CC BY
84Publication date: December 8, 2018
Historical Sciences
FOREIGN POLICY OF THE USSR IN 1960-1970
A
Sukhareva, Mariya Gennadievna1
1Bachelor, Voronezh State Technical University, Street 20 years of October, 84, E-mail: malenu01@mail.ru
Abstract:
This article deals with the Soviet foreign policy 60-70 of the last century, which solved the main problem of that period - reducing the confrontation between East and West. The foreign policy of the USSR in those years was aimed at achieving three main goals: to strengthen its influence in the socialist community, to unite the world system of socialism, to prevent the fall of any country from it; to improve relations with the developed countries of the West, especially with the United States, Germany, France, to ensure peaceful coexistence with them; to expand its sphere of influence in the "third world", to intensify military-technical and economic cooperation with developing countries.
This article will show us the role of the events that took place in that period, and to determine the advantages and disadvantages of the policy, to analyze the influence of the ideology of communism on the formation of the foreign policy of the USSR
In the preparation of the article specific historical, formational and social methods of research were used, which allowed to reveal facts, phenomena and processes in the relationship and unity of the past, present and future.
Keywords: USSR, Foreign policy, ideology, cold war.
I. INTRODUCTION
The period of 1960-1970 is characterized by the active activities of the USSR on the world stage. In 1971, the 24th CPSU Congress adopted the Peace Program. The foreign policy of the USSR in those years was aimed at the implementation of this program. The main questions of the USSR's foreign policy in the 1960s were the provision of favorable conditions for solving the problems of communist construction. The efforts of the USSR were aimed at strengthening the unity of the socialist countries, expanding cooperation with developing countries, and developing peaceful coexistence of countries with a different social system.
But at the same time, the strategic task in foreign policy was still the "attraction" of countries to the socialist path and full cooperation with such countries, but with the leading role of the USSR
The main principle of foreign policy was the principle of peaceful existence - the rejection of the use of force or the threat of force; non-interference in internal affairs; respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of borders; cooperation on the basis of equality and mutual benefit.
II. METHODOLOGY
The methodology of the article is based on the principles of historicism and scientific objectivity as necessary attributes of research. A departure from the axiological approach is a necessary condition for the analysis of state policy in the international arena. The analysis of the ideological factor and its influence on the formation of the foreign policy of the USSR takes place taking into account the specific historical realities of the late 1960s.We attach great importance to the subjective factor in the research of the role of ideology, special attention is paid to the personalities which formed international politics, the leaders of countries. We use the principle of comparative analysis, the priority of sources in this research.
Using the historical method, we have the opportunity to generalize the modern historical experience of the development of political systems. The analysis of various stages in the evolution of political processes reveals patterns in their development.
III. RESULTS
In article presents the results indicating that the foreign policy of the USSR in the 60-70s was quite controversial. There have been undoubted successes, but at the same time there have been serious mistakes. The Soviet government paid too much attention to ideological dogmas, not to real universal values. The signing of the Helsinki accords had a "pulling up" the situation with human rights in the Soviet Union and the countries of the Soviet bloc to the level of the democratic countries participating in the Helsinki accords. Much attention was paid to the relations of the CMEA countries in the scientific and cultural spheres. The strengthening of the military power of the countries of the socialist Commonwealth had great importance. Cooperative military exercises took par. There were prepared officer personnel for the socialist countries
But the relationships between the countries were far from equal. Any attempts of the socialist countries to carry out reforms on democratization of society were stopped by the USSR even in the cruelest way. The example of such «suppression» was the introduction of troops of 5 socialist countries in Czechoslovakia in 1968 and 10-year war in Afghanistan (1979 - 1989).
In February 1962 the United States imposed a complete economic blockade on Cuba, where Communist Fidel Castro had become a leader in 1959. From the first steps of the Cuban revolution, the USSR provided economic and military assistance to Cuba. By the spring of 1962, the Soviet and Cuban leaders had decided to secretly deployment of Soviet medium-range missiles with nuclear warheads in Cuba. The idea of placing missiles in Cuba belonged to N. S.Khrushchev. The aim was to save the "socialist" Cuba from the US attack. One of the goals of the USSR was also to try to reduce the US advantage in nuclear missile weapons. According to the us Secretary of defense R. McNamara, at that time the US surpassed the USSR in the number of strategic nuclear warheads by 17 times. The Soviet Union expected to create a nuclear fist in 160 km from the coast of the United States. That decision was justified by the fact that the US had similar missiles in Turkey, near the borders of the USSR. The Soviet Union was not going to bring the matter to a nuclear collision. For the Soviet leadership, it was important to show the United States that the strategic balance had changed and the USA should now communicate with the Soviet Union on equal terms. Only in this case, according to N. S.Khrushchev, it would be possible to start effective negotiations to limitation the nuclear missile race.
