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Carl Davis

Russia

Twenty-Seven Years of Foreign Policy

(December 1944)

From Labor Action, Vol. 8 No. 49, 4 December 1944, p. 3.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).

On November 16, the Russian Embassy published its Information Bulletin containing an article by Col. A. Galin, in which the author lists six basic principles of that nation’s foreign policy, which, he contends, have been followed consistently for twenty-years of its existence. The six basic principles are summarized in this way:

1. Peaceful relations with all states, irrespective of their political systems.
    
2. Economic and political co-operation with all slates on the basis of sovereign equality and independence of the contracting parties and the co-existence of two systems.
    
3. Alliance with any state with the purpose of protecting both partners from acts of aggression.
    
4. Categorical renunciation of imperialistic expansion at the cost of other nations.
    
5. Non-intervention in the internal affairs of other States.
    
6. Strengthening of the coalition of freedom-loving nations in the fight against fascist aggressors.

The program described by Col. Galin is NOT the “consistent” foreign policy which that country has followed for “twenty-seven years.” Workers’ Russia under Lenin and Trotsky followed a foreign policy that was totally different from that which is followed by Stalin’s Russia. After the Russian Revolution the country followed a foreign policy whose aim was to promote the interests of the workers all over the world. Workers’ Russia renounced all imperialist possessions of the Czar. Certainly, Workers’ Russia made alliances with capitalist-imperialist nations. Stalin’s Russia does the same, but with these differences:
 

It’s Not a Consistent Policy!

Under Lenin and Trotsky, it was made clear that any alliance which Russia made was usually forced upon her by adverse circumstances. But Lenin always made clear to the Russian people and the masses of the world that such alliances did not mean that the workers of other countries must accept the rule of their capitalist-imperialists, or that those countries suddenly ceased being imperialists and had become “peaceful,” “freedom-loving” nations. On the contrary, Lenin continued to call upon the oppressed of the world to overthrow their rulers and establish real freedom, security and democracy.

The foreign policy of Russia certainly changed since Stalin destroyed the workers’ state and established the rule of the bureaucrats. Examples? There are many.

1. After Hitler came to power, in 1933, Litvinov became the Russian spokesman for collective security of the “democratic” capitalist countries and Russia against Germany. That was one policy.
    
2. When Hitler continued to expand and threaten war against the Allies while they were unprepared and impotent, Russia began to play ball with him. She gave Germany the go-sign to begin the war by signing a pact which became known the world over as the Hitler-Stalin pact. Russia and Germany became great friends. Foreign Minister Molotov then said that “fascism is a matter of personal taste.” Russo-German friendship was “sealed in blood.” They jointly invaded Poland and divided up the country. That was another stage in Stalinist Russian foreign policy.
    
3. When Hitler reached the Atlantic Ocean, only to falter in his invasion of England and turn on Russia, drawing her into the war against her will and in spite of her pact with the Nazis, a new foreign policy was adopted. Russia now became an integral part of the United Nations. She was welcomed with open arms by Britain’s Churchill at a time when that country stood alone in the war against Germany.
    

New Alliance, New Line

It must be remembered too, that up to the fateful day when the Wehrmacht crossed the Russian borders, the Stalinists all over the world blamed Great Britain and the United States for the war, exonerating Hitler from all responsibility. It was a time too, when Churchill and Roosevelt were called “war-mongers and imperialists.”

The new foreign policy changed all that. Now Germany was responsible for the war; Churchill and Roosevelt were great peace-loving benefactors of humanity.

This, then is but a brief illustration of the “consistent” Russian foreign policy which it has followed for “twenty-seven years.”

Now let us relate Russia’s stated war aims to the facts:

1. “Peaceful relations with all states irrespective of their political systems.” Examples: The war on Finland; the war on Esthonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Finland ceded large territories to Russia. Eisthonia, Latvia and Lithuania have been incorporated into the borders of Russia.
    
2. “Categorical renunciation of imperialist expansion at the cost of other nations.” See, again, Poland, Finland, the Baltic states, Rumania and Hungary.
    
3. “Non-Intervention in the internal affairs of other states.” See Iran, Poland, Jugoslavia, etc.

When Russian foreign policy is examined concretely it is easy to see that it does not differ essentially from the foreign policy of the capitalist powers with empires to defend and territories to seize.

 
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