Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. The Soviet Union played a significant role in the Arab-Israeli conflict as the conflict was a major part of the Cold War. For related developments after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, see Russia and the Arab-Israeli conflict. The official Soviet ideological position on Zionism condemned the movement as akin to bourgeois nationalism. Lenin, claiming to be deeply committed to egalitarian ideals and universality of all humanity, rejected Zionism as a reactionary movement, "bourgeois nationalism", "socially retrogressive", and a backward force that deprecates class divisions among Jews.