Soviet Marxism and Zionism

Abstract

Today there exist two principal trends in the proliferation of literature on the Soviet policy towards the Middle East conflict and the various parties involved. One group of writers is primarily concerned with Soviet Realpolitik, arguing that the Soviet Union is exploiting the Arab-Israeli dispute to implement an expedient policy designed to gain a foothold in the Arab world, an economically and geostrategically important region to which the Soviet Union otherwise would hardly have had access. Like Walter Laqueur or Oleg M. Smolansky, such analysts concentrate on the Soviet Union's role as a great power and analyse Soviet policy towards Zionist Israel simply within the framework of great-power rivalry in the post-war international balance of power system.1 The second trend is geared to evoking and publicizing the problem, which is said to still exist in the Soviet Union in much the same way as it existed under the anti-Semitic Tsarist regimes. These writers are invariably committed to the Zionist cause; their writings advocate to the Western world the free migration of Soviet Jews to Israel.2 By the same token the Soviet policy towards Israel is presented as a mere extension of Soviet policy towards its Jewish minority, both being explained in terms of the ageold problem of anti-Semitism. Both approaches pay little attention to the theoretical-ideological basis that underlies the Soviet decision-making process. Writers of the first group seem