ABSTRACT

Throughout history, the official Soviet mentality was chronically one of a besieged fortress. "Capitalistic encirclement" was the key word, the implacable struggle of the two world systems was an axiom, the famous expression kto kovo both motto and leitmotif. And the imperialist monsters biding their time to attack and destroy the first country of the victorious proletariat changed names: First it was Britain and France, then Nazi Germany and Japan, then the United States. But the essence of the external imperialist threat remained the same, the mortal danger was always there, and the options facing the beleaguered Soviet people never varied: Tough it out or perish. Mikhail Gorbachev and Shevardnadze preferred to be seen as strong and tough vis-a-vis the West; accordingly, Soviet Middle East policy remained for a time basically unchanged. In the foreseeable future, only the Middle East offers Russia the chance to play a role in world affairs.