Remarks by Soviet Foreign Minister Gromyko

Despite an officially anti-Zionist stance, Stalin’s government endorses the partition of Palestine in order to terminate the British presence there, hoping to expose the area to Moscow’s influence. In the 1940s, the Soviet Union sees the developing Yishuv (largely socialist Jewish community in Palestine) as a potential Soviet proxy. Beyond political support for a Jewish state, Czechoslovakia, a Soviet Bloc member, supplies arms to the nascent Israeli army during its War of Independence. (source)