Criticism and bibliography. Reviews

Published by the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the series "History of the Countries of the East. XX century" has been expanded with another edition. This work was eagerly awaited by both domestic experts in Sudan studies and researchers of state, political, economic, religious and social institutions in North and North-East Africa. This reaction of the Russian research community is easily explained: the previous scientific monograph on the modern and contemporary history of Sudan was published in 1992 [Istoriya Sudana..., 1992].

Since then, this largest African country by area has undergone very dramatic changes in the socio-economic and political spheres, which K. I. Polyakov undertook to reflect as of the beginning of 2000. This Russian researcher has long-standing ties with Sudan. In the 1950s and 1960s, his father, Candidate of Historical Sciences I. M. Polyakov (1917-1987), worked there. K. I. Polyakov also visited Sudan and other countries of Africa and the Middle East several times in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1997, he defended his PhD thesis on "The emergence and development of political parties in Sudan in the 1940s and 1950s", the main provisions of which formed the basis of his monograph "Islamic Fundamentalism in Sudan" (Polyakov, 1997; Polyakov, 2000).

The experience and knowledge accumulated over many years of research activities allowed K. I. Polyakov to take up such a thankless and difficult topic as the Sudanese socio-political and economic history of the XX century. In my opinion, the difficulty of studying the subject of Sudan can be explained by the following main reasons: the extremely narrow base of reliable and objective sources on the country's history, as well as the extremely difficult to understand relations between various political forces and movements in Sudan. To this we can add the "habit" of the Sudanese to change the ruling regimes and strategic directions of their country's development at least once a decade.

In this regard, it is interesting to see how the author solves the problem of constructing a periodization of the Sudanese history of the past century. Here we come across a very common methodological technique in works on the history of the Arab East in the XX century, the essence of which is that the history of an Arab country is considered according to the traditional scheme: the development of the country before the XX century, at the beginning of the XX century, during the First World War, during the interwar period, during the World War II, the end of the colonial period with the victory of the national liberation forces. The periodization of the time of independent development of a particular country depends entirely on its specifics. In accordance with this, the history of Sudan before its independence in 1956 is divided by K. I. Polyakov into five classical periods: "Sudan on the eve of the XX century", " Anglo-Egyptian Sudan at the beginning of the XX century (1900-1918)", " Sudan in the interwar period (1918-1939)","Sudan during the Second World War (1939-1945)", "The end of the colonial regime (1945-1955)" (p. 507). In an effort to convey as vividly and prominently as possible all the features and nuances of the postcolonial development of Sudan, the author highlights the following points: "The first parliamentary period (1956-1958)", " Sudan during the Abboud dictatorship (1958-1964)", " The Second Parliamentary period (1964-1969)", "The rise to power of' Free Officers ' (1969-1971)"," Sudan during the Nimeiri dictatorship

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(1971-1985)", "The Third Parliamentary Period (1985-1989)" and " Sudan under the rule of Islamists and the military (1989-2000) "(pp. 507-508).

Analyzing the main events of the Sudanese history of the last century, K. I. Polyakov made an attempt to combine in his analysis the best achievements of domestic and foreign historiography, including the works of such famous Sudanese historians as Mohammed Omar al-Bashir, Jaafar Muhammad Ali Buheyt, Yahya Mohammed Abd al-Qadir, Mohammed Saleh Darar, Hassan Makki, Mohammed al-Kheir Abd al-Qadir et al. This attempt as a whole should be considered very successful.

The author pays considerable attention to the formation of party organizations and political movements in Sudan, especially studying in detail the activities of the General Congress of Graduates - a socio-political organization that has become a kind of "Almamater" for Sudanese parties (p. 90). He consistently defends the thesis that "large Sudanese parties were created mainly as a means for their leaders to enter the ruling elite or formally consolidate their existing political status" (p. 371). To support these conclusions, K. I. Polyakov drew on a rich source material, including rare texts of leaflets, newspaper publications, and party documents (p. 62 - 67, 89 - 90, 112 - 115). In the context of the history of the emergence of Sudanese parties, the author also examines the role and degree of influence on this process of the country's traditional religious and political forces - the largest Sufi orders (tariqas). On the basis of rich historical material, he convincingly proves that" throughout the XX century, the main role in the socio-political life of Sudan was played by the Dervish orders (mainly Khatmiyya and Ansar) " (p.370).

Researchers are engaged in quite a lively discussion on this topic, which is very relevant for modern Sudanology. Thus, T. A. Uzdenov expresses the exact opposite point of view to K. I. Polyakov: he speaks about the crisis in Sudan of the foundations of traditional Islam, "which cannot effectively respond to the challenges of our time and gives way to Islamic fundamentalism as a political phenomenon" [Uzdenov, 2001, p. 21].

