The Cambridge History of Islam

The period of radical reform at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century was one in which all revolutionary energy was mobilized in the upsurge of the nationalist movement. It was in the wake of this movement that Marxist ideas began warily to make their way into the Muslim world. In October 1917, the triumph of Communism in Russia in overthrowing the tsarist monarchy, dispossessing the ruling classes, and in standing up to the intervention of the Western powers, was a stimulating example for all the Eastern revolutionaries who were engaged in the same struggle against the same adversaries. In 1918, of all the Middle East countries, Turkey was considered by the Comintern to be the one in which the Communist revolution had most chance of success, which would have made it the starting point for the propagation of Communism throughout the Middle East and in Africa.