ABSTRACT
The Soviet Union's interest in Israel's military victories involved measures to consolidate Israel's international position and status. On 17 May 1948 the Soviet government announced its decision "to recognize officially the State of Israel and its Provisional Government," which made it the first government to accord the new state de jure recognition. In February 1949 Soviet Ambassador in Washington Aleksandr Paniushkin invited Israeli Ambassador Eliahu Elath to discuss reports that had appeared in the Western press concerning the possibility of Israel's inclusion in the Marshall Plan. A central feature of the Soviet Legation's contacts and activity in Israeli public life and its acquisition of information was its interest in the Israeli press and information services. The special cordiality that characterized the Soviet authorities' attitude to the Israeli mission was the subject of conversation in the small foreign colony in the Soviet capital.
