ABSTRACT
To the USSR by far the most important region of the Near East was that part which bordered the southern areas of the Soviet Union, the region which is described in this book as the Northern Tier, namely Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan. The failure of the Soviet attempt to dominate the Northern Tier in 1945–7 and the consequential turning of Turkey and Iran towards the West left Soviet policy towards the Near East in disarray. It was six years before a new Soviet policy for the Northern Tier emerged; in the meantime relations between the Soviet Union and its southern neighbours were hostile. During the years 1947–9 the Soviet Union looked mainly to the overthrow of the Turkish and Iranian regimes by communist or minority groups; from 1949–53 it hoped broader opposition coalitions would effect a similar change. In the meantime the USSR tried economic and political pressure and maintained a continuous propaganda campaign. Although events in Iran under Muṣaddiq appeared to favour Soviet hopes the results of Soviet policy were ultimately disappointing and by the end of 1953 pro—Western regimes were strongly entrenched in Turkey and Iran.
