Vladimir Lenin rejected Zionism as a reactionary movement, "bourgeois nationalism", "socially retrogressive", and a backward force that deprecates class divisions among Jews.
[2] From late 1944, however, Joseph Stalin adopted a pro-Zionist foreign policy, apparently believing that a Jewish state would emerge socialist and pro-Soviet, and thus would speed the decline of British influence in the Middle East.
[3] Accordingly, in November 1947, the Soviet Union, together with the other countries of the Eastern Bloc, voted in favour of the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine,[4] which would pave the way for the establishment of the State of Israel.
"[citation needed] Some Zionology books, "exposing" Zionism and Judaism, were included in the mandatory reading list for military and police personnel, students, teachers and Communist Party members and were mass published.
"[11]A similar picture was drawn by Paul Johnson: The Israeli government was also referred to as a "terrorist regime" which "has raised terror to the level of state politics."
"[13] Paul Johnson and other historians have also argued that United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379 of 10 November 1975 that equated "Zionism" with "racism" was orchestrated by the Soviet Union.
On 1 April 1983, official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Pravda, ran a full front-page article titled From the Soviet Leadership:"By its nature, Zionism concentrates ultra-nationalism, chauvinism and racial intolerance, excuse for territorial occupation and annexation, military opportunism, cult of political promiscuousness and irresponsibility, demagogy and ideological diversion, dirty tactics and perfidy...
It took more than six years before Moscow consented to restore diplomatic relations with Israel on 19 October 1991, just 2 months before the collapse of the USSR and ten days before the Dissolution of the Soviet Union.