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Legal and Economic Factors Affecting Soviet Russia's Foreign Policy, I

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

Charles Prince
Affiliation:
Washington, D. C.

Extract

This study attempts to appraise the dynamic forces at play in the shaping of Soviet foreign policy and to discuss some of the recent problems of international law and diplomacy as viewed by the U.S.S.R. In order to place Russia's recent tortuous foreign policy in its proper perspective, it is essential to begin with a résumé of the changing Soviet concepts of law, followed by a consideration of the economic factors influencing these concepts. The shifting line of recent Soviet foreign policy will be discussed in a later part of the article.

Originally, the Soviet concept of law was predicated on transitional socialism; Soviet theorists argued that proletarian revolution has for the first time in history created a socialist state of workmen and peasants. “This is the highest type of state—that of the dictatorship of the proletariat.” Having emerged victorious, the working class destroyed the oppressive, bourgeois state machinery and built a new state apparatus of its own. The new form of state, discovered by Lenin, is the Soviet Republic. The task of the workers is further to strengthen the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1944

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References

1 Engels, Friedrich, Herr Eugen Dühring's Revolution in Science (Anti-Dühring) (London, 1933).Google Scholar The standard formulation of the theory of the development of the socialist state was expounded by Engels and not by Karl Marx. Engels argued that “as soon as there is no longer any class of society to be held in subjection … the government of persons is replaced by the administration of things and the direction of the process of production. The state is not abolished, it withers away.” Op. cit., p. 309. See also Lenin, V. I., State and Revolution (London, 1933).Google Scholar This revised edition was authorized by the Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute in Moscow.

2 “Theses” published in Sovetskaya Iustittsiya (Soviet Justice), No. 8 (1937).

3 Stuchka, Peter I., Rovoluitzionnaya Rol Sovetskogo Prava (“Revolutionary Rôle of Soviet Law”) (Moscow, 1932).Google Scholar

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5 Gintsburg, Leonid Ia., Sovetskoe Khoziastvennoe Zakonodatelstvo (“Soviet Economic and Legal Directives”), Course 44 (1934).Google Scholar See also Stuchka, Peter I., Kurs Sovetskogo Grazhdanskogo Prava (“Course in Soviet Civil Law”) (Moscow, 1927)Google Scholar; and Reisner, Mikhail A., Pravo, Nashe Pravo, Chuzhoe Pravo (“Law, Our Law, Foreign Law”) (Moscow, 1925).Google Scholar

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7 Pashukanis, Eugene B., “Konstituttsiya Stalina i Sovetskaya Zakonost'” (“Stalin's Constitution and Socialist Legality”), in Sovetskoe Gosudarstvo (“Soviet State Law”), No. 4 (Apr., 1936).Google Scholar

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14 Address before the 18th All-Union Communist Party Congress, March 11, 1939, and published in Pravda the next day. Pravda (“The Truth”) is the official organ of the Central Executive Committee and of the Moscow Committee of the Communist party—Politbureau.

15 For a critical résumé of the principles of international law as applied by the Soviets up to September, 1934, see Taracouzio, T. A., The Soviet Union and International Law (New York, 1935).Google Scholar

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17 Information Bulletin, Embassy of the U.S.S.R., Washington, Vol. 4, No. 15 (Feb. 5, 1944).

18 For a more elaborate analysis of the Soviet autonomy decrees concerning the transformation of the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs from Union People's Commissariats into Union Republican People's Commissariats, see Prince, Charles, “New Soviet Line-up,” in New York Times, Mar. 19, 1944.Google Scholar

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21 The Politbureau is the all-powerful, policy-determining Central Executive Committee of the Communist party of the U.S.S.R.

22 Socialism Victorious; Reports and Speeches Delivered at the 17th Congress of the C.P.S.U. held from Jan. 26 to Feb. 10, 1934, in Moscow (London, 1935).

23 Molotov, Vyacheslav M., Trelya Piatiletka (“The Third Five-Year Plan”) (Moscow 1939), p. 5.Google Scholar See also Yugow, Aron, Russia's Economic Front for War