolution, he lived in exile, primarily in France.
Moinian earned a reputation as an incorruptible, principled, and private man who held intimate knowledge of the inner workings of the Shah’s administration. In 1978, shortly before the height of the Islamic Revolution, he is appointed to head an imperial commission tasked with investigating corruption, addressing public grievances, and understanding popular discontent. In August of the same year, he is offered the premiership, which he declines. Shortly before leaving Iran permanently, the Shah advises him to depart the country as well.
He passed away in Paris in 2024.