Editing Soviet Union (section)

==== Early policies (1919–1939) ====
{{further|International relations (1919–1939)#Soviet Union}}
[[File:1987 CPA 5896.jpg|thumb|upright|1987 Soviet stamp]]
The Marxist-Leninist leadership of the Soviet Union intensely debated foreign policy issues and changed directions several times. Even after Stalin assumed dictatorial control in the late 1920s, there were debates, and he frequently changed positions.<ref>Ulam, ''Expansion and Coexistence'' (1974) pp. 111–179.</ref>

During the country's early period, it was assumed that Communist revolutions would break out soon in every major industrial country, and it was the Russian responsibility to assist them. The [[Comintern]] was the weapon of choice. A few revolutions did break out, but they were quickly suppressed (the longest lasting one was in Hungary)—the [[Hungarian Soviet Republic]]—lasted only from 21 March 1919 to 1 August 1919. The Russian Bolsheviks were in no position to give any help.

By 1921, Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin realized that capitalism had stabilized itself in Europe and there would not be any widespread revolutions anytime soon. It became the duty of the Russian Bolsheviks to protect what they had in Russia, and avoid military confrontations that might destroy their bridgehead. Russia was now a pariah state, along with Germany. The two came to terms in 1922 with the [[Treaty of Rapallo, 1922|Treaty of Rapallo]] that settled long-standing grievances. At the same time, the two countries secretly set up training programs for the illegal German army and air force operations at hidden camps in the USSR.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor=1986524 |title=Rapallo Reexamined: A New Look at Germany's Secret Military Collaboration with Russia in 1922 |journal=Military Affairs |volume=40 |issue=3 |pages=109–117 |last1=Mueller |first1=Gordon H. |year=1976 |doi=10.2307/1986524}}</ref>

Moscow eventually stopped threatening other states, and instead worked to open peaceful relationships in terms of trade, and diplomatic recognition. The United Kingdom dismissed the warnings of [[Winston Churchill]] and a few others about a continuing Marxist-Leninist threat, and opened trade relations and ''de facto'' diplomatic recognition in 1922. There was hope for a settlement of the pre-war Tsarist debts, but it was repeatedly postponed. Formal recognition came when the new [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] came to power in 1924.<ref>Christine A. White, ''British and American Commercial Relations with Soviet Russia, 1918–1924'' (UNC Press Books, 2017).</ref> All the other countries followed suit in opening trade relations. [[Henry Ford]] opened large-scale business relations with the Soviets in the late 1920s, hoping that it would lead to long-term peace. Finally, in 1933, the United States officially recognized the USSR, a decision backed by the public opinion and especially by US business interests that expected an opening of a new profitable market.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor=42860014 |title=American Business and the Recognition of the Soviet Union |journal=Social Science Quarterly]] |volume=52 |issue=2 |pages=349–368 |last1=Wilson |first1=J. H. |year=1971}}</ref>

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Stalin ordered Marxist-Leninist parties across the world to strongly oppose non-Marxist political parties, labour unions or other organizations on the left, which they labelled [[social fascists]]. In the usage of the Soviet Union, and of the Comintern and its affiliated parties in this period, the epithet ''[[Fascist (insult)|fascist]]'' was used to describe capitalist society in general and virtually any [[anti-Soviet]] or anti-Stalinist activity or opinion.<ref>{{cite book |last=Richter |first=Michael |year=2006 |chapter=Die doppelte Diktatur: Erfahrungen mit Diktatur in der DDR und Auswirkungen auf das Verhältnis zur Diktatur heute |language=de |trans-chapter=The double dictatorship: Experiences with dictatorship in the GDR and effects on the relationship to dictatorship today |title=Lasten diktatorischer Vergangenheit – Herausforderungen demokratischer Gegenwart |trans-title=Burdens of a dictatorial past – challenges of a democratic present |editor1-last=Besier |editor1-first=Gerhard |editor2-last=Stoklosa |editor2-first=Katarzyna |publisher=LIT Verlag |pages=195–208 |isbn=978-3-8258-8789-6}}</ref> Stalin reversed himself in 1934 with the [[Popular Front]] program that called on all Marxist parties to join with all [[anti-Fascist]] political, labour, and organizational forces that were opposed to [[fascism]], especially of the [[Nazi]] variety.<ref>Chris Ward, ''Stalin's Russia'' (2nd ed. 1999) pp. 148–188.</ref><ref>Barbara Jelavich, ''St.Petersburg and Moscow: Czarist and Soviet Foreign Policy, 1814–1974'' (1974) pp. 342–346.</ref>

The rapid growth of power in Nazi Germany encouraged both Paris and Moscow to form a military alliance, and the [[Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance]] was signed in May 1935. A firm believer in collective security, Stalin's foreign minister [[Maxim Litvinov]] worked very hard to form a closer relationship with France and Britain.<ref>Haslam, Jonathan (1984). ''The Soviet Union and the Struggle for Collective Security in Europe, 1933–1939''. New York: St. Martin's Press. pp. 52–53. {{ISBN|978-0-333-30050-3}}</ref>

In 1939, half a year after the [[Munich Agreement]], the USSR attempted to form an anti-Nazi alliance with France and Britain.<ref>{{cite book |first=Louise Grace |last=Shaw |title=The British Political Elite and the Soviet Union, 1937–1939 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iAmDj-U-1fAC&pg=PA103 |year=2003 |page=103 |publisher=[[Psychology Press]] |isbn=978-0-7146-5398-3 |access-date=17 September 2019 |archive-date=17 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200617200516/https://books.google.com/books?id=iAmDj-U-1fAC&pg=PA103 |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Adolf Hitler]] proposed a better deal, which would give the USSR control over much of Eastern Europe through the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]]. In September, Germany invaded Poland, and the USSR also invaded later that month, resulting in the partition of Poland. In response, Britain and France declared war on Germany, marking the beginning of [[World War II]].<ref>D.C. Watt, ''How War Came: the Immediate Origins of the Second World War 1938–1939'' (1989).</ref>