The Soviet Afro‑Asian Solidarity Committee and Soviet Perceptions of the Middle East during Late Socialism

How did selected Soviet cultural representatives in late socialism see the Middle East? What were their opinions or understanding of it? This paper replies to these questions by analysing the statements, reports and communications of the Soviet Afro‑Asian Solidarity committee (SKSSAA), which is analysed as a case study. It scrutinizes archival material of the SKSSAA and discusses the interaction between the Solidarity Committee and various liberation movements and “fronts”. In doing so, it highlights the peculiarities of a Soviet Orientalism. In the first section, the paper sets the context of the Soviet “Third World” engagement with a description of the myriad of “public organisations” tasked with spreading socialism; while dependent on the CPSU International Department, the SKSSAA claimed to enjoy some autonomy. In the second part of the paper, it is shown that the Solidarity Committee engaged in four identity‑crafting activities vis‑à‑vis its foreign partners: it drew a line between friends and enemies, it “certified” its partners as revolutionary, and it continuously assessed and evaluated their behaviour, both on an institutional and on an individual level. What emerges is a peculiar Orientalism, in which the Self is obviously more powerful, but in which the Other is continuously deemed as having the potential for becoming similar to the Soviet Self.