This study examines the nature and patterns of Soviet cultural activities in Egypt and Syria, the motivations behind those activities, and the contribution of the Soviet cultural effort toward the attainment of overall Soviet Middle East policies. Chapter I provides background information on Soviet-Arab relations, and in Chapter II Soviet objectives in the Middle East are examined. Chapter III identifies the important components of the Soviet cultural instrument in Egypt and Syria. Chapter IV assesses the contribution made by the cultural tool toward the attainment of Soviet objectives in Egypt and Syria. Finally, Chapter V demonstrates that the Soviet cultural enterprise exerted little impact on overall Soviet policy in the Middle East.

This is a study of the foreign and domestic policies of the USSR as they pertain to its war-readiness, as well as the degree to which these policies presumably opened the door to the European conflagration and, in 1941, to the Nazi-Soviet war. Topics to be discussed include: (1) the crash industrialization of the Soviet Union and industrial war preparations from 1928--41; (2) the development of Soviet military doctrine before and after 12 June 1937; (3) a critical re-examination of the popularly accepted reasons for the devolution of the Soviet armed forces; and (4) Soviet foreign policy from 1937--41. The chronological end of the paper (1941) is followed by a brief epilogue discussing the evident success of the Soviet industrialization program by reference to Soviet industrial performance during the Nazi-Soviet war. Furthermore, the epilogue will challenge the popular depiction of the German invasion as an effortless, seamless advance into the Soviet heartland.

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1935 F61

This study focuses on a description of demographic trends in the Soviet Union since 1917: changes in the labor force, economic problems, social conditions, rapid urbanization, changes in education and the eudcational level of Soviet citizens. Data available are from secondary sources. This research concludes that the Soviet Union has changed from a rural agricultural to a major industrial power. The population of the Soviet Union has increased since 1917. The rapid change created shortages in housing that still have not been solved. The shortages in consumer goods and clothing are a result of insufficient planning by Soviet leaders. The political implications of all the changes in Sovet lifestyles have been fairly limited. Unless the government solves the problems of availability of housing, food, clothing, and consumer goods, political unrest is the likely outcome.

Analyses of US/Soviet arms control have usually focused on domestic variables to explain US/Soviet arms control behavior. Partly because the number of negotiating parties is only two, there is a propensity to focus on the bilateral relationship of the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective domestic political situations. Only superficial attention has usually been given to international systems variables that may well influence the domestic political situation and arms control policy. This thesis broadens the explanatory scope of US/Soviet arms control by showing how the political environment of a trilateral relationship (a subsystem that includes the West European members of NATO as a single actor as well as the United States and the Soviet Union) is a primary motivator of US/Soviet arms control behavior.

Leon Trotsky (1879-1940) remains one of the most controversial figures in twentieth century history. There is no consensus about his character or historical achievements-as either thinker or actor. To Winston Churchill, writing in the 1930s, Trotsky was a 'cancer bacillus'. The Stalinist anathema placed on him is well-known. For Tony Cliff, a contemporary socialist writer, on the other hand, Trotsky was a 'man of genius'. Whatever assessment may be made about Trotsky, one of his lesser biographers and critics makes the point fairly enough that 'compared to his famous colleagues, Lenin and Stalin, Trotsky has been sorely neglected by historians and other scholars'. The upheaval in the USSR and its successor state system, and in Eastern Europe and China, since the mid-1980s, when CPSU General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev launched his programme of radical change under the sobriquets 'glasnost' and 'perestroika', has brought into the foreground once again the historical issues concerning the origins, character and consequences of the Stalinist system of 'totalitarian' political rule with its attendant hyper-centralised command economy. The whole experience of Stalinism has been, and no doubt will continue to be, subjected to intensive historical reconsideration as Russian scholars in particular seek to come to terms with the October Revolution and its legacy within the context of their national past. The publication of some of Trotsky's writings in Russian language editions and their circulation within the territories of the Russian Federation makes available an assessment and analysis of the Stalinist experience previously denied to the Russian reader. It is against this background that the author has written an historical review of Trotsky's major writings on the question of Stalinism in the Soviet Union. The approach adopted utilizes a combination of chronological exposition and analytical commentary, in the belief that both of these aspects of historical writing are necessary and valid. As Arthur Marwick has commented: '... if history without analysis is meaningless, without chronology it does not exist'. Marxist ideas have had a wide currency in the century and the contribution to the body of Marxist doctrine and theory by Leon Trotsky deserves closer attention. This study of Trotsky's attempt to make a Marxist analysis and assessment of the experience of Stalinism in the Soviet Union has been carried through in the belief that the examination of the critical and minority current within the broader mainstream of the international socialist movement has much to offer in contributing to our knowledge and understanding of the one of the most significant developments in twentieth century political history. A critical and historical assessment of Trotsky's analysis of Stalinism makes a contribution both to our appreciation of Trotsky's ideas and to our understanding of a phenomenon which looms large in any discussion of the broader contours of twentieth century history.

This study examines German-Soviet military relations between 1917 and 1922 and demonstrates the involvement of the Reichswehr in the Treaty of Rapallo. Since early 1919, the Reichswehr cultivated entente with the Soviet Union in opposition to the German government and in violation of the Treaty of Versailles, both to regain its military preeminence and to recapture Germany's power-political position in Europe. The Reichswehr attempted to draw German industry into relations with the Soviet state in order to secure the manufacture of military machinery and support troop training. By 1922, the foundation for collaboration between German industry, the Reichswehr and the Soviet Union/Red Army had been laid. The Treaty of Rapallo, concluded by government officials that were privy to the activities of the Reichswehr, removed the threat of a western consortium against the Soviet Union, and ensured the growth of the Reichswehr's alliance with the Soviet state.

This thesis is concerned with the diplomatic reaction of the Axis Countries, Italy, Japan, Spain and Hungary, to the Russo-German Non-Aggression Pact of August 1939. The immediate origins of the Pact were studied in order to put into context the individual responses of the various countries, known as the Axis Powers. Each of these countries was confronted with a dramatic change in the European situation and each had to adjust its relations with Germany in accordance with its own interests and expectations for the question of war or peace in Europe. / With the exception of Hungary, all were opposed to the Pact because it seemed to run contrary to their national interests and promised to upset the Balance of Power on the European, and indeed, the Asian continent. The thesis thus illustrates the special character of Hitler's diplomacy, in the last year of peace before the Second World War, which did not consider the interests of his partners when concluding his arrangements with the Soviet Union.

No description available.

The passions aroused by the Spanish Civil War have yet to recede. The extensive literature that has been produced and continues to be published testifies to this fact. From the outset of the war in Spain, numerous European countries actively participated in the Spanish conflict. However, Soviet military "aid" to the Republican government "has provoked more questions, mystification and bitter controversy than any other subject in the history of the Spanish Civil War."1 Although the Spanish Civil War took place almost 70 years ago, and the intervention or non-intervention of many countries in Spain is well documented, Soviet involvement remains an "enigma". Little is known of Stalin's motives in Spain and even less information has emerged on the Spanish gold reserves that were sent to the USSR. This dissertation attempts to come to terms with both of these questions and, with the help of new documentation, challenge previously-held assumptions regarding Soviet foreign policy in Spain. / 1Gerald Howson. Arms for Spain: The Untold Story of the Spanish Civil War. (New York: St Martins Press, 1998), 119.