Articles

The 1917 Russian Revolutions and the Arab World

Vostok/Oriens '2017, №4

DOI: 10.7868/S086919081704001X

 
A hundred years ago, Russia suffered the two revolutions: in February and October of 1917. The February Revolution, marked by many contradictions and inter-party hostilities, was almost unnoticed outside of Russia. Moreover, its leaders did not manage to solve even the Russian domestic problems and quickly disappointed the widest masses of the peasants, workers and soldiers, awakened by the revolution. Provisional Governments of Georgy Lvov and Alexander Kerensky did postpone solutions of vital questions about peace, land, power, and the demands of national minorities for an indefinite future. The most diverse groups of the population were disappointed by the adherents of the February Revolution. The positions of the Provisional Government were weakening every day. Therefore, in October 1917, Kerensky’s Provisional Government collapsed under the pressure of the revolutionary energy of the numerically small but well-organized Bolshevik party. The October Revolution, unlike the February events, did have a significant impact on the development of the revolutionary situation in the Arab world. During the First World War, the Arabs suffered significant losses: they died on the battlefields in the ranks of the army of the Ottoman Empire and in the ranks of the opposing troops of Great Britain and France, they by hundreds of thousands were killed of famines, diseases and cruel repressions of the Ottoman authorities, . Therefore, in the Arab countries, the Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia received widespread acclaim, as well as the historical appeal of the first Soviet government “To all working Muslims of Russia and the East" with an appeal to overthrow the oppression of the imperialist "predators and enslavers”. The statements of the Arab leaders of 1918–27 clearly show that these leaders were inspired by the example of Soviet Russia and sought to follow its path in the course of the revolutionary movements that swept Egypt, Libya, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Morocco in 1918–27.

Keywords: international relations, Russia and the Arab World, October Revolution, national liberation movement

Pages: С. 6–13