Opposition increased with each passing day and reached its peak by 27 - 28 October 1962, however, wisdom prevailed. A compromise was reached: the Soviet Union withdrew nuclear missiles from Cuba in response to John Kennedy's promise to abandon the capture of Cuba and to eliminate the US bases in Turkey, as well as to officially abandon any attempts to change the regime of Castro by armed way. Already on October 28, Khrushchev in a message to Kennedy, "to reassure the American people," declare the dismantling of missiles, not calling them directly (the fact of placement of missiles was denied in the Soviet press up to the declared MS Gorbachev "glasnost"). In 1963, an agreement was signed to curb the arms race: the United States, the USSR and the United Kingdom stopped all nuclear tests except underground ones. The Cuban missile crisis led to the fall of the Soviet authority in the international arena. As a result of the missile crisis, the Soviet Union chose the way of increasing the number and quality of strategic nuclear weapons and finally abandoned the policy of limited liberalization. "Cuban humiliation "meant" the beginning of the end of Khrushchev.
The "Cuban missile crisis", which put the world on the brink of nuclear war, ended with a triumph of political prudence, but raised the arms race to a new round. The USSR take action to normalize Soviet-American relations. Peace was strengthened by the conclusion in 1963 of The Treaty between the USSR, the USA and Great Britain on the prohibition of nuclear tests in the atmosphere, space and under water and the agreement on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons in 1964.
In July-August 1975, the Final act of the meeting was signed, which was attended by the heads of 33 European States, as well as the United States and Canada. This act fixated and legalized the socioeconomic and economic-military situation prevailing at that time in the world. There recognized the inviolability of borders, territorial integrity, etc.
The turn of the late 60's-early 70's of the XX century marked new realities in the international situation of the Soviet Union. The historical reality was the establishment of military-strategic equality (parity) between the USSR and the USA, the Warsaw Pact Organization and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). This balance had objectively strengthened international peace, although extremely fragile. The number of nuclear weapons had exceeded all imaginable limits. The world was seen as a bipolar structure through the prism of the confrontation between the missile systems of the USSR and the USA. However, both countries declared that they would not be the first to use nuclear weapons.
In 1971, at the XXIV Congress of the CPSU Leonid Brezhnev spoke with peace Program, which was proclaimed as the official course of the USSR, it outlined the ways of cooperation with socialist and capitalist countries. In fact, the doctrine of the peaceful coexistence of two systems - socialist and capitalist-was proclaimed. However, a reservation was made that peaceful coexistence did not extend to ideology.
The Helsinki accords were signed by the leaders of 36 European States (all European countries except Albania). The Soviet Union also signed those agreements. In addition to European countries, they were signed by the United States and Canada. That agreement was very beneficial for the Soviet Union. There, in particular, it was said that the States that signed those agreements undertake not to encroach on each other's borders, to recognize the borders that exist. However, all positive moments at the meeting in Helsinki were crossed out in 1979 by the decision of the Soviet government to invade Afghanistan. As a result, the prestige of the USSR as a peace-loving state was undermined.
IV. CONCLUSION
In this article we have tried to trace the complex and ambiguous history of the USSR of that period. Throughout the history of the Soviet state, attempts were made to liberalize the "system", but all the reforms were incomplete. In society there was a progressive alienation of the people from the power. The changes in the country's economy were not supported by changes in the political and social spheres. The vast majority of resources were directed to the development of the military - industrial complex. In the field of foreign policy of the USSR made enormous costs of the war in Vietnam, Afghanistan, etc. The cold war took a lot of
money: the United States set out to deplete the Soviet Union with a large-scale arms race. That period in the history of the Soviet Union was protracted, excruciating in nature, and ended, in fact, exhausting itself, revealing the fact that the totalitarian system cannot be reformed.
By the mid-60s, finally formed three directions of foreign policy of the USSR:
1) Relations with the countries of socialism;
2) Relations with capitalist countries;
3) The spread of influence on the countries of the "third world".
Cooperation of social countries was most clearly manifested in the sphere of economic relations.
The CMEA had become the center for economic cooperation.
During those years, the contradictions of socialism rapidly increased, the command and administrative system completely exhausted itself, and economic policy was a futile attempt to overcome the slowdown in growth, to move to the intensification of production, to raise the productivity of social labor. All that eventually led to the collapse of socialism.
New important provisions on human rights also appear to be the most important. There were proclaimed: freedom of conscience; human rights to know and act on their rights; freedom to leave the country and to return to it; the right to a fair trial; and other democratic human rights.
The main merit of Khrushchev was that he was able to melt the ice of the "cold war", did not let the deadly fire of nuclear war. Although the disarmament talks in general, little had propelled the world forward, but it was an important step in limiting the nuclear arms race, which also had important ecological value In Aug 1963 in Moscow, there was signed the Treaty banning nuclear weapon tests in the atmosphere, in outer space and under water.
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