Foreign policy of the USSR. National politics of the USSR
With the beginning of perestroika, serious changes occurred in the foreign policy of the USSR. It was based on a philosophical and political concept called new political thinking. This concept proclaimed the rejection of class-ideological confrontation and was based on the thesis of a diverse, but interdependent and integral world. In a system of interconnected states, all global problems: nuclear disarmament, ecology, medicine, etc. could only be decided jointly, based on the recognition:
a) the priority of universal human values over class values;
b) transition from confrontation to dialogue as the main form of international relations;
c) de-ideologization of international relations;
d) strict respect for the right of every people to freely choose their destiny;
e) understanding the impossibility of a military solution to interstate disputes and finding a balance of interests.
In a statement by M.S. Gorbachev dated January 15, 1986, in the Delhi Declaration he signed (November 1986), in a speech at the XXVII Congress of the CPSU, the Soviet leadership emphasized the recognition by the Soviet leadership of the priority of universal values over class values, commitment to new political thinking, peaceful resolution of conflicts, and disarmament.
The most important events were the withdrawal of Soviet troops from of Eastern Europe, ending the war and the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan. Soviet-American relations continued to be the central core of Soviet foreign policy. Over the years, several meetings of President M.S. took place. Gorbachev with US Presidents R. Reagan and G. Bush. In 1987, a treaty on the elimination of intermediate- and shorter-range missiles was signed. In the summer of 1991, an agreement was signed on a significant reduction in strategic offensive weapons. A few months later, the parties exchanged new initiatives in the field of disarmament.
In March 1989, during the visit of M.S. Gorbachev to the People's Republic of China, Soviet-Chinese relations were normalized. At the beginning of 1991, during the Gulf War, the USSR, together with the countries of the world community, condemned the actions of Iraq. For many decades, this was the first time that the USSR took the side of the leading countries of the world against its former allies, although it did not take part in hostilities. In the summer of 1991, for the first time, the Soviet President was invited to the annual traditional meeting of the leaders of the seven leading countries. At the meeting, measures to assist the USSR in overcoming the economic crisis and transition to a market economy were discussed. The deterioration of the internal economic situation forced the Soviet leadership to make large, often unilateral, concessions to the West in the hope of gaining economic assistance and political support.
With the liquidation of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, the volume of foreign trade decreased significantly. Receipts of light and consumer goods stopped Food Industry from European socialist countries, which made up a significant part of the internal trade turnover of the USSR. The negative balance of foreign trade increased in 1990 by 2.9 times compared to 1989. Humanitarian assistance with food and medicine, amounting to 26 thousand tons. by January 1991, was unable to save the situation. Along with positive processes, “perestroika” in the foreign policy sphere led to a severance of ties with former allies from socialist and liberated countries, to the curtailment of economic and trade relations with them, which further increased internal difficulties and contributed to the deepening of the economic and political crisis.
The end of the Cold War, coupled with the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the liquidation of the Warsaw Pact Organization, did not lead to the desired comprehensive peace based on “new political thinking.” The NATO military-political bloc, created for the war with the USSR, not only was not dissolved, but became even stronger. Armed conflicts began within the country. The military-political situation has become more complicated.
Already in August 1953, a new word “détente” (speech by G.M. Malenkov) came from the highest echelons of power for the first time, which meant the awareness of the fact that the desire to destroy capitalism at any cost in the nuclear age could result in the death of all humanity. A long and difficult reorientation lay ahead not only of the leaders, but also of the entire people from the concept of “world revolution” and “universal victory of socialism” to the recognition of the need to live peacefully with the entire non-socialist world.
In N. S. Khrushchev’s report to the 20th Party Congress, two basic principles of foreign policy were formulated: recognition of the multivariate ways of building socialism (which meant the rejection of cruel dictatorship in relation to socialist countries) and the restoration of the principle of peaceful coexistence of states with different social systems. Along with the legal formalization of the military-political bloc of European countries of the “socialist camp” (the organization of the Warsaw Pact opposing NATO), the USSR unilaterally reduced its Armed Forces. In 1958, a unilateral moratorium on nuclear testing was declared. However, the West does not believe in the peaceful initiatives of the USSR, since in 1956 there was direct military intervention in the internal affairs of Hungary. Peace initiatives have not elicited an adequate response. The situation is further aggravated by the crisis of 1961, which resulted in the construction of the Berlin Wall. The fact is that the lack of clear borders led to the fact that through West Berlin the population of the Federal Republic of Germany bought food products produced in the GDR cheaply, and the population of the German Democratic Republic flowed almost unhindered to the West.