Along with studying the policy pursued by the Al-Ansar and Al-Khatmiyya tariqats, K. I. Polyakov devotes a lot of space in his work to the activities of the Sudanese Islamist movement, the reasons for its appearance in Sudan, and the most important frontiers of its history. Considering in detail the views of Hassan al-Turabi, the founder and permanent leader of this movement, the author gives a separate paragraph on the evolution of the basic provisions of the Sudanese Islamist ideology in the 90s of the XX century. Such close attention to the extraordinary personality of Hassan al-Turabi is due to the considerable contribution made by this man to the formation of the Islamic fundamentalist movement in Sudan. It is no exaggeration to say that it was Al-Turabi who became the figure who, in just thirty-five years (from 1964, when he created the Islamic Charter Front, to 1989, when Islamists in alliance with the military seized power in Sudan), managed to transform the fragmented Sudanese Islamic movement into a monolithic force with which it was able to create a new state. they are now considered not only in the country, but also abroad.

One of the most difficult problems in the Sudanese history of the twentieth century was the problem of the South of the country, whose population from 1955 to 2005 (with a break in 1972-1983) fought for its independence by armed means. Egyptian journalists have dubbed it "the graveyard of Sudanese governments" [Al-Ahali, 14.01.1987]. Indeed, as soon as a particular Sudanese Government reached a prolonged stalemate to resolve this problem, it was immediately removed from power by the Sudanese military. The roots of this problem, as K. I. Polyakov proves, lie in the policy of Great Britain, during the existence of the Anglo-Egyptian condominium (1899-1956), which created and actively supported the "closed areas"regime in Sudan. They prohibited the free movement of people, did not allow Sudanese living in other parts of the country, and restricted the entry of southerners to the northern provinces of Sudan. According to K. I. Polyakov, from 1922 to 1946, two-thirds of the country's territory, where more than half of the population of Sudan lived, fell under this regime (p. 56).

The author closely links the history of the "southern question" after the independence of Sudan in 1956 with the general course of political and socio-economic development of the country, which allows the reader, especially if he is not a narrow specialist in the Sudanese South, to better understand certain "zigzags" that arose during the search for solutions to the problem of the South. The best example is

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Such a" link " is made by K. I. Polyakov's analysis of the peace agreement between the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SNM) and the Unionist Democratic Party (UDP), concluded on November 16, 1988 in Addis Ababa. The author managed to explain an interesting political phenomenon to the reader in an accessible form: the UDP, which until 1988 opposed any agreements with "South Sudanese terrorists", unexpectedly entered into negotiations with the main military-political organization of the South - the SND and even concluded a peace with it, which was never approved by the Sudanese parliament.

Regarding the political development of Sudan in the last third of the twentieth century, one cannot ignore the period of dictatorial rule of Jaafar Nimeiri (1969-1985). The significance of this period lies in the fact that the alignment of the main forces and movements in Sudan that developed during it remains to this day: first of all, we are talking about the so - called Sudanese triangle-the military, Islamists and traditionalists. Understanding the complexity and ambiguity of the events of the 1970s and the first half of the 1980s, the author made a successful attempt to present his views on these events together with a good selection of excerpts from the most important, but still little-known sources on the history of the Nimeiri regime, given in the section "Sources and notes". This significantly increases the value of this work both for the researcher and for a person who is simply interested in the history of Sudan.

The work devoted to the study of the socio-political, socio-economic, religious and ideological life of Sudan in the XX century, due to the incredible complexity of the problems under study, can hardly be without drawbacks. Do not forget that the previous work on the history of Sudan in modern and modern times was written by a whole team of authors, and not just one person.

To begin with, the title of chapter XII, paragraph 1, "The Revolution of National Salvation: The New Leadership's Economic and Political activities" is not quite correct from a historical point of view. The fact is that this section deals with the events from 1989 to 1999, while the "National Salvation Revolution" itself ended with the dissolution of the National Salvation Revolution Command Council (NRC) on October 16, 1993, as the author himself writes (p. 337). In addition, this section is extremely sketchy about the actual political history of Sudan during this period. Unfortunately, such important events and dates as the adoption of the "Program for the Introduction of Sharia Law"by the NRC in January 1991 fell out of the author's field of view. Nothing is said about the signing of a decree by President al-Bashir in February 1991 on the gradual introduction of Sharia-based criminal legislation throughout Sudan. No mention is made of the 1994 administrative reform that transformed Sudan into a federation of 26 provinces (wilayats). In fact, K. I. Polyakov omitted the main event of the "Revolution of National Salvation", which occurred in 1989-1993, in particular, the action of the military-Islamist ruling alliance in Southern Sudan, where in March 1992 the army carried out a major offensive operation, during which 100 thousand people were displaced to the territories controlled by the Sudanese government [www.sudanupdate.org/HISTORY/chron.htm].

