The Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the “Chilean Way to Socialism”

Abstract

This paper offers an analysis of the policy of the CPSU in relation to the government of Popular Unity in Chile (1970—1973) and in general to such a political phenomenon as the “Chilean path to socialism”. Based on the documents of the Central Committee of the CPSU, the archive of the RGANI, the author proposes to explore the view of the Chilean events from the offices of the highest Soviet authorities, the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We are talking about the forms of political support for the government of Salvador Allende, for the line of the Communist Party of Chile, in the difficult internal and external conditions of the development of the Chilean revolution, including the ambiguous position of Cuba in the domestic policy of Chile. The USSR did its best in the political sphere to support its main ally in Chile, the Communist Party, although it made efforts to strengthen its position among the popular unity parties, primarily the Socialists. Economic assistance from the USSR was limited to the proposal of long-term development projects, while chileans needed concrete immediate financial support. Such a divergence of intentions between the parties has led to empty bureaucratic activity, declarations, exchanges of delegations that are not able to exert any influence on the dramatic state of the Chilean economy. The USSR did not fully believe in the success of the Chilean revolution, moreover, even otherwise it was extremely limited in its ability to help Chile, which was due to both the geographical factor and moscow's economic inability to provide the necessary funds, and not ideological differences about the ways of the revolution.