The international situation reached its greatest severity during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, when the deployment of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba almost turned into a global catastrophe. Telephone conversations on top level between N. S. Khrushchev and US President John Kennedy led to the elimination of the crisis.
In the first half of the 60s. under the influence of the Caribbean events, treaties were concluded on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons (France and China did not join), and on the prohibition of testing nuclear weapons on water, in the atmosphere and in space. The international situation was sharply aggravated by the US armed intervention in Vietnam and the sharp condemnation of this by the Soviet Union.
A manifestation of crisis phenomena in the socialist camp was the rejection of criticism of Stalinism in the USSR by the communist parties of Albania and China. Their course towards isolation led to a deterioration in relations with the Soviet Union.
The main efforts of Soviet diplomacy in 1965-1985. were aimed at preserving and strengthening the socialist camp, supporting communist and workers' parties in non-socialist states, helping “progressive” movements and regimes around the world, developing relations with “third world” countries, establishing diplomatic and other contacts with Western powers, the USA, Canada .
In the second half of the 60s. Relations between the USSR and European socialist countries are sharply complicated. Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and Romania tried to take advantage of the USSR's weakening attention to foreign policy problems during the period of change of Soviet leadership. At this time, the political concept of L. I. Brezhnev was formed, according to which the threat to socialism comes not only from obvious imperialist enemies, but also from emerging pockets of resistance within the socialist camp.
After negotiations with the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia did not lead to the abandonment of reforms, on the night of August 20-21, 1968, Warsaw Pact troops entered the country. On May 6, 1970, G. Husak, who headed the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, signed an agreement on “friendship and cooperation” with the USSR.
The process of military and economic integration with Europe is intensifying. In addition to the Warsaw Pact and CMEA, about 30 more interstate institutions were created that took control of the economic life of the “fraternal countries”.
At the end of the 60s. There is a clash on the Soviet-Chinese border. In order to neutralize Chinese influence in Asia, the USSR is establishing contacts with North Korea and Vietnam, providing them with comprehensive military and economic assistance. In response, China is beginning to move closer to the United States.
Fearing the unification of its two main rivals, the USSR carried out a sharp turn in Soviet-American relations in 1972. On May 26, 1972, the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT-1) was signed in Moscow. In November 1974 Agreement was reached on SALT II, but the American Congress did not ratify the document.
“Détente” in Europe was consolidated by the Convention on the Prohibition and Destruction of Bacteriological Weapons, which came into force in 1975, and the decisions of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, which ended with the signing in Helsinki in 1975 of the Final Act and the Final Document on cooperation in trade economic and cultural spheres. The act included articles on the protection of human rights, freedom of information and movement.
During the easing of international tension, the USSR achieved significant successes in foreign policy:
conclusion of agreements with the United States, which meant recognition of the USSR as a superpower;
trade agreements with Western Europe and America opened up significant opportunities for the development of economic ties, technical, technological and cultural contracts;
The influence of the USSR on the countries of the socialist camp in the political and economic spheres was stronger than ever;
Through peace propaganda and providing comprehensive assistance, the USSR strengthened its position among developing states that declared their orientation towards building socialism.
The country's government has become fascinated by the globalization of its foreign policy aspirations, primarily in the Middle East and Africa. Aid and support gradually turned into their opposite, reduced to interference in the internal affairs of sovereign countries (Angola, Ethiopia) and, finally, developed into open intervention, which began in December 1979 against Afghanistan.
The crisis of the political system in the USSR, which emerged in the early 80s, served as a signal for the collapse of the socialist camp. The first link to drop out was Poland. Unlike Hungary and Czechoslovakia, where the initiative for reform came from the party opposition, among the Poles the process of democratization began from below. The nascent popular movement was led by the Solidarity trade union, which the government was forced to recognize under pressure from the popular masses. Busy with internal problems, the USSR did not dare to openly intervene in Polish events. Failures in foreign policy and the decline in the international prestige of the USSR sharply highlighted intra-crisis phenomena.
The coming to power of M. Gorbachev initially did not foretell changes in the foreign policy relations of the USSR. The new General Secretary, like his predecessors, stated the need to combat the military threat from capitalist states and strengthen the socialist camp.
"New political thinking"
Changes in the conduct of foreign policy occurred with E. Shevardnadze taking the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs in the summer of 1985. The new minister developed three main courses of Soviet diplomacy: normalization of relations with the United States, the beginning of a bilateral reduction in nuclear potential and the end of the USSR’s participation in internal confrontations between African and Asian countries.
Similar proposals were supported by Gorbachev and already at the beginning of 1987 they began to be actively implemented by the Soviet government. This foreign policy concept is called “new thinking.”
