A study of Soviet-Israel relations

In the six years that have passed since Israel declared her sovereignty, her relations with the USSR have undergone profound changes. These changes have occurred both in the formal-diplomatic sphere, where they range from Russia being the first to accord Israel de-jure recognition, to complete rupture and a subsequent resumption of relations; and in the more substantial sphere of political influence, prestige and (at least as far as Israel is concerned) public opinion, where we find such divergencies as having at one period the USSR appearing as the most consistent defender of the U.N. resolution providing for the establishment of the Jewish State, and a few years later as a new citadel of anti-Semitism. An attempt to explain these contradiction will also have to dwell upon the period when the State of Israel was only an idea (and an ideal) and any contact that existed between the propagator of this idea and the Russian Government could not be covered by the term "international relations." We shall therefore devote some part of our account to the period before 1948, and deal not only with Russian interest in the territory then known as Palestine, but also with her attitudes to Zionism, the movement that aimed at the setting up of a Jewish state in that territory.