264 A Short History of the Middle East

were darkened from time to time by embargoes and boycotts.
However, Russia supported him in his dispute with the Anglo-
Iranian Oil Co. in 1932, and by 1936 she was taking 28 per cent, of
Persia's exports and supplying 30 per cent, of her imports. 'Russian
engineers and technicians began to pour into the country. Russian
contracts were obtained for flour-mills and bakeries, granaries and
workshops. Russian surveyors were employed on new road-
projects, and Russian pilots and tank-experts began to appear in
unusually large numbers/1

During this period the Soviet government was not in diplo-
matic relations with any of the other Middle Eastern countries,
and her connexion with them was virtually confined to the en-
couragement given by the Comintern to the embryonic Commun-
ist parties in those countries. The conservative governments of
the Middle East, whether mandatory or nominally independent,
were strongly opposed to Communism, and Egypt went so far as
to deprive of his nationality any Egyptian who visited the U.S.S.R.

(4) The period of'Friendship9 with Germany, 1939-41
In August 1939 the Soviet government, having reached the con-
clusion that Britain and France could not be brought to an alliance
on its somewhat exacting terms, preferred to do a deal with Ger-
many, and Molotov concluded with Ribbentrop the opportunist
and cynical Treaty of Friendship and Non-Aggression. In further-
ance of its new friendship with Hitler, the Soviet government con-
cluded a new commercial treaty with Persia in March 1940, which
allowed Persian goods in transit to Germany to cross Russia duty-
free, and so assisted the greatly increased German trade with
Persia. The Turkish Foreign Minister had been in Moscow at the
time of the signing of the Treaty with Germany, but failed to reach
an understanding with Molotov, who required as the price
of a Black Sea mutual-assistance pact that the Turks should in
all circumstances keep the Straits closed to the warships of any
nation hostile to the U.S.S.R.; and this the Turkish government
held to be inconsistent with their agreements with Britain and
1 Elwell-Sutton, op. cit., 162. Germany, Persia's second-largest customer,
took in 1936 13 per cent, of her exports and supplied 15 per cent, of her imports.