ABSTRACT
But in fact the notion of ‘sovietization’ has lately become transformed, and to ignore its new meaning is to misunderstand the whole political development of the U.S.S.R. In Stalin’s time, sovietization could come about only through the violent seizure of power by the local proletariat, or through occupation by the Red Army. Stalin, one of the old Bolsheviks, despised and distrusted the bourgeoisie, and had no confidence in anything less than revolt-a civil war waged by the proletarian masses themselves and led by Communists. The sovietization of the Middle East could therefore be conceived only in three possible forms-(a) violent proletarian revolution, (b) the break-up of states with multi-national populations (such as Iraq, Persia, and others) by the action of dynamic minorities such as the Kurds or Azerians looking towards the U.S.S.R., or (c) a Soviet military occupation-this last solution being, however, improbable.
