Socialism Betrayed: Behind the Collapse of the Soviet Union by Roger Keeran & Thomas Kenny

Author:Roger Keeran & Thomas Kenny [Keeran, Roger]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781450241724
Publisher: iUniverse
Published: 2010-10-19T16:00:00+00:00

Because of the slowing of the USSR’s pace of economic growth, new burdens imposed by Reagan’s dramatic escalation of the arms race, and a buildup of domestic problems, the Soviet Union needed a period of reform, rejuvenation, and renewal. Under these circumstances, some kind of retreat may have been needed. Lenin knew how to retreat if necessary, in difficult moments such as in 1918, with the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, or in 1921, with NEP. Later Soviet leaders did so, too: Stalin, in 1939, with the Nazi-USSR pact; Khrushchev in 1962, in the Cuban missile crisis. For Leninists, however, a retreat was a particular phase of struggle, when an unfavorable balance of forces required a backward step. Retreats were acknowledged as such, and a retreat was never the abandonment of struggle. Gorbachev’s retreats in foreign policy assumed an entirely different character. His foreign policy rested on the notion that the Soviet Union’s problems required an adaptation to the capitalist world.417 Gorbachev portrayed his retreats as tremendous advances for mankind.

Gorbachev’s failure to achieve anything at the Reykjavik Summit set the stage for the 180-degree turn in 1987-88. Soviet peace diplomacy then assumed a different character. What started as Soviet concessions in return for a better Soviet image became concessions in return for nothing at all. The USSR began to make concessions unilaterally without regard to the consequences. In the immediate aftermath of Reykjavik, the Soviet position on the Intermediate Nuclear Force (INF) issue repeated Andropov’s in 1983. That is, the Soviet negotiators would not allow one more missile than what was already in the British and French arsenals. Early in 1987, however, Gorbachev changed. D’Agostino wrote that “instead of continuing to seek U.S. acceptance of the linkage between an agreement on missiles in Europe and the American SDI program,” Gorbachev made a “sharp break” with the past and accepted essentially the Reagan formula to eliminate all INF missiles in Europe.418

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