E. D. PYRLIN. 100 YEARS OF CONFRONTATION: GENESIS, EVOLUTION, CURRENT STATE AND PROSPECTS OF SOLVING THE PALESTINIAN PROBLEM, MOSCOW: ROSSPEN, 2001, 480 p. (1); E. D. PYRLIN. THE HARD AND LONG ROAD TO PEACE: VZGLYAD IZ MOSKVY NA PROBLEMU MIDEASTOCHNOGO REGULIROVANIYA [A VIEW FROM MOSCOW ON THE PROBLEM OF MIDDLE EAST SETTLEMENT]. MOSCOW: ROSSPEN, 2002, 512 p. (2) The book of the classic Soviet historiography of the Palestinian problem E. D. Pyrlin " 100 years of confrontation..."it was published a few months before his death. It was conceived by the author as " a kind of Palestinian encyclopedia "(1, p. 8) - a chronological examination of the state of the Palestinian problem and its components in the period from 1897 (the First Zionist Congress) to the last year of the XX century. "I would sincerely wish, "he wrote," that the reader - a connoisseur of Middle Eastern problems - would perceive this book as a swan song, as a definite result of my creative search" (p.9). The book consists of five sections. The first, " The History of the Emergence and Development of the Palestinian problem (1897-1974)", describes the events from the First Zionist Congress to the international recognition of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) at the XXIX session of the UN General Assembly. Chapter 1 deals with the history of the Palestinian question from 1897 to the Balfour Declaration in 1917. E. D. Pirlin pays special attention to the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries - the era of the Arab Renaissance (Nahda). The author sees the reason for the proclamation of the Balfour Declaration solely in London's intention to force the United States to enter the world War in order to influence American Zionist circles in this way. In our opinion, this explanation is doubtful, since the United States announced its entry into the war on April 6, 1917, and the declaration was published on November 2. The main reasons were London's desire to restrict access to the Suez Canal, t ... Read more