1. STALIN’s FOREIGN POLICY
It is very difficult to judge Stalin’s foreign policy as a whole in simple terms of successes and failures. Therefore, this presentation will address each part of the Foreign Policy chronologically or thematically and attempt to judge each case as favorable or unfavorable to the Soviet Union. In Russia at present there is growing support for the view that the Stalin years ( ) were the best experienced by Russia in the 20th century. The present Russian government has had to ask the US and the EU for food aid, while the western world feared the expansion of communist power during the last years of Stalin. The Korean war (1950-3) appeared to add credence to this view. The Soviet Union was only a regional power when Stalin became leader in 1929 but, when he died in 1953, it had become a world power, soon to be a superpower. Does this mean that Stalin was brilliantly successful in foreign affairs? Yet the state he built up collapsed in 1991 and today Russia is again only a regional power. So Russia has gone full circle. May one trace this fiasco back to Stalin, or is it the fault of his inept successors? To answer these questions, we need to examine the purpose of foreign policy and criteria for its success or failure.
USSR Foreign Policy:

2. Perspective
Important to look at Stalin’s foreign policy through the lens of Socialism in One Country
At odds with Trotsky’s Permanent Revolution
Nationalism replaced Marxist-Leninist worldwide revolution
Dependent upon Socialist revolutions in W. Europe

3. THE ISOLATION OF RUSSIA: 1917-1921
Soviet Union diplomatically isolated after Bolshevik revolution
Not involved in international initiatives
Global outcast
I. After the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, Allied countries of the West cut off their links with Russia. They were angry with the Communists for withdrawing from WWI, and several of them sent their armies to help fight the Communists in the Civil War of II. Russia was not invited to participate in the negotiations that produced the Treaty of Versailles in Paris and, also, was not invited to join the newly created League of Nations. III. Russia has, thus, become an outcast in the world.

4. COMFORT IN ISOLATION USSR fine with isolation
Commitment to worldwide revolution
The Comintern
I. At first, the Communists did not mind being isolated in this way. Lenin thought that Communist revolutions would soon sweep away hostile capitalist governments in Europe and the USA. Then the world would be united in communism and Russia’s isolation would end. II. To help bring about this world revolution, the USSR leadership set up the Comintern. Led by Grigori Zinoviev, the aim of the Comintern was to help communists abroad organize strikes, rebellions and protests by sending them advisers and by providing them with money.

5. THE END OF ISOLATION Failure of Comintern
Desperate need of foreign aid
Treaty of Rapallo/Treaty of Berlin
Links with the world
I. The Comintern did not succeed in starting a world revolution. Strikes and uprisings took place in many countries in the early 1920s, but all failed. Gradually, Lenin gave up the idea. II. The USSR in the early 1920s was in desperate need of foreign help to rebuild her damaged economy. So, Russia began establishing links with the rest of the world. Trade agreements with neighboring countries helped Russian trade to recover. III. In 1922, the USSR signed the Treaty of Rapallo with Germany, giving the USSR its first post-war ally. The treaty created trade links between the two countries but also arranged secretly for German armed forces to do military training and to manufacture armaments in Russia. In 1926, the USSR signed the Treaty of Berlin with Germany, which reaffirmed the agreement of the Treaty of Rapallo, but also pledged neutrality in the event of an attack on the other by a third party for the next five years. Occasioned by Soviet fears of Germany's rapprochement with the United Kingdom and France in the 1925 Locarno Treaties, the pact reaffirmed on paper the German-Soviet diplomatic understanding reached in the 1922 Treaty of Rapallo. IV. By 1929, the USSR had links with every major nation in the world other than the USA. This did not mean that the USSR was on friendly terms with these countries. Stalin was very suspicious of the capitalist countries.

6. Sino-Soviet Relations pre-WWII
Revolution in China in 1911 left power vacuum
Lenin supported Chinese Communist Party (CPC) and it was backed by Comintern
CPC to be a wing of Guomindang (GMD) – Chinese Nationalists
Nationalists represented Chinese bourgeoisie (middle-class)

7. Sino-Soviet Relations pre-WWII - 2
Change of GMD leadership 1925 under Chiang Kai-shek reduced CPC influence
GMD increasingly anti-communist
GMD still supported militarily by Soviet Union despite anti-communist tendencies
Stalin looked at Chiang’s nationalist regime as an ally to the Soviet Union
Why did Stalin feel he needed an ally in China?

