The development of Soviet Foreign Policy

Part I

1917-1958

Morgenthau’s original points

• Geography• Natural Resources• Industrial capacity• Military preparedness• Population

• National character• National morale• Quality of Diplomacy• Quality of

Government

Goals conflict

• Continuation of Tsarist tradition or World Revolution?

• Sometimes called “Ideology v National Interest”

• Some commentators argue that the two are not irreconcileable: World revolutionary movement became a foreign policy tool

Morgenthau’s original points

• Geography• Natural Resources• Industrial capacity• Military preparedness• Population

• National character• National morale• Quality of Diplomacy• Quality of

Government

Timeline 1 Lenin, Trotsky and Zinoviev

• October 1917 Revolution

• March 1918 Brest-Litovsk

• 1917-21 “War of Foreign Intervention”

• 1919-43 Comintern

• 16.4.1922 Rapallo

• 1924 Death of Lenin

Timeline 2 [Stalin]

• Need for investment: 100,000 tractors• 17th Party Congress 1934• Spanish Civil War 1936• 18th Party Congress 1938• Ribbentrop-Molotov non-aggression Pact Sept

28th 1939• Division of Poland Sept 17th 1939• War with Finland Nov 1939-March 1940• June 1940 Baltic States and Bessarabia

Timeline 3 Second World War

• April 1941 Non-Aggression pact with Japan

• June 22nd 1941 German Invasion

• Stalingrad Feb 1943

• Kursk July-Aug 1943

• Tehran, Yalta, Potsdam Conferences

• Invasion of Manchuria two days after Hiroshima Aug 8th 1945

Timeline 4 After 2nd World War

• Stalin purged and later closed down the Comintern

• After German invasion, Communist parties revived as resistance groups

• Where Red Army liberated territory, Communists effectively given power according to percentages of influence decided at Yalta and Potsdam Conferences

• Remember Yugoslavia and Albania effectively self-liberated

More after WW II

• Important to realise many democratic parties in eastern Europe discredited by pre-war politics [Brzezinski]

• Nevertheless after Czech coup in 1948, Stalinisation became the order of the day

• China liberated itself 1949• Vietnamese fighting French • Communists in coalitions in France and Italy• Civil war in Greece• Finally Korean War

After Stalin’s death

• Korean War ended

• De-stalinisation agenda of Khrushchev

• Secret speech of 1956

• Poland and Hungary 1956

• Anti-party group crisis 1957

• Peaceful coexistence

• K and B’s overseas visits

The significance and impact of Sov FP in this period?

• Creation of anti-capitalist revolutionary socialist movement world-wide

• Strengthening of anti-colonial forces• In Europe, mostly concerned with

regaining territory lost after 1917• In Asia, won the unknown war with Japan

and very involved with China • Supportive of Nasser, Nehru, Nkrumah

and “progressive forces” generally