STALIN’S FOREIGN POLICY IN THE PERIOD OF THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR AND IN THE POST-WAR YEARS

STALIN’S FOREIGN POLICY IN THE PERIOD OF THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR AND IN THE POST-WAR YEARS
V.K. Popov, Doctor of Historical Science
On the eve of the Second World War the Soviet government, on the initiative of J.V. Stalin, carried out a policy directed towards the preservation of peace and providing assistance to victims of aggression.
In the period from 1936 – 1939 the USSR helped republican Spain in its struggle against the rebellious Franco and fascist Germany and Italy, which had sided with him.
In 1937 militarist Japan attacked China. The USSR provided China with various kinds of assistance and sent its own volunteer fighter pilots who bravely defended the skies over China against Japanese air pirates.
In 1938 the USSR branded the Munchen Agreements as a disgrace, as they threw Czechoslovakia under the jackboots of fascist Germany.
In 1939 Soviet troops provided assistance to friendly Mongolia in repelling Japanese aggression against that country. Under the command of General G.K. Zhukov, the Red Army crushed the Japanese troops.
In that same year on Germany’s proposal, the USSR signed a non-aggression pact with this country. As time had shown, this treaty, having summoned a storm of indignation in the West, answered the interests of the USSR. It allowed the USSR to delay the start of the war by almost two years and to return to our country a number of territories of the Russian Empire, which were torn away from it in the first years of Soviet power (Western Ukraine, Western Byelorussia, the Baltic states and Bessarabia).
The USSR was not to blame for the Hitlerite high echelons recklessly violating that pact with our country and the start of the wide scale aggression by the German troops against the Soviet state.
From the very first days of the Great Patriotic War, Stalin was at the head of the struggle of the Soviet people against German fascist aggression. He became the Chairman of the State Committee for Defence (GKO) and Supreme Chief Commanding of the Red Army. All foreign policy ties were also in his hands, although formally V.M. Molotov was the Peoples Commissar of Foreign Affairs.
One of the most important tasks of Soviet diplomacy in the war years was the forming of an anti-Hitler coalition and the opening up of a second front in Europe. Stalin played a superb role in this affair. Already by 1941 he had put this question forward in his message to Prime Minister W. Churchill.
"It seems to me – he wrote on the 8th July - that the military situation in the Soviet Union as well as in Great Britain would be significantly improved if a second front was formed against Hitler in the West (in Northern France) and in the North (in the Arctic)".
In two weeks Stalin met with the personal representative of the US president, Garry Hopkins, who declared on the orders of F. Roosevelt: "….whoever fights against Hitler is on the right side in this conflict, and we intend to provide assistance to this side".
During Molotov’s trip to Britain and the US in May-June 1942, the question about opening a second front dominated negotiations with Churchill and Roosevelt.
However, agreeing in words on the question about the necessity of opening up a second front, the allies refused the take on any concrete obligations themselves. This note sounded out in the flow of the negotiations between Stalin and Churchill in August 1942 in Moscow. After, the Chairman of the GKO sent a memorandum to the Prime Minister of Great Britain in which, in particular it stated: "The refusal by the government of Great Britain to form a second front in 1942 in Europe is inflicting a moral blow against the whole of Soviet society.., complicates the situation of the Red Army on the front and is inflicting harm on the plans of the Soviet Command. We believe therefore, that in 1942 it is possible and necessary to create a second front in Europe. But England and the United States have again avoided taking on any direct obligations" .
The question concerning the second front occupied the centre of Stalin’s attention right up to almost the end of 1943. It is true that later on he did not take it to the extremes like it was for example, in the responses and answers to American correspondent Cassidy in October 1942.
The correspondent in written form asked about what place the possibility of a second front occupied in the Soviet evaluation of the current situation at that time.
The answer: "A very important, one may even say, paramount place".
"How effective is allied assistance to the Soviet Union?"
The answer: "Compared to the assistance that the Soviet Union is providing the allies with, by taking the full brunt of the main forces of the German fascist troops, the allied assistance to the Soviet Union still has little effect in the meantime".
However, the second front was neither opened in 1942 nor in 1943. This was due there being influential circles in the United States and Britain who were interested in weakening the USSR during the war. It was only at the Teheran Conference in November 1943 where the leaders of the three allied powers had met, that the question on the second front was decided. The US and Britain took the decision to land their troops in Normandy (France) in May 1944. Actually, the second front ("Operation Overlord") was opened on 6th June 1944. By this time the West had understood that the attacking Soviet troops could liberate the whole of Europe from the Hitlerite occupation, using its own forces.
