Russian Lands in Palestine in the Context of Soviet Diplomacy

Abstract

The article deals with the issue of the so-called Russian property in Palestine. The author described what steps Soviet diplomats have taken since 1922 with regard to the properties that belonged before 1917 to the imperial government, the Russian Orthodox Church and the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society. Before the war, the NCID tried to recover the property through negotiations, lawsuits in court, and the creation of quasi-organizations. After the end of the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet leadership engaged former Russian emigrants to resolve the issue, used the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church, and influenced the Israeli government diplomatically. The issue was partially resolved. Thus, church lands were returned to the Moscow Patriarchate, primarily the properties of the Russian Spiritual Mission. At the same time, Israel refused to hand over imperial property and the property of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, arguing that the USSR did not have sufficient rights. The situation was resolved in the early 1960s when official Tel Aviv offered to sell all the disputed plots to Moscow. Over several years, the criteria for the deal (later called “orange”) were worked out. As a result, in September 1964 an agreement was signed on the sale of the disputed property for 4.5 million US dollars. However, after the Six-Day War and the rupture of diplomatic relations, the issue of Russian lands arose again, but already on the part of the ROCOR. In general, the author disagrees with the historiography and evaluates the deal as a diplomatic luck, since the USSR had no reasonable rights to the property, but managed to negotiate its sale at a market price. Moreover, such a deal demonstrated the openness of the Soviet Union in solving complex geopolitical problems through mutual benefits in the economic sphere.