In the fall of 2012, on the first anniversary of the assassination of the leader of the Libyan revolution Muammar Gaddafi, the head of the Russian-Arab Dialogue Research Center of the Institute of Political Science of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Historical Sciences A. Z. Egorin, published a book about the civil war in Libya- " The Overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi. The Libyan Diary 2011-2012 " (Moscow, IV RAS, 2012). This work continues the research of Russian Arabists on the events of 2011-2012 that led to significant changes in individual countries of the Middle East and North Africa and in the geopolitical situation in this region as a whole. A. Yegorin knows the Arab world well, where he spent 12 years. 1974-1980 he was an adviser to the Soviet Embassy in Libya, which was important for his subsequent scientific work, since it is not easy to understand this unusual country without living there. Of the 30 monographs he wrote, 11 were devoted to Libya. His new book is a combination of analysis and chronicle notes. It follows the course of events day after day, and sometimes even hour after hour: the beginning of the civil war, the intervention of NATO, the brutal murder of Gaddafi and one of his sons, the tragic death of two other sons and three grandchildren under NATO bombs, and, finally, the ruin of the once-prosperous country. The materials collected by the author show the danger of a simplified approach to the civil war in Libya: The events in this country were allegedly caused by the desire of citizens for Western-style democracy, the indignation of the Libyan people over the long-term dictatorship of Muammar Gaddafi, etc. Meanwhile, the author provides evidence that the protests that began in Benghazi from the very beginning were not peaceful at all - militant groups were operating there, that M. Gaddafi did not immediately throw the army against the rebels, hoping to solve the problem peacefully. The real reason for the protests that began in Febr ... Read more