1

• Lenin’s goal:

to lead worldwide

Marxist revolution

• Believed workers

would rise up against

owners (exploiters)

if given chance

• Comintern:

international forum for

Communist parties

Key terms: Comintern, Cold War, Iron Curtain, Mutual

Assured Destruction (MAD), “new thinking”

• By 1930s:

– Stalin embraces policy of “socialism in one country”

– Stalin makes pragmatic alliances with Western countries

• ex: Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact (1939)

• During World War II:

– Soviet Union allies with US, Great Britain

– Divided world into “spheres of influence” (Yalta, 1945)

• Soviet Union wants

geographic “buffer”

– Engineers takeover

of East European

governments by

Soviet-backed

Communist parties

• 1946: Iron Curtain

descends

– ex: Czechoslovakia

falls in 1948

2

Conflicting views of the Marshall Plan:

The Cold War in operation

Eastern Europe proves difficult to manage

• Yugoslavia breaks with USSR by 1948 (non-aligned)

• Series of crises in Berlin– Airlift (1948)

– Social unrest (1953)

– Wall (1961)

• Hungary– Experiments with new forms

of socialism

– Red Army invades (1956)

• Czechoslovakia– “socialism with a human face”

– Red Army invades (1968)

3

Countries Under Soviet Influence

• In 1980:

Afghanistan Laos

Angola Libya

Bulgaria Mongolia

Cambodia Mozambique

Congo Poland

Cuba Romania

Czechoslovakia Syria

Ethiopia Yemen (Aden)

East Germany Vietnam

Hungary

• In the past:

Albania Mali

Algeria Somalia

Bangladesh Sudan

China Yemen

Egypt (Sana)

Ghana Yugoslavia

Guinea

India

Indonesia

Iraq

North Korea

Images from the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)

4

Space Race – From Soviet Perspective

5

Détente: Efforts to Control WMD’s

• Occurs in wake of MAD

(Mutual Assured

Destruction)

• START I (1971)

– Strategic Arms Limitation

Treaty: freeze status quo

– Ratified by US & USSR

• START II (1979)

– Effort to halt nuclear

proliferation

• Gorbachev: “new thinking” in foreign policy

– Moves away from bipolar view of world

– Makes unilateral changes in arms control policy

– Much improved relationship with US

• Series of summits with Reagan and Bush

– Accepts reduced influence of USSR around the world

• End to war in Afghanistan (1989)

• Stands by when Berlin Wall falls

Post-Cold War:

Bringing down the Berlin Wall Ending War in Afghanistan

6

Yeltsin: Follows Gorbachev’s lead in foreign policy

• Jan. 1992 speech at UN:

– Western powers are “not just partners, but allies”

• Series of friendship treaties

• Committed to partnership w/ US

– Summits w/ Bush & Clinton

– Move away from arms control to seeking help with transition

• Problems in US-Russia relationship

– Yugoslavia

– NATO expansion

Putin’s foreign policy:

• New assertiveness?

• Post September 11th

– Putin offers support

– Negotiates access to

Central Asian air bases

(not permanent)

• Russia emerges as alternative to US in Middle East

– Pragmatic concerns? Russian business interests?

– Pushes Russia closer to European neighbors

• Ambivalent re NATO expansion

– Clear frustration.

– Less clear: what Russia’s options were (and are)?

7

NATO Expansion

1999: Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary

2004: Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania,

Romania,Slovakia, Slovenia,

NATO Membership as of 2004

8

Contemporary challenges:

• Terror:

– Post-9/11: Conciliatory attitude to US

– Accepts US troops in Central Asia

– But doesn’t go along on Iraq

• Managing relationship w/ West

– Questions about whether Russia belongs in G8

– Attitude toward NATO expansion

– Periodic crises over gas supply

– “Reset” of relationship under Obama

9

10

Attitudes of Russians Towards

US & EU in September 2008

and September 2010

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

US 2008 US 2010 EU 2008 EU 2010

Favorable

Unfavorable

Unsure

Russian Attitudes Toward US

May 1990 –May 2010

Russian Attitudes Toward EU

December 2003 – September 2010

11

• Near Abroad: how to deal with countries that were part of fmr USSR:

– Ukraine:

• Orange Revolution

• Gas supplies

– Georgia:

• Diplomatic impasse

• Military skirmish

• West sides w/ Georgia

– Is Russia trying to reunite the countries of the FSU?

Saakashvili and Sarkozy

Saakashvili and Cheney

Russians’ Attitudes Towards Ukraine

July 2001 - November 2009

Russia’s relationship with NATO

• Arguments in favor of closer relationship and/or membership?

• Arguments for Russia going it alone?

• Will Russia tolerate Ukraine and other FSU states joining?