USSR Foreign Policies After Detente by Richard F Staar

Author:Richard F Staar [Staar, Richard F]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, World, Russian & Former Soviet Union
ISBN: 9780817985936
Google: _ROpAAAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 18507988
Publisher: Hoover Institution Press
Published: 1987-04-01T00:00:00+00:00

PART III

REGIONAL POLICIES

8

POLICIES TOWARD EASTERN EUROPE

The last colonial empire in the world today, the Soviet Union, is faced with mounting problems among its dependencies in Eastern Europe.1 A facade of political unity exists; alliance war games take place on schedule, and the most recent multiyear economic plans are being implemented. And yet the winds of change seem evident. During the past, Soviet leaders have ordered armed forces to invade several countries within their sphere of direct influence in order to turn back efforts at political liberalization. Such intervention has occurred, directly or indirectly, about once in every decade since the Second World War: Hungary (October–November 1956), Czechoslovakia (August 1968), and Poland (December 1981). In this last country, the establishment of an indigenous military dictatorship and the proclamation of martial law functioned as a surrogate for Soviet military occupation.

In contrast to Brezhnev, who summoned East European leaders individually to Oreanda in the Crimea every summer for audiences2 with this de facto head of the “socialist commonwealth of nations,” Gorbachev sees each one of these viceroys individually at his office in the Kremlin. The February 1984 and March 1985 funerals of Andropov and Chernenko provided all sides with an opportunity to become acquainted, and the periods before and during the economic summits offered time for more extended talks.

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