IISH Collections on Nazım Hikmet

Archives

Hikmet was not only a poet, but also an important member of the Turkish Communist party (TKP), and the IISH holds many archives with materials relating to Nazım Hikmet. The archives of the Comintern and the TKP contain letters from and manuscripts of poems and stories by Nazım Hikmet.
Also the TKP-TBKP (Duisburg) archive contains documents on Hikmet, such as manuscripts of some poems (some of them in Ottoman Turkish) with biographical notes; the manuscript of Romantika by Nazım Hikmet. (n.d); copies of telegrams of condolence upon his death; clippings on Nazım Hikmet. 1963-1988; and contributions to Bizim Radyo by Nazım Hikmet (1958-1963).
Nazım Hikmet wrote hundreds of letters to his friend Vâ-Nû and his wife Müzehher Vâ-Nû, (both journalists) from various prisons. Besides these letters the Vâ-Nû archive also contains newspaper clippings on Hikmet (1950-1993).
The personal papers of Hikmet Kıvılcımlı, a dissident communist; contain documents of and interviews with the poet in 1938.
In addition to the Vâ-Nû archive, the papers of Kemal Sülker is also a rich source for research on Hikmet. As well as being the author of several books on the history of Turkish trade unions, Sülker also wrote a biography of the poet Nazım Hikmet. The archive contains notes and documentation relating to his study on Hikmet 1929-1993; photocopies of articles written by Orhan Selim (alias of Nazım Hikmet); documents concerning the Navy Trial (1938-1988); documents concerning Hikmet's hunger strike (1950-1988); documents concerning his death (1963); and documents relating to memorial meetings for Hikmet (1977-1987).
E.S. Reddy, the Assistant Secretary-General of the UN and publisher of a number of books on South Africa, India and Gandhi, collected many printed materials on Nazım Hikmet. In his collection there are booklists about him from libraries, biographies, a few poems published in the United States and India, cover pages of some Nazım's books published in 1952 and articles: 'A poet of the new Turkey' - by Nermine Mouvafac (1932); 'A talk with Nazım Hikmet' - Masses and Mainstream (1951); 'The case of Nazım Hikmet' - Masses and Mainstream (1950).
Our site contains some examples of letters written by Nazım Hikmet.

Books

The library of the IISH has about 170 books by the poet himself or about him in many languages. You can find them in our Online Catalogue (OPC).

Sound tapes

After his flight from Turkey Hikmet also visited the Soviet satellite states. One of these trips was to Hungary in 1955. Hikmet had contacts with the Turkish service of Budapest Radio. The IISH holds eight sound tapes (7 hrs.) with recordings of speeches and readings by Nazım Hikmet for Budapest Radio. These consist of his own poems and those of other Turkish poets such as Tevfik Fikret, Orhan Veli, Oktay Rıfat, and Melih Cevdet Anday.
You can hear a few poems read by Nazım Hikmet.

Visual materials

Our poster collection also contains many posters on Nazım Hikmet, from the 70s to the present. The institute has several unique photos from a visit to Bulgaria in 1957.
Our Website shows some of the pictures from this trip.