Vitaly Naumkin, a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, scientific director of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, won the International Primakov Award for his book "A Failed Partnership. Soviet Diplomacy in Saudi Arabia between the World Wars".
The publication, which is a monograph of the famous orientalist, is devoted to the formation of Soviet-Saudi relations in the 1920s-1930s. This is the first study of such scope, published in Russia.
The historical period covered in the book begins with the October Revolution and ends in 1938, when during the political purges in the USSR, which also affected the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs, the relations between the two countries were frozen, and the Soviet diplomatic mission was closed.
The author places particular emphasis on introducing into scientific circulation the maximum number of materials from domestic and foreign archives, many of which are published for the first time.
The special value of Naumkin's work lies in the fact that it does not focus exclusively on the problems of Saudi Arabia, but is a kind of encyclopedia of relations between Moscow and the countries of the East. The scholar details little-known pages in the biographies of the most important players, touching on events that took place not only in Arabia, but also in civil war-ridden Central Asia, as well as in Turkey, Iran and the South Caucasus.
In 2019, 10 works were nominated for the annual Primakov International Award from candidates from Russia and foreign countries.
Press Service of the GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
