In 1989, Imam Khomeini sent a message to Gorbachev inviting him to accept Islam and warning him of the fall of the Soviet Union and the Communist way of thought. The Imam talked of the inability of fulfilling spiritual needs by material things.
This letter was sent at a time when political analysts were witnessing a want for a new ideology in the world, but they were too afraid to express it. The leader of the Islamic revolution not only openly talked of the changing world of communism, but said: “From now on we will have to look for communism in the historical and political museums of the world.” Imam Khomeini’s letter warned Gorbachev of the death of communism and of trusting the West. This letter was sent at a time when the Soviet Union was still going strong, the Cold War had not ended, the Berlin fall had not fallen, and communism ruled the people’s way of life and thoughts in the Soviet Union. Nevertheless the Imam tells Gorbachev that he can hear the sound of the Marxism’s bones breaking and warns him of getting help from the West to solve their financial problems.
On the 26th of December 1991, three years after this letter was written, the world witnessed the fall of communism.
On the anniversary of the demise of Imam Khomeini in the year 2000, when asked about his reluctance to take the advice of Imam Khomeini about the fall of communism only three years before its fall, Gorbachev said the following in an interview with a News Channel in Moscow: “I think that Ayatollah Khomeini’s message was addressing all the eras throughout history.” He further added: “When I received this message I felt that the person who wrote this message was an intellectual who was worried about the future of the world. When reading this message I felt that he was someone who was worried about the word and he would like me to know and understand more about the Islamic revolution.”
This Message touched many people who were searching for truth and provoked different reactions.
One such reaction which was by Zamir Aralichev, who is from Kazakhstan, is as follows:
"Khomeini, once again, through his letter showed the world people that the real wisdom and philosophy come from the east. The upcoming events showed the truthfulness of Imam. The incredible incidents had happened within some years. The Communist system collapsed. The states of former Union of Soviet Russia became independent countries.
They started building up mosque and Islam revived among the irreligious souls. There had passed only ten years but the Islamic ideas had prevailed in the World. I conclude after looking at my surroundings that Imam Khomeini had predicted all this. It is very interesting that the truth belonged to Imam Khomeini, not Gorbachev- the former head of Soviet Union. Each of them relied on spiritual and philosophical fundamentals. Gorbachev believed in Marx and Lenin while Imam Khomeini had a faith in honorable prophet of Islam and Qur'an.
Gorbachev had a faith in priority of material while Imam Khomeini believed in the spirit of divine power-there is no God except Allah and Muhammad is his messenger."
Hamid Reza Asefi, former speaker of the Iranian Foreign Affairs Ministry:
The message to Gorbachev was a sign of Imam’s power
This letter has different dimensions which we could speak about it; philosophical, religious and cultural dimensions which are all notable, but about the political dimension of the message; we should consider that in the situation which the message was sent no one could have thought or predicted about the collapse of the Soviet Union, but Imam had done it, and this shows that if anyone wants to view the situation without considering the developments of time he has to have an inspirational point of view.
Mohammad Javad Larijani, then the deputy of the foreign minister:
"By sending Gorbachev a message, the Imam entered the struggle about Marxism coming to an end or not, a lot of westerns thought that they should act with the Soviet Union cautiously but Imam said Marxism has come to an end and he designed the relations of the post-Soviet based on this philosophy. The second axis of Imam's message was his warning about west's green light. Imam said, what would replace Marxism after its death. He said that the reason of Marxism falling isn't the existence of Marxism or that Liberalism wasn't there, he clears it for us that the reason Marxism failed was its avoiding and fighting with God, and so he concludes that the west will reach to the same place and he wanted to introduce Islam. Imam always said that we should work on introducing our system as a suitable system in the modern world; his goal was to introduce the Islamic system in the absence of Marxism system. After the collapse of Marxism there were several discussions in the world, the Chinese thought bad economic situation caused this collapse so they moved to reform their economy system. In the west they thought not being free caused this collapse, but Imam said none of them are correct, you are both secular and their failure is inevitable. Imam taught us another lesson too, and that was his children should speak bravely. I always pity that Imam's letter was never analyzed well so that its thoughtful and deep sources could be revealed and we could find its meanings. This is the only issue which Imam officially sent a delegation in his own name to another country and this was an experience which made us all brave enough to talk about our thoughts openly; it took us to the war go great issues."
When Elaheh Kolai ‘an ex-minister of parliament’ was asked about what she thought regarding the Imam’s letter to Gorbachev, she replied: “In the Imam’s historic letter to Gorbachev, the Imam talks of the dead end the Soviet Union will face. The truth is that the Imam believed that a society which does not accept God as their creator and as their true sovereign will always fall. According to this theory any society or government which follows an incorrect way of thought, rejects truths and ignores the intrinsic needs of humans, will not see the efforts of people in trying to attain profits and will in general oppose profiting. This is all due to an incorrect way of thought and will lead to destruction. Imam Khomeini had a special awareness of political circumstances and this led him in making such a precise prediction.
Keeping their opponents quiet, not allowing freedom of speech and political suffocation had hidden many truths within the Soviet Union. Many open minded intellectuals had argued that instilling governmental capitalism instead of private capitalism would not be sustainable. However the Imam’s predictions were more than a specialist opinion, they were based on religious beliefs and have now become a historical document.”