How Moscow “closed” Saudi Arabia
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Stalin’s fatal mistake
On the first day of this year, the well-known Kazakhstani politician, former ambassador of the republic in Moscow and my great friend Tahir Mansurov turned 75 years old. On the eve of this date, he made a great gift to all connoisseurs of the history of national diplomacy – he published an updated and expanded version of his book about Nazir Tyuryakulov, the first diplomatic representative of the USSR in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia is one of the most important and influential states in the world. The outcome of global conflicts often depends on what kind of political line this oil kingdom will pursue. For example, in the 80s of the last century, in an effort to punish the USSR for its decision to send troops to Afghanistan, the official Riyadh (as the capital of the kingdom is called) purposefully brought down world oil prices and thus bled the Soviet budget. Today, America has also demanded help and support from the Saudis. After the start of the NWO, Washington made a lot of efforts, seeking from Riyadh actions aimed at lowering world prices for “black gold” and ousting Moscow from the world oil market. But this time the Americans were in for a bummer: Russian diplomacy has established strong and trusting contacts with the de facto ruler of the kingdom, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. And these ties, coupled with Washington’s controversial and clumsy handling of Prince Mohammed, have secured Saudi Arabia’s benevolent neutrality for Russia in the current global conflict.
Questions about how the fate of the USSR would have developed if Moscow had not destroyed its relations with the Saudis are conversations in favor of the poor. History, as you know, does not know the subjunctive mood. But the fact remains that during the period when the first king of Saudi Arabia Abdulaziz Al Saud created and named this state after his family, the Soviet representative Nazir Tyuryakulov was the most influential foreign diplomat at his court. Quote from Tyuryakulov’s report to Moscow: “At the appropriate moment, I delivered a speech in Arabic. I was followed by Bond (in English), followed by Maigret (in French). The attitude of the Arabs to my speech was clearly sympathetic. While my speech was supported by the unanimous exclamations of those present, the speeches of Bond and Maigret were listened to without any reaction. Of such “trifles”, which in fact are not trifles at all, diplomatic art consists. The winner is the one who, both literally and figuratively, speaks with the locals in their language.
Tyuryakulov had to work in incredibly difficult conditions. But the main nightmare awaited him after being recalled to his homeland: in 1937 he was shot during the Stalinist repressions. At the same time, Soviet-Saudi relations were actually shot.
Director of the State Hermitage, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Mikhail Piotrovsky wrote in the preface to Mansurov’s book that it “highlighted an amazing story of missed opportunities to develop ties with the state that Soviet Russia was the first to recognize.” It is a pity that this amazing story ended in tragedy, not a happy ending. But tragedies and failures also need to be remembered – at least so that they do not happen again.
Newspaper headline:
Stalin’s fatal mistake
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