At the end of the war two more conferences of the leaders of the three allied powers were held: The Crimean conference (February 1945) and the Berlin conferences (July - August 1945), which solved the most important questions on ending the Second World War and the post-war political structure. Stalin played a decisive role at these conferences, which was connected to the decisive victories of the Red Army. Stalin gained enormous international authority. Churchill admitted to having together with G. Truman (Truman replaced the by now deceased Roosevelt) stood up when Stalin entered the hall. Despite this, the Western leaders had a "surprise" in store for Stalin – an atom bomb, with which they were now going to use to blackmail the USSR.
During the war against Germany, the Red Army liberated a number of European countries occupied by the fascist regime. These were: Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia, Denmark partially and Norway. Stalin paid special attention to the future of these countries. Earlier, they had been developing along capitalist lines, but after the liberation under the leadership of communist and workers parties they crossed over onto the peoples -democratic road in alliance with the USSR. This was a complicated turning point in the destiny of the people. Not even all the leaders of the communist parties (Tito, later on Nagy, Dubcek) understood the necessity of this.
Despite enormous difficulties the USSR led these countries towards socialism, transferred over to them its wealth of experience and defended them from NATO aggression.
On Stalin’s initiative, the CMEA (Council of Economic Mutual Assistance) and the Warsaw Pact were formed, which provided for the economic and military - political development of these countries.
In 1949, thanks to Stalin’s colossal energy, the atomic weapon appeared in the USSR and the country was finally transformed into a "superpower" , at the same time defending the cause for peace and socialism.
The triumph of the people’s revolution in China and the forming of the Peoples Republic of China was a remarkable post-war "concurrence" of democratic forces. This victory did not give the US any chance of strengthening itself in Asia (besides Japan and South Korea) and turn this region into a military base, directed against the USSR and China.
At the end of 1949 Mao Zedon visited Moscow to participate in the celebration of J.V. Stalin’s 70th Birthday. As a result of negotiations, a treaty was planned for signing between the USSR and China on friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance. The treaty was signed in February 1950. It transformed the friendship between the Soviet and Chinese peoples into a great force in the world, made the disruption of US aggression in the DPRK (Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea) possible and defended the achievements of socialism in Asia.
Together with the successes of Soviet foreign policy in the years during which Stalin led the country, there were individual failures. For example, a question fell through concerning the occupation of the northern part of the Japanese island of Hokkaido at the end of the war, although there were four Soviet divisions allocated for this aim. Stalin cancelled this operation not wishing to aggravate relations with the US. But there was another point to this: Stalin feared the US nuclear weapon, which had only just been used against Japan. If the USSR had occupied part of Japan, the US would have found it harder to transform that country into its own main base in the Far East in order to use it for the suppression of the peoples-democratic forces in the countries of that huge Asiatic region.
Stalin’s attempt at "regaining the consciousness" of Tito, the leader of the Yugoslav communists failed, for the latter had crossed over onto the side of the imperialists and rejected the "Stalinist" model of socialism. Despite various attempts at applying the influence of the USSR, Tito refused to admit that the accusations presented to him were just.
None of this can erase the main thing: under Stalin, especially after the Great Patriotic War, the USSR had been transformed into a mighty power, which the whole world had to take into account. The US started the "cold war" against the USSR and repeatedly made attempts at scaring it with nuclear bombardment, but were compelled to retreat from this in fear of a retaliatory nuclear strike.
On the eve of the Second World War, the USSR had no allies on the international arena (except the Peoples Republic of Mongolia), but towards the end of Stalin’s life, the USSR headed the peoples – democratic camp, which spread over the territory of Europe and Asia. One may safely say that under Stalin the USSR occupied such international positions, which were unseen in Tsarist Russia. Here is why true patriots, supporters of Stalin will never ever forget his victories in foreign policy.
Today’s rulers of Russia have destroyed all of this; they have turned Russia into a beggar. The richest country in the world is rummaging around the globe in search of aid. This is a disgrace for Russia, which it must quickly escape from. But this can only be done under the banner of Stalin, under the banner of socialism. Emperor Peter I chopped out a "window into Europe" for Russia, and Generalissimo Stalin chopped out a "window into the Universe" for the USSR. In this you will find his greatest service to the Soviet people and to progressive Mankind.