Soviet union foreign policy

Trotsky idea (backed up by Lenin) was to export revolution to all of Europe
PLUS – spartakian’s revolt in Germany and Hungarian revolt in 1919
MINUS – defeat in Russo-Polish War in 1921. Inability to create a buffer state between Europe and Russia, failure to return to old Empire borders
Initial stage – Global Revolution

Initial Stalin goal – to involve more in domestic policy then outside the borders
Foreign policy – through involvement in global communist movement – Third International
Stalin idea for global communist movement – (1924-1928)-peaceful cooperation of all left parties changed to proclaiming a war to social democrats within communist parties (1929-1933)
Socialism in one country

Stalin believed that USSR was treated by all other countries
Civil war era intervention
USSR wasn’t invited to League of Nations
USSR wasn’t admitted by western powers
One against all

When the only friend is your enemy
Under this circumstances the only country that really took Russia seriously was Germany
Germany needed an ally
Germany sought for rehabilitation for Versailles's treaty
Just as USSR in 10 years Germany tried to make friend with Russia, fearing spread of permanent revolution

Rapallo treaty 1922 ( mutual cooperation)
Germany used some of USSR bases for militarization
Specialist helped to launch industrialization programmes
Berlin treaty expanded Rapallo ideas over whole USSR and specifically mentioned 5 year peaceful treaty between countries
This rocketed the mutual military cooperation in between 1930-33

Nevertheless – the witch hunt against social democrats led to a conflict inside communist party in germany.
Ruling Social Democrat Party choose to favor Nazi party over communist.
Hitler choose communist to be a scapegoat for failures of Weimar republic
Eventually Hitler was chosen as a Chancellor and later proclaimed himself a Furher
How stalin helped hitler

As early as 1931 Stalin said that a new war in Europe is inevitable and that Russia should come prepared
The idea was to let Hitler invade western countries, specifically France and Britain with at least silent approval of soviet union
But Hitler hatred to communism and soviet missions in Germany proved otherwise
Will it mean another war?

Stalin or more so foreign minister Litvinov tried to strike a deal with the West
As early as Hitler came to power USSR choose to become closer with France
1934 USSR joined League of Nations but stayed there mostly unheard ( USSR was strictly against militarization on East and against Fascist rule in Spain)
Unfortunately idea to make friends with the west didn’t live up to its promices
Old new friend

September 1934 – joined League.
On May 2, 1935, the five-year Soviet-French Treaty of Mutual Assistance was signed
1938 Munich pact where France and Britain let Germany invade Checkoslovakia and later USSR with silent approval of war untill it’s fought on eastern front
Some dates

And so the best idea left was to use Nazi Germany against the West, secretly up-building military base to join the winning party later on
To do so Russia needed
-Time to prepare to war
- Buffer in case of aggression
Besides Stalin used this as a chance to stroke against Poland – country that defeated russia in 1921
Back to old school

Date 23th august 1939
Reason – give time to prepare to war
In a way – this was mirror image of Munich pact
USSR needed time and it needed to expand her territory as to make sure it took some time for Nazies to reach Moscow
Soviet-nazi pact

In other words – was stalin cunningly planning the strike against germany/west or was his policy less persistent
PRO PLAN
Choose to befriend germany
created buffer zone in 1939-1940 (baltic states, bessarabia(moldova-romania) and finland)
Military production grew rapidly in 1936-1941
Industrialization in army (USSR had the biggest number of tanks through all armies in the world)
So was stalin preparing the war?