Of unusual interest as indicating the attitude of Soviet Russia
toward the Palestine question is the following extract from a
memorandum35 prepared by Mr. Hirschmann, who until
recently was War Refugee Board representative at Ankara,
following a conversation on October 3 with Mikhailov, First
Secretary of the Soviet Embassy there. Mr. Hirschmann states:
“Early in the conversation, Mikhailov asked whether I had
any opinion on the Arab Conference, which was currently
in session in Alexandria with relation to Palestine. I
replied that I was not familiar with the reasons for the
convocation of the conference or the complex political
situation in Palestine, but that I was planning to spend
three or four days in Palestine with a view to learning
something more about the country, the people and its
possibilities; that Palestine was the one center where
it had been possible to send homeless refugees; and that
it interested me as a creative force in a world in the
process of war.
“Mikhailov volunteered that he had spent some weeks in
Palestine making a study and that he was convinced that
the country could not justify its aims as an independent
Jewish State; that it was economically unsound and
politically unnecessary. ‘With the United States
treating its Jewish citizens as Americans, the British
treating its Jewish citizens as Britains and the Soviet
treating its Jewish citizens as Russians, there is no
necessity in the future for a separate Jewish State,’
Mikhailov stated. He asked whether I had any opinion
regarding the British attitude towards the Arabs and the
Jews from a political point of view. I stated that I did
not; though I had read a number of conflicting articles
about this. Mikhailov then adroitly indicated, by
implication rather than by a categorical statement, that
the British skirts might not be entirely clean where the
Arab unrest was concerned.
“I stated that I had read in a magazine …36 an article indicating that the
Soviet policy regarding Palestine as an independent
Jewish State had recently undergone a change in the
direction of favoring such a State. Mikhailov stated
that he did not know of this article or any propaganda
tending to suggest this change. I then asked Mikhailov
if he could tell me the official position of the Soviet
Government
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with regard to Palestine. After some hesitation,
Mikhailov stated that the Soviet official position, as
he knew it, was opposed to an independent Jewish State
in Palestine in view of the lack of need for such a
state in the new society and political orientation that
would be developed in the future.
“I gathered from this statement that Mikhailov was
indicating his own definite views which unquestionably
must have some support in official circles; although my
impression was that the subject was one which was under
consideration and was probably not closed or settled in
principle from the Soviet point of view.
“I referred again to the creative force and contribution
that was apparently being made in Palestine as a good
society, but these opinions apparently fell on barren
soil.”
We have every reason to believe that this interview provides a
plausible indication of the official Soviet attitude toward
Palestine, since it has been our belief for years that the
Soviets were hostile to Zionism. In addition, the fact that the
Arabs outnumber the Jews so overwhelmingly in the Near East as a
whole would make it unlikely that the Russians, who undoubtedly
are showing a greater interest in the area, would adopt a
pro-Zionist policy in the face of clearly expressed Arab
opposition.
