Soviet Foreign Policy: Mental Alienation or Universal Revolution?

• Published date: 01 December 1971
• Date: 01 December 1971
• DOI: 10.1177/106591297102400402
• Subject Matter: Articles

653

SOVIET

FOREIGN

POLICY:

MENTAL

ALIENATION

OR

UNIVERSAL

REVOLUTION?

JOHN

H.

HODGSON

Syracuse

University

OR

some

fifty

years

Soviet

foreign

policy

has

been

viewed

in

the

West

with

suspicion

and

mistrust.

All

too

frequently

Western

observers

have

shown

a

Jt-

predilection

for

hasty

condemnation,

rather

than

analysis,

of

Soviet

motiva-

tions.

It

is,

of

course,

without

question

that

the

Soviet

regime

in

its

infancy

fully

expected

and

actively

supported

revolutions

in

the

capitalist

nations,

most

notably

Germany.

But

one

should

perhaps

reassess

the

assumption,

held

by

a

number

of

prominent

academic,

political,

and

military

figures,

as

well

as

by

most

laymen,

that

world domination

has

been

the

persistent

and

constant

mainspring

of

Soviet

action.~

1

It

can

be

argued

that

many

hard-line,

offensive-seeming

actions

of

the

Soviet

Union

have,

in

fact,

actually

been

defensive

in

the

eyes

of

Soviet

policy-

makers.

Western

policy-makers

may

have

seriously

misunderstood

Soviet

motives

in

the

past

by

their

failure

to

view

contemporary

events

through

the

ideological

lenses

of

Soviet

leaders.

Ingrained

in

the

minds

of

the

latter

is

the

conviction,

reinforced

by

Allied

intervention

in

Russia

during

the

formative

and

crucial

years

of

the

Bolshevik

regime,

that

capitalist

nations

seek

the

overthrow

of

all

Com-

munist

governments.

By

virtue

of

their

ideology

Soviet

leaders

are

extreme

exam-

ples

of

what

Richard

Hofstadter

has

called

the

paranoid

spokesman

in

politics.2

2

They

see

a

gigantic

conspiracy

against

their

nation,

culture,

and

way

of

life.

There

is,

it

would

seem,

much

truth

to

the

assertion

made

by

Litvinov

during

the

early

stages

of

the

cold

war

that

the

root

cause

of

the

clash

between

the

West

and

the

Soviet

Union

&dquo;is

the

ideological

conception

prevailing

here

[Moscow]

that

conflict

between

the

Communist

and

capitalist

worlds

is

inevitable.&dquo;

3 The

following

pages

constitute

an

attempt

to

support

with

three

case

studies

the

thesis

that

since

the

1

World

domination

is,

for

example,

a

theme

in

Gabriel

A.

Almond,

The

Appeals

of

Com-

munism

(Princeton:

Princeton

University

Press,

1954),

pp.

375-76;

Jan

F.

Triska,

"A

Model

for

Study

of

Soviet

Foreign

Policy,"

American

Political

Science

Review,

52

(March

1958),

71, 74,

82;

Elliot

R.

Goodman,

The

Soviet

Design

for

a

World

State

(New

York:

Columbia

University

Press,

1960),

pp.

xiii,

xviii,

41-42,

47,

127,

182,

288,

302,

472-74;

Frederick

C.

Barghoorn,

Soviet

Foreign

Propaganda

(Princeton:

Princeton

University

Press,

1964),

pp.

302-3,

306,

313,

317-18;

Military

Aspects

and

Implications

of

Nuclear

Test

Ban

Proposals

and

Related

Matters.

Hearings

before

the

Preparedness

Investigating

Subcommittee

of

the

Committee

on

Armed

Services

United

States

Senate,

parts

1-2

(Washington:

U.S.

Government

Printing

Office,

1964).

pp.

378,

682,

736,

759-60, 795-96,

832,

891,

895,

905, 908,

910-11,

919,

949,

976;

Stefan

T.

Possony,

in

Slavic

Review,

24

( June

1965).

335 ;

Robert

Conquest,

Russia

after

Khrushchev

(New

York:

Praeger,

1965),

p.

175.

See

also

the

findings

of

J.

David

Singer,

"Soviet

and

American

Foreign

Policy

Attitudes:

Content

Analysis

of

Elite

Articulations,"

Journal

of

Conflict

Resolution,

8

(December

1964),

459

(issue

"C,"

dimension

#1).

For

a

balanced,

yet

inconclusive,

discussion

of

the

question

of

"world

revolution

inspired

by

Marxist

faith,"

see

John

C.

Campbell,

"The

Soviet

Union

in

the

International

Environment,"

in

Allen

Kassof,

ed.,

Prospects

for

Soviet

Society

(New

York:

Praeger,

1968),

pp.

473-96.

2

Richard

Hofstadter,

The

Paranoid

Style

in

American

Politics

and

Other

Essays

(New

York:

Knopf,

1965),

p.

4.

See

also

Barbara

Ward,

Five

Ideas

that

Change

the

World

(New

York:

Norton,

1959),

pp.

141-42.

3

Quoted

in

Henry

L.

Roberts,

"Maxim

Litvinov,"

in

Gordon

A.

Craig

and

Felix

Gilbert,

eds.,

The

Diplomats

1919-1939

(New York:

Atheneum,

1963), II,

366.