MH Russia - Foreign Policy

1917-21 Preservation/National Interests - content

Treaty of Brest Litovsk (1918)
Russia lost 32% of arable land + 26% of railways + reparations in exchange for avoiding German invasion. Caused divisions in the Bolshevik Party (source insert)

Civil War (1918-21)
Aim - survive and spread socialism internally while battling foreign and external threats.
British, French and U.S support for Whites signalled international isolation.
Outcome - ensured consolidation of Bolshevik rule, party had effectively achieved political survival

Failure in achieving Communist spread
Comintern created - supports ‘global revolution’, organised infiltrations into other nations.
Influence limited - Germany (Spartacist Uprising) + Hungary crushed attempts.
Contradicted by the Commissariat of Foreign Affairs - diplomatic ties conflict with ideology. (source insert)

1917-21 Preservation/National Interests - sources

Overy - Argues that “Russia’s chief concern was to avoid involvement in any major war at all costs”.
“[USSR] concerned with safeguarding the interests of Soviet Russia” (Lynch)

1920s - Normalisation of relations, alliances

Development of ‘dual character’
First goal of survival met - Narkomindel aimed to establish diplomatic trade + security agreements.
Treaty of Rapallo - economic cooperation and trade between Germany and Russia + allowed troops to exercise in Russia + test and make weaponry.
1921 Anglo-Russian Trade Agreement - Soviet trade mission in London, initiated economic exchange between two countries.

Security:
Non aggression treaties - Turkey, Germany, Afghanistan
However USSR still internationally isolated - economically + militarily deficient. (Source insert)

Comintern’s spread of anti-colonial propaganda in nations such as Afghanistan, Persia and India interfered with economic and political operations, undermining democratic governments of capitalist nations - strained Narkomindel’s ability to establish diplomacy. (Source insert)

1920s Normalisation of relations, alliances - Sources

Nove: USSR was a “command economy", driven by pragmatism and not ideological planning.
CLR James: “the Comintern had one exclusive purpose - the defence of the USSR.

1930s - Search for security (War times), relationships with other nations

Aim - avoiding war. Achieved to a limited extent, security agreements temporary. Most important - collective security
Under Litinov (Comissar of Foreign Affairs from 1930)
USSR joins League of Nations
Franco-Soviet + Czechoslovak treaties promised mutual assistance in case of unprovoked attacks. (Source insert)
Achievement of collective security limited - Britain + France policy of appeasement, non-action in response to Hitler’s remilitarisation of Rhineland.

Anti-Comintern Pact 1936 - Germany, Japan and Italy formed alliance against USSR disguised under countering the Comintern. USSR’s prior revolutionary movements exacerbated difficulty of Narkomindel in diplomacy,

Nazi-Soviet Pact 1939 - Economic agreements (supply of food and materials for German machinery) + mutual peace agreement for a 10 year period. (Source insert).
Temporary - Operation Barbossa saw Germany invading Russia, disregarding treaty. Approx. 26 mil USSR citizens killed fighting Germany.

1930s: Search for security (War times), relationships with other nations (Sources)

During this period USSR foreign policy was “driven by the imperative to secure its borders and prevent encirclement by hostile powers” (Carr).
“it was a pragmatic decision by Stalin to protect the USSR from the imminent threat of Nazi aggression." (Snyder)