Stalin's foreign policy

Question 1

What was Stalin’s attitude to foreign relations

Answer 1

-Judged by its propaganda, the USSR was pledged to
the active encouragement of worldwide revolution
-In practice, Stalin did not regard Soviet Russia, as being
strong enough to sustain a genuinely revolutionary
foreign policy. His first task was to ensure the survival of
the revolution in Russia itself, with him as its leader.

Question 2

How did Stalin respond to the Nazi threat

Answer 2

-Stalin was slow to understand the threat from the
Nazis’s
-Violent attacks in Nazi Germany on the KPD, Open talks
among German officials of their country’s intention of
expanding into the USSR convinced Stalin the threat
they were
-For the next six years Soviet foreign policy was
primarily concerned with finding allies to nullify the
German danger
- In August 1939, the seemingly impossible happened,
Nazi Germany and Communist Russia came together in
a formal agreement
-Both countries came to the agreement to maintain
peaceful relations for a minimum of ten years
-By 1941, within two years of the pact, Russia had regained all its territories it had lost as a result of the first world war
-Heaps of praise was placed upon Stalin
-Yet bitter disillusion followed in June 1941 when Stalin
ripped up the treaty and invaded Russia

Question 3

What were the main issues Stalin had to deal with in terms of foreign policy

Answer 3

• The threat from Nazi Germany
• China
• Spanish Civil war

Question 4

What events were of cause for concern in China

Answer 4

-In 1935 China, the Chinese Communist party CCP, led
by Mao Zedong, having established it’s base in Yanan,
became locked in a civil war
- Stalin disliked Mao for his refusal to follow the correct
etiquette of the Marxist revolution. He disparaged Mao
as ‘white at heart’ despite the ‘red’ jackets they wear
-Mao refused to be overcome from pro-Moscow
members of the CCP
-This was also out of self interest, Stalin believed the Communists were far weaker than the Nationalists.
-Through the 1930’s Stalin gave his backing to the Nationalists, hoping their strength would resist the
Japanese encroachment on China, and thus lessen the
likelihood of Russia being an object of Japanese
expansionism

Question 5

What events were a cause for concern in Spain 1936-39

Answer 5

• Stalin failed to keep his natural supporters, largely out
  of his pursuits of defence agreements with Capitalist
  nations
  -This was especially evident with the Spanish Civil war
  -Stalin’s motives for interaction in the Spanish Civil war
  were mixed
  -Stalin hoped to divert the attention away from the brutal
  purges occurring in Russia
  -Stalin took active measures to support the Republican contingents, sending them military equipment
  -However, there is doubt Stalin really wanted a
  Republican victory
  -Stalin feared that, if communism was installed in South-
  Western Europe, this would frighten Britain and France
  into forming an anti-Soviet pact with the Germans
  -The very consequence which Soviet foreign policy was
  trying to avoid

Question 6

Was the foreign policy of Stalin successful?

Answer 6

-Stalin failed to keep support of people who naturally
sided towards the party
-Particularly as shown with the Spanish Civil war Stalin
failed