History, Miss Cook, Cold War.
What was Stalin's Motives for soviet expansion, defensive or expansionist ?
By 1920 the Bolsheviks were in a very weak position and Russia as a whole had to come to terms with its own vulnerability in a hostile world. Stalin decided on the extension of the soviet control to eastern Europe. This policy aimed to protect the interests rather than stirring up world revolution. In other words it was too become defensive rather than aggressive, however the west refused to believe this and still had there minds set that Stalin was planning the spread of world revolution. This is what I will discuss in my essay, was it defensive or expansionist?
Firstly I'll look at why the people believed it was expansionist, in other words to spread world communism. Stalin had always believed in communist revolution. This was also seen by Truman which introduced the permanent revolution. This was the belief that Russia would not survive because of conflict between capitalism and communism was inevitable. However at the time Stalin put this too the side as he thought it wasn't important but it wasn't forgotten in the future. One of the main reasons that people believed that Stalin was too expand rather than be defensive was the introduction of Comintern. This was an organisation to factilate contacts between communist groups throughout the world. It encouraged people ( communists) to stir up unrest across Europe. Another significant event to consider which supports this view is the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945. To the west the imposition of communist governments on eastern Europe, the civil war in Greece, where communist were attempting to remove the monarchists, the takeover of Czechoslovakia in 1948 and the soviet blockade of Berlin in 1948-9 were all seen as evidence of Stalin’s intention to spread communism. One last key reason was Keenan views, he said that foreign threats would mobilise the population in order to secure its own position.
However this view by the West and communism was misleading as they based there views on assumptions. They didn't have a understanding of the motives and the reality of the soviet position in 1945.
