Russia and Europe: Diplomacy, Revolution, and Economic Development in the 1920s

Abstract

Interests (material and ideal), not ideas, dominate directly the actions of men. Yet the 'images of the world' created by these ideas often serve as switches determining the tracks on which the dynamism of interests keeps the actions moving. (Max Weber) The twenties in Russia saw the conclusion of bloody civil war and potentially more dangerous foreign intervention, the death of Lenin and the ensuing struggle among his disciples for primacy in the Soviet state, and the travail of an economy enduring the desperate measures of War Communism, the vicissitudes of the New Economic Policy, and the start of massive collectivization and rapid industrialization. Each of these developments led to prolonged controversy amongst the Bolshevik leaders. Despite the official myth of monolithic unity, the party in this decade was seriously divided on almost every issue. Because the relationship between Soviet Russia and capitalist Europe was the subject of intense debate, questions of foreign policy were no exception. The evolution of Soviet conceptions of national security for the ussr in a hostile Europe, the interplay of ideology and both domestic and foreign events in forming the Bolsheviks' views of European affairs, and the role of personal rivalries and factional politics as they shaped and were shaped by the major issues in Soviet foreign policy, are all subjects in need of and deserving explanation in detail.1