ABSTRACT
From the late 1940s, the USSR and to a lesser extent the local communist parties were appealing to Middle Eastern nationalist groups to concentrate on the task of putting an end to Western influence in the Middle East. Soviet policy-makers took full advantage of the difficulties which the Western powers faced in handling their own Middle Eastern policies. Britain and France were considered by most Arab countries as imperialist powers whose interests were still to exploit the Arab world and to bring it under their control. The emergence of the United States as a new superpower after the Second World War raised hopes and expectations in the Arab world. Soviet interest in the area had been steadily increasing since the second half of the 1940s. Towards the end of Stalin’s period in power, many attempts were made by the Soviets to improve relations with Arab governments which conducted an anti-Western policy or declared neutralism.