Referring to the activities of the military and Islamists in the field of economy, the author forgets to mention the monetary reform of 1992 and its consequences for Sudan, and analyzing the situation in the socio-economic sphere of the country, in my opinion, draws too blissful a picture: "A certain improvement in the economic development of the country became noticeable after 1992, when Sudan energetic steps have been taken to reform the national economy" (p. 338). Let me remind you that in 2000, the rate of inflation in Sudan was 27% per year, and the national budget deficit was $ 1.02 billion. [Andryushin, Chernyshev, and Yudin, 2001, p. 403]. Of the 33.5 million Sudanese, one-third is still below the poverty line [Andryushin, Chernyshev, Yudin, 2001, p. 219; Countries of Africa..., 2004].

The date of establishment of the "Islamic International" or the Islamic-Arab People's Conference (IANC) stated in paragraph 2 of Chapter XII - 1993 is not confirmed by information from the sources available to the author of the review. Moreover, in Conclusion, K. I. Polyakov writes about this:"...as it happened, for example, in early 1998 with regard to the international public organization Islamic Arab People's Congress, which was being created by al-Turabi " (p. 372). From which it can be concluded that in 1998, the organization that, in the opinion of

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It was created in 1993, but was still in the process of formation [Polyakov, 2000, p.228].

The analysis of the sensational scandal with the American missile strike on the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in the suburbs of Khartoum has not been completed to its logical end. Let me remind you that on August 20, 1998, the US Air Force attacked the specified factory: the Americans suspected it of producing components of chemical warfare agents. However, no evidence of this was presented, and in order to" put out " a loud scandal, the White House in early April 1999 recognized the fallacy of striking the factory, and paid its owner compensation in the amount of $ 40 million. and defrosted his accounts in US banks in the amount of $ 24 million. [Sudan..., 2000]. K. I. Polyakov does not mention this.

It is also worth paying attention to the fact that the author simply states in Conclusion that" during the second half of the XX century, a kind of cyclical change in the forms of military and civil government was observed in Sudan "(p.370), without going into the reasons for this" mysterious " phenomenon. But this is the whole "salt" of the modern history of Sudan, which is still doomed to go in circles from military to civilian rule and vice versa.

An overview of the socio-political situation in Darfur and the Beja tribal area (Red Sea coast) appears to be insufficient and highly fragmented. There is absolutely no clear picture of the conflict in Darfur, which began in its current form, according to the most recent data, back in the 1910s - 1920s.In fact, the author limited himself to mentioning the events of 1987-1988, when Darfur was on the verge of a full - scale civil conflict. The history of complex relations between the central authorities of Sudan and the Beja tribes, which very often defended their interests with weapons in their hands over the past hundred years, is also unclear in the presentation of K. I. Polyakov. This is a tactic that the Beja Congress has followed since 1994, when its military wing was formed.

Among the minor author's shortcomings, I note confusion with the date of the introduction of the provisional constitution of 1985. K. I. Polyakov writes that this happened in November 1985 (p. 313, 459), referring to O. V. Levin, the author of the section on the political development of Sudan during independence in the collective monograph [History of Sudan..., 1992], which refers this date to October of the same year.

Despite these shortcomings, the work of K. I. Polyakov is a significant step forward in the development of domestic Sudanistics [Istoriya Sudana..., 1992]. The author managed not only to attract, but also skillfully analyze the content of sources on the Sudanese history of the XX century, especially its second half. These shortcomings do not reduce the value of the peer-reviewed monograph, but, on the contrary, clearly highlight those areas of Sudanology that still need active development and analysis.

list of literature

Al-Ahali. Cairo 14.01.1987.

Andryushin I. A., Chernyshev A. K., Yudin Yu. A. The world on the threshold of the XXI century. Sarov, 2001.

Istoriya Sudana v novoe i sovremennoe vremya [History of Sudan in the new and modern times].

Polyakov K. I. Origin and development of political parties in Sudan in the 40-50s. Kand. diss. Moscow, 1997.

Polyakov K. I. Islamic fundamentalism in the Sudan. Moscow, 2000.

African countries and Russia. Spravochnik [Handbook], Moscow, 2004.

Sudan. Spravochnik, Moscow, 2000.

Uzdenov T. A. Political ideology and practice of Islamic fundamentalism (on the example of modern Sudan). Author's abstract of the cand. diss. SPb., 2001.

www.sudanupdate.org/HISTORY/chron.htm

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