Soviet Foreign Relations “Hard” and “Soft,” 1917–45

Abstract

Sabine Dullin, La frontiere epaisse: Aux origines des politiques sovietiques (1920-1940) (The Thick Border: On Origins of Soviet Politics [1920-40]). 360 pp. Paris: Editions de l'Ecole des hautes etudes en sciences sociales, 2014. ISBN-13 978-2713224560. 24.00 [euro]. Jean-Francois Fayet, VOKS: Le laboratoire helvetique. Histoire de la diplomatie culturelle sovietique durant l'entre-deux-guerres (VOKS: The Swiss Laboratory. A History of Soviet Cultural Diplomacy between Wars). 598 pp. CheneBourg: Georg editeur, 2014. ISBN-13 978-2825710340. 35 CHE These two amazing books examine from different perspectives one large theme: Stalinist state's interaction with outside world. In big scheme of things, they tell a similar sad story: Soviet movement away from relative openness to, and search for contacts with, the West toward increasing self-isolation and self-adulation from 1920 through early 1940s. Sabine Dullin focuses on history of Soviet borders, not so much their movements in space and time as their construction and consolidation and their changing meanings in Soviet official discourse and policy. Paraphrasing Peter Sahlins, she sees the as a process of learning rupture in contiguity, as a complex process of establishing a difference that ends up in creation of a system (21). (1) Narrated in this way, story of Soviets' (mostly but not exclusively western) frontier offers us fascinating insights into evolution of Soviet regime and society in general. (2) One of many fortes of this profoundly researched and beautifully written book is elegant and persuasive way it reminds us of many roads open to Soviets in earlier phases of their regime that were either never tried or abruptly abandoned. To begin with, very existence of borders was initially perceived by Soviet leaders, bent on spreading proletarian revolution all over world, as a temporary and inconsequential nuisance. As Julian Marchlewski (Iulian Markhlevskii), who was one of Soviet negotiators with Poland in Riga and in 1921 led Soviet delegation in negotiations with Finland over delimitation of borders, put it, only hyperborean troglodytes would obsess over each piece of land. (He was ostensibly referring to his Finnish counterparts but might have had some of his Soviet colleagues in mind too [98].) The exact trajectory of borders was a matter of secondary importance as long as revolutionary crisis was certain to make them all obsolete in apocalypse of universal emancipation. If borders still somehow mattered, it was more due to opportunities they offered as outposts for revolutionary agitation rather than as protective barriers over lands under control of Soviet regime. Even in this very early stage of Soviet policy, however, revolutionary elan coexisted with a more sober and traditional view of things, as represented, in particular, by Georgii Chicherin, head of People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs (Narkomindel). Chicherin's influence steadily grew as time went on. In first three years right after Civil War, frontiers became institutionalized and regularized. Increasing emphasis on protection and sovereignty led to appearance of what Dullin calls a thick border area consisting of two zones: 500 meters along and an additional 7.5 kilometers right next to it. The first zone was reserved for deployment of GPU (State Political Administration, later Unified State Political Administration [OGPU]) troops, second for rear services for these troops; in both, a strict regime of surveillance over residents and their movements prevailed. Paradoxically, in early to mid-1920s, renewed emphasis on security in expectation of a new war coexisted with establishment of a relatively flexible regime of transborder cooperation. The USSR negotiated agreements with neighboring states for common usage of pastures and fisheries by residents on both sides of as well as for easing restrictions on transborder petty trade (123-26). …