Vladimir Lenin, the founder of the Soviet state, provided the ideological underpinning for Soviet Third world policy. Be believed that the developing nations, most of which were still part of European colonial empires, were the "weakest link in the capitalist empires and that revolution along these nations would undermine the military and economic power of the West- In 1920, he called on all Communist parties to support these revolutions, but Soviet Russia at that time vas involved in its own civil war and too weak to sake many inroads in the Third World.

This study examines the nature and patterns of Soviet cultural activities in Egypt and Syria, the motivations behind those activities, and the contribution of the Soviet cultural effort toward the attainment of overall Soviet Middle East policies. Chapter I provides background information on Soviet-Arab relations, and in Chapter II Soviet objectives in the Middle East are examined. Chapter III identifies the important components of the Soviet cultural instrument in Egypt and Syria. Chapter IV assesses the contribution made by the cultural tool toward the attainment of Soviet objectives in Egypt and Syria. Finally, Chapter V demonstrates that the Soviet cultural enterprise exerted little impact on overall Soviet policy in the Middle East.

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