ABSTRACT
The key to understanding Soviet peace efforts in the Middle East lies in the ‘Appeal to All Moslem Workers of Russia and the East’, authored by V. Lenin and J. Stalin. Lenin’s flexibility in accommodating local Soviet Moslems under the protection of the Communist Party, and his drive to gain the support of and sympathy for Moslems outside the USSR, was followed by a series of peace-and-friendship treaties with Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, Yemen and Saudi Arabia. The Soviets calculated that they would solve their internal Jewish problem: all Soviet Jews would run away to Israel. The Soviet Union’s renewed commitment to the Arabs’ cause echoed Lenin’s early call to win the ‘sympathy and support’ of the Middle East. The Soviets have developed a multifaceted machinery to implement their version of peace in the Middle East guided by national security interests.
