Peace or Pacifism? The Soviet 'Struggle for Peace in All the World', 1948-54

Abstract

This article examines the Soviet 'Struggle for Peace in All the World' between 1948 and 1954. The 'Struggle for Peace' was a vital arena in the early Cold War within which a new image of the Soviet relationship with the outside world was forged. 'Peace' emerged in this context as a shorthand for the USSR's muscular and moral patronage of the oppressed peoples of the world. Soviet citizens responded to the 'Struggle for Peace' with great enthusiasm. This enthusiasm has been cited as evidence that the Soviet population were naively duped into accepting a harsh post-war settlement in return for peace. In reality, Soviet citizens were not so passive in their engagement with the late-Stalinist state. Drawing on Kotkin's description of the 'little tactics of the habitat' this article suggests that some participants in the Peace Campaigns creatively reappropriated them as a platform for the articulation of their personal grief from the past war and their pacifist sentiments. It also offers some provisional suggestions about how the 'tactics' employed by Soviet citizens in relation to the government changed after 1945. The Soviet government could mobilize its population to 'Struggle for Peace', but it could not guarantee that they shared its understanding of what 'peace' meant.