The main principles of the “new thinking” were the perception of the world as an integral system and the rejection of its polar division, according to differences in ideologies. Also, such a policy rejected forceful methods resolving contradictions between states, assigning a decisive role in this to peaceful negotiations.
In November 1985, the beginning of a political thaw between the USSR and the USA was laid: an official meeting of the leaders of the two warring states, M. Gorbachev and R. Reagan, took place. Two years later, the USA and the USSR signed a bilateral agreement on the elimination of nuclear warheads, the presence of which created military tension in the world.
By the beginning of 1988, communist principles played an increasingly smaller role in diplomacy. M. Gorbachev understood that the lack of economic development could be replaced by a “breakthrough” in diplomatic relations with the West; this was the only opportunity to continue the policy of “perestroika.”
The government of the USSR was forced to accept all the conditions that the United States set for a change in Soviet policy regarding the situation in the Middle East and Africa, a refusal to modernize the army, the formation of a market and federation, as well as a democratic transformation of the life of the state.
At the final stage of “perestroika,” the US government began to actively intervene in domestic policy THE USSR. President D. Bush, secretly from Gorbachev, negotiated with the leaders of the union republics.
The conduct of secret diplomacy by the United States and some socialist Soviet republics is evidenced by the fact that it was President D. Bush who first learned about the decision to denounce the Union Treaty of 1922, and only after M. Gorbachev.
Diplomacy with Third World countries
The main regional problem of the USSR was the war in Afghanistan. Stop fighting in this state it was required immediately, since it was main reason discord with capitalist countries. On February 15, 1989, the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan began. The completion of the international mission finally cemented the rapprochement between the USSR and the USA.
Economic instability in the USSR in 1985-1989 caused a reduction in the volume of material and food aid to developing socialist republics. During this period, military support for Iraq was interrupted.
The Soviet government joined the political blockade of Libya, as demanded by the United States and Western Europe. Thanks to the rejection of ideological barriers, diplomatic relations began to improve with Taiwan, South Korea, Israel and South Africa.
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At the 23rd Congress of the CPSU in March 1966. decisions were made confirming the rather tough foreign policy course of the USSR. Peaceful coexistence remained the goal of Soviet policy, but priority was given to the competition between the two systems and the strengthening of the socialist camp.
One of the primary foreign policy objectives of this period was the normalization of relations between East and West. Summer 1966 For the first time in the post-war period, French President Charles de Gaulle visited Moscow. Cooperation between the two countries was confirmed by the signing in 1971. a series of agreements between L.I. Brezhnev and the new French President Pompidou. The Soviet side hoped that rapprochement with France would help resolve the German issue, which remained one of the main ones. In 1969 W. Brandt became Federal Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, striving to improve relations with the East. Negotiations with the Soviet Union in Moscow in 1970. led to the conclusion of a treaty in which countries renounced the use of force in relations between themselves. Post-war borders were recognized. December 21, 1972 The Federal Republic of Germany recognized the GDR. Both German states were accepted into the UN.
The most important event of the 70s. gg. was the resumption of Soviet-American summit meetings. Beginning with the visit of President R. Nixon to Moscow in May 1972. and until 1975 the world lived in an atmosphere of detente. The policy of détente consisted of economic agreements and nuclear arms limitation agreements. In 1971 1976 The total volume of Soviet-American trade increased 8 times, mainly due to USSR purchases of grain.
In 1969 The USSR and the USA reached parity in the number of intercontinental missiles. May 26, 1972 A temporary treaty was signed in Moscow, called SALT I, which limited the number of intercontinental ballistic missiles and missiles launched from submarines for both sides. In 1978 SALT-2 was concluded, agreements were also signed on limiting underground nuclear tests, on missile defense, etc.
In 1975 The Meeting on Security and Cooperation in Europe of Leaders 33 took place in Helsinki European countries and Canada. The documents signed there affirmed 10 principles in the relations between the participating states: sovereign equality of states, their territorial integrity, inviolability of borders, peaceful settlement of disputes, non-interference in internal affairs, respect for human rights, equality of peoples, mutually beneficial cooperation, conscientious fulfillment of obligations under international law.
Since 1973 Negotiations between the Warsaw Pact countries (Bulgaria, Hungary, East Germany, Poland, Romania, USSR, Czechoslovakia, Albania) and NATO on reducing armed forces in Europe resumed. Negotiations very soon reached a dead end. The deadly detente was caused by the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan in December 1979. New frosts have arrived. " Cold War" resumed. Mutual accusations, notes of protest, disputes and diplomatic scandals became integral elements of the system of international relations in the first half of the 80s. Relations between the USSR and the USA, the Warsaw Department and NATO reached a dead end. The introduction of Soviet troops into Afghanistan marked the beginning of a long military conflict, in which the USSR suffered great human, material, and moral losses. It was a grave mistake, the tragic consequences of which still remind us to this day.
