[SOVIET PROPAGANDA IN THE ARAB WORLD / THE SOVIET SPACE PROGRAM] دراسات علميّة سوفيتية نشرة غيُردورة يوليو سنه ١٩٥٨ / Darâsât ilmiyyat Sofyatiyyat: Nashrat Gerdora Yuliyu, fî sana 1958 [i.e., Soviet Scientific Studies, Gerdora Bulletin, July 1958]. No. 1

THE USSR PROPAGANDA IN EGYPT.

The USSR Embassy Press Office in the United Arab Republic (UAR), Cairo, 1958.

Contemporary full green cloth in Egyptian style, contemporary white endpapers, gilt lettering of title on front board and gilt decorations on spine. Original pictorial cover saved inside. Roy. 8vo. (24 x 17 cm). In Arabic. 88 p., 12 b/w ills. including drawings and reproduced photographic plates.

Extremely rare unrecorded first issue of this Soviet propaganda organ published in Cairo, the centre of the UAR, by the USSR Propaganda Press Office, with a striking cover design depicting the Sputniks in space, celebrating the third anniversary of the Kosmicheskaya programma SSSR.

The content begins with a comparison between the Soviet and American satellites. A full-paged photograph shows the Muscovites reading newspapers about the launch of the third Soviet satellite into space. In the periodical, many details such as the construction processes and technical specifications of the satellites are explained, as well as a striking history of the Soviet Space Program.

Relations between Russia and Egypt have a long history, dating back to before the 16th century. In the 1950s, Gamal Abdel Nasser's independent and anti-imperialist policy earned him enthusiastic support from the Communist government of the USSR. In 1955, Egypt made a major arm deal with the Soviet Union, and from then, teams of Egyptian officers were trained in Eastern Bloc countries. Czechoslovak instructors also came in 1956, to train Egyptian personnel in the use of Soviet weapons. When France attacked Egypt during the Suez Crisis, the USSR threatened to use destructive weapons i.e. nuclear weapons for the defence of Egypt. The degree of the Soviet approval of the Egyptian leader's policies culminated, rather controversially, in the award of the highest Soviet decoration, the star of the Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin to Nasser during Nikita Khrushchev's visit to the country in 1964.

Kosmicheskaya programma SSSR [i.e., The Soviet Space Program] was the national space program of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), active from 1955 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.

After WWII, the Soviet and US space programs both utilized German technology in their early efforts. Eventually, the program was managed under Sergei Korolev, who led the program based on unique ideas derived by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, sometimes known as the father of theoretical astronautics. Contrary to its American, European, and Chinese competitors, who had their programs run under a single coordinating agency, the Soviet space program was divided and split among several internally competing design bureaus led by Korolev, Kerimov, Keldysh, Yangel, Glushko, Chelomey, Makeyev, Chertok, and Reshetnev.

The Soviet space program served as an important marker of Soviet claims to its global superpower status. (Wikipedia).

As of May 2024, not in OCLC and KVK.