8. Sino-Soviet Relations pre-WWII - 3
April 1927 Chiang’s government massacred thousand communists and workers in Shanghai
CPC under Mao Zedong introduced a policy independent of Soviet Union and Comintern
Trotsky’s claim Stalin is the gravedigger of the revolution gains some ground in China

9. Anglo-Soviet Relations
Under Lenin Anglo-Soviet trade agreement of 1921 slightly improved strained relations
1923 agreement strained by British Foreign Sec. Curzon’s demand that Soviet agents stop agitation in Persia, Afghanistan and India or agreement will be terminated
Soviet’s comply with Curzon Ultimatum
MacDonald Labour government recognized USSR officially

10. Anglo-Soviet Relations - 2
Zinoviev letter 1924 (which was a fake) further strained relations bringing relations to virtual standstill through 1925
Letter suggested Comintern conduct major propaganda campaign in British military and elsewhere
Arcos raid of 1927 on Russian trade mission in London resulted in an end to diplomatic relations until 1929

11. Soviet-German Relations 1924-1933
Lenin had improved relations dramatically in 1922 with Treaty of Rapallo (open diplomatic relationship established, secret economic and military alliance)
1925 German/Western Treaty of Locarno troublesome to Soviets
Fear of Soviet isolation and erosion in Soviet German relations resulted

12. Soviet-German Relations 1924-1933
To alleviate concerns Germany signed a number of trade and diplomatic agreements with Soviets
1926 Treaty of Berlin reaffirmed Treaty of Rapallo and both countries pledged neutrality in case of an attack by a foreign power
Militarily and economically relations improved through 1933 (not politically)

13. STALIN’S SUSPICION Fear of foreign intervention
I. Stalin greatly feared that the capitalist countries would attack the USSR and that the USSR must be rapidly industrialized to be able to protect itself.

14. We are fifty or a hundred years behind the advanced countries
We are fifty or a hundred years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this distance in ten years. Either we do it, or they will crush us. - Stalin

15. SOCIALISM IN ONE COUNTRY
Original Foreign Policy
Ignoring Communism Abroad
Policy of self-protection
Industrialization the key
I. The original approach of Stalin to foreign policy was linked to his belief in socialism in one country. In line with this policy, the internal concerns of the USSR was put ahead of foreign policy concerns. In practice, this meant securing the revolution in Russia (consolidating their position) and ignoring the Communist cause abroad (international revolution was “suspended indefinitely”) => in long-term, USSR could “turn power outwards, at time of own choosing”. III. Policy was in direct conflict with Trotsky’s Permanent Revolution belief and his commitment to the global communist cause. IV. As we know, the means to secure the revolution and the USSR would be to rapidly industrialize the country as focused on in the 5-Year Plans. •Basically self-protection

16. Soviet Foreign Policy 1924-1933 Review
2 possible tracks – Trotsky’s or Stalin’s
Permanent Revolution vs. Socialism in One Country
USSR adopts Stalin’s policy of Socialism in One Country
Foreign communists subservient to USSR
Stalin’s foreign policy impacted by domestic priorities
By 1932 USSR a European power once again

17. THE NAZI THREAT TO THE USSR
1933 Hitler comes to power in Germany
Hitler’s views about Communism & Russia
Threat changes. How will USSR respond?
I. In 1933, the threat to the USSR increased when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power in Germany. Hitler was staunchly anti-communist, as well as anti-Russian, believing that Russians belonged to an inferior race of Slavs, and that Germany must take land from the USSR to provide lebensraum for the German people.

18. Fascism and Collective Security
Collective Security: working together with other States to stop fascism
Litvinov (Commissar of Foreign affairs) helped USSR to join the “robbers den” aka League of Nations in 1934
Denounced German appeasement as “suicidal”
1935 USSR signs mutual assistance pacts with France and Czechoslovakia
USSR only obliged to help Czechoslovakia if France acted upon German aggression

19. A MUCH MORE INTERACTIVE USSR
Aim: Gaining protection from German threat
League of Nations (1934)
Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance (1935)
Maxim Litvinov ( )
I. To gain protection from the threat of Germany, Stalin began to play a much more active role in world affairs. II. In 1934, the USSR joined the League of Nations (1 year after Germany & Japan left). This represented a significant shift away from previous Soviet opinion of the League of Nations. As the threat from Japan and Germany to the USSR increased, the USSR was willing to work with the League of Nations, which was based on the concept of collective security. III. In 1935, as Hitler had just remilitarized the Rhineland, which was in direct defiance to the Treaty of Versailles, and an apparent threat to France. The USSR signed the Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance. This treaty was very complicated and watered down, but it did diplomatically produce a threat of a two front war for Germany. Hitler used this pact to announce that Germany would be remilitarizing. IV. The shift in USSR foreign policy and a new favorable stance toward the belief in collective security largely came due to the opinion of Soviet Foreign Minister, Maxim Litvinov. Litvinov, a Russian Jew. Litvinov believed in a much more western-oriented foreign policy. It was under Litvinov’s tenure as Foreign Minister that the USSR entered the League of Nations (he was representative from ), became recognized by the USA, became involved in the fight against fascism in the Spanish Civil War, and worked on forming closer relations to France and Britain.

