Years of Fulfillment

Abstract

THE Soviet Union has now taken its place at the table of the Great Powers. It has a permanent seat on the Council of the League; diplomatic relations have been resumed with the United States; its nonaggression and mutual assistance pact with France has been ratified. What has happened to the Soviet Union to restore it to the councils of the Powers, when for years following the revolution it was an outcast, officially recognized only for commercial and diplomatic convenience? Is its position today based on the same factors which made Imperial Russia so important in i9I4-the aggressive promotion of a stake in foreign countries? Is it important for the reason that made it so in I9I7 or I923, because other nations are protecting their stake in it? It would seem that the answer to both questions is in the negative. The history of the U.S.S.R. to date has shown that the Soviet Union has no aspiration for outward expansion, and reports indicate that it is no longer possible easily to invade it in order to put down communism or to seize territories. The position of the U.S.S.R. is unique among nations. It does not play and does not wish to play the part of Imperial Russia-to jockey for an advantageous position in the scramble for world power. It has a fixed base for all its foreign relations, a peace policy. In the balance of world forces it remains on one side of the scale-on the side of peace, no matter who its companions there may be. But while the stand of the Soviet Union in regard to peace has been steadfast, the weight which it could swing to the support of this policy has changed. And in this lies the explanation of the new position of the U.S.S.R. in international affairs. In I9I7 the new Soviet state was much like China today. Although it was a huge country with a large population and considerable natural resources, the government did not control de facto all the territory within its borders. Even in I923 when the Soviet Government had jurisdiction over the whole country it did not have the complete backing of the people. All the productive wealth was not socialized and there was