The Soviet Union’s Rise as an International Energy Power: A Short History

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview on the state of research on the topic of energy and politics during the Cold War, and the role of Soviet oil and gas. It offers an analysis of the Soviet Union’s energy sector as it developed from early Soviet times until the breakup of the USSR, and looks into the changes and shifts of the Soviet Union’s foreign energy policy, taking into account specifically relations with the countries of Western Europe, the socialist states of Eastern Europe, and the US. The chapter argues that Soviet decision-making in the sphere of energy politics was influenced and conditioned by a complex interplay of domestic, regional, and global factors: The Soviet Union needed to produce energy in ever-larger quantities to fuel industrialization and modernization, but also to sustain its ambitions as a great power. The various Soviet oil and gas campaigns from Stalin to Brezhnev were designed to support the needs of the country’s military and its energy-intensive economy. During the Cold War, energy also served as an important tool in Moscow’s project to integrate the socialist states of Eastern Europe into a single “energy space” through the construction of an extensive pipeline system. With regard to the capitalist states of the West, the primary function of Soviet energy exports was to gain access to Western technology and hard currency.