ABSTRACT
A careful examination of the communist movement in the Arab world clearly reveals two major features. The first is an initial and relatively longlasting rigorous adherence to a Soviet Marxist-Leninist ideological doctrine.1 This adherence manifested itself in an uncritical acceptance of Soviet Marxism as expounded by the leadership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and – until the 1960s – a failure to formulate an independent social analysis of the conditions within the Arab world without reference to the canons of Soviet Marxism. This was largely due to the influence of the Comintern, which assisted the development of all the region’s communist parties, with the exception of Sudan. Indeed, the history of the Arab communist movement can be seen as one of gradual, and until the very end, just partial emergence from the penumbra of Soviet ideological influence into a movement which, nevertheless, has had a fundamental impact on the political discourse of the Arab world.