Relations between the USSR and the parties of the socialist camp were not easy. Here the main task was to eliminate the threat of disintegration of the camp and to unite it more closely in political, military and economic relations. Even before the 23rd Congress of the CPSU Soviet Union took a number of steps towards normalizing relations and rapprochement with China, Romania, Cuba, North Korea and North Vietnam. But due to conflicts between these countries and the rigid position of their communist parties, stabilization was not achieved. In June 1967 The situation in Czechoslovakia became more complicated due to economic disruptions and political repression. In the fall, opposition to the authorities intensified - strikes and mass demonstrations began. On the night of August 21, 1968 troops of five countries participating in the Warsaw Warsaw War (Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, East Germany, Poland, Romania, USSR and Czechoslovakia) entered Czechoslovakia.” The Prague Spring (the period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia) is over. In May 1970 An alliance treaty was signed with the USSR. In addition to the ATS and CMEA (council of economic assistance) during the 60-70s. About 30 interstate institutions were created to coordinate the work of industry, transport, and various branches of production.
USSR in the 70-80s. Socio-political development
1970–1980 went down in the history of the USSR as the years of “stagnation” in politics, national relations. In the socio-political life of the country: 1) conservative tendencies reigned supreme. The concept of developed socialism has received official approval, according to which the slow, systematic, gradual improvement of real socialism, built in the USSR “completely and completely”, will take a whole historical era. In 1977 ᴦ. it was legislatively enshrined in the introduction to the new Constitution of the USSR. The thesis about the leading and guiding role of the CPSU was also enshrined in the Constitution; 2) in practice, not all democratic freedoms proclaimed by the Constitution were fulfilled. In particular, the Councils of People's Deputies at all levels remained only a decoration, and real power belonged to the party apparatus. His control over society remained comprehensive; 3) the apparatus and the nomenklatura that made it up, party and state officials at a certain level, to use the term of those years, were “reborn”. L.I. Brezhnev, who held the post of First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee for 18 years, considered it necessary to maintain personnel stability in the apparatus. Most ministers and regional committee secretaries at that time held their positions for 15–20 years. 4) the party-state apparatus is merging with the “shadow economy”, corruption
No. 52. The USSR in the system of international relations in the 70-80s. ʼʼCold Warʼʼ
In the 70s, the international authority and influence of the USSR grew significantly. And also the 1970s went down in history as the era of détente. The American leadership recognized the existence of military-strategic parity between the USSR and the USA, that is, approximate equality of weapons. During negotiations between the leaders of the USSR and the USA, various treaties on the limitation of strategic arms were signed.
In the 1970s, cooperation between the USSR and the countries of the “socialist commonwealth” deepened, which was especially evident in the course on the integration (unification) of economic systems. In 1971. A comprehensive program of socio-economic integration was adopted, which provided for international socialist specialization (international division of labor), the creation of a single market of socialist countries, the rapprochement of currency systems, etc.
At the turn of the 1970s-1980s, the international situation deteriorated sharply. The leading powers turned from the policy of détente towards confrontation (confrontation). The USA and the USSR found themselves involved in an arms race.
In 1983 - 1984. The United States deployed medium-range nuclear cruise missiles aimed at the USSR on the territory of Germany, Great Britain and Italy. In turn, the USSR sharply increased the use of force and the threat of force in foreign policy. In 1979 ᴦ. The USSR found itself drawn into the war in Afghanistan (9 years). Most UN member countries condemned the actions of the USSR. During the war in Afghanistan, the USSR lost 15 thousand people killed and 36 thousand wounded. Each day of the war cost 10-11 million rubles. In 1980 ᴦ. capitalist countries announced a boycott of the XXI 1st Olympic Games in Moscow. In 1984, the USSR deployed medium-range nuclear missiles on the territory of the GDR. In response to this, all leading capitalist countries declared a scientific and technological boycott of the USSR and its allies. The West launched a broad anti-Soviet and anti-socialist campaign
Expanding its sphere of influence, the USSR provided assistance to various Third World states. The USSR participated in some form in armed conflicts in Angola, Ethiopia, and Somalia. By the mid-80s, the inconsistency of the USSR’s foreign policy became obvious, new approaches were required
USSR in the 70-80s. Socio-political development - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "USSR in the 70-80s. Socio-political development" 2017, 2018.