20. CHANGES IN THE COMINTERN
Social Fascism to Popular Front
I. In addition, the role of the Comintern changed after the rise of Hitler. From the 1920s and 1930s, Comintern leadership had considered social democracy as a form of fascism. This was known as social fascism. The argument from people like Stalin had been that capitalism had entered a third stage and that a working class revolution was imminent, but that this was being prevented by social democrats and other fascist forces. However, by the mid-1930s this stance shifted and the Comintern, which had been working toward undermining social democrats, now was more concerned with undermining fascism. At the 1935 congress of the Comintern, representatives from 65 different countries officially endorsed the creation of a Popular Front, an agreement to form alliances with almost any political party in any country willing to oppose fascists.

21. STALIN’S AIMS? Buying time? Building confidence? Western suspicion
I. What were Stalin’s motives in changing the foreign policy of the USSR during the 1930s. Was he trying to buy as much time as possible, which meant collaborating with previous enemies, in order to buy enough time for the USSR to develop the capacity to thwart a German attack? Given his personality, paranoia and suspicion, and political philosophy, it is hard to believe that he trusted the capitalist powers of the west. What seems more reasonable is that he was calculating who the greatest immediate threat to the USSR was by the mid 1930s, and that threat was the threat of fascism and potential attack from Germany and Japan. II. Therefore, one of his aims was to build confidence with Britain and France so that they could trust the USSR to stand up with them against German aggression. III. However, the British and French governments remaind suspicious of Communism. Instead of taking joint action against Germany, the British and French often gave way to Hitler…appeasement.

22. SPANISH CIVIL WAR USSR support to Republicans
Nazi support to Franco and the Fascists
Britain and France?
I. In 1936, the Spanish Civil War broke out, a conflict that would last until In 1936, Hitler began giving massive military support to the Fascists in Spain, along with Mussolini. II. The USSR gave help to the Republicans who opposed the Fascists. II. Britain and France did nothing and the League of Nations remained largely neutral. A proxy war between Hitler and Stalin was being fought.

23. Spanish Civil War Soviet Union main supporter of Spain
Litvinov’s pursuance of collective security against fascism made Spain important
Stalin not totally committed as belief in Socialism in One Country was paramount
Aid came in limited quantity

24. Spanish Civil War 2
Stalin’s intervention cautious and not a full commitment
Why did Stalin commit? See page 257 of Corin and Fiehn
Stalin sent supplies: 650 planes, 400 tanks, 18,000 machine guns, clothing and medicine, 3,000 advisors
Stalin supported NKVD in mini-war between POUM and NKVD

25. Nazi-Soviet Pact 1939- why the turn?
Hitler’s aggression (Rhineland 1936, Anschluss 1938,Czechoslovakia 1938) left Stalin with few choices
West had shown tendency to choose fascism over fear of communism
Munich Conference and concessions by West to Hitler did not build confidence in Soviets.

26. Nazi-Soviet Pact 1939 continued
Historians disagree about Stalin’s motives
Some believe west forced Stalin’s hand
Others believe Stalin would do whatever benefited USSR
May 1939 Litvinov replaced by Molotov (a move away from Collective Security)
August 1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact signed:
1. Committed both sides to neutrality if other attacked (in line with 1926 Treaty of Berlin)
2. Future spheres of influence secretly agreed upon – E. Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Bessarabia (part of Romania) to Soviets.

27. Nazi-Soviets continued
1 September Hitler invades Poland from West starting WWII. 17 September Soviets attack Poland from East.
28 September 2nd Nazi-Soviet pact signed
concedes more of Poland to Germany but gives Soviets Lithuania.
Hitler also got economic concessions from USSR including grain and supplies passing through USSR from the Far East.

28. Conclusion: Was Stalin blinded by Hitler?
Stalin did not believe the pact would last forever but was caught off guard when the Soviets were invaded by Hitler in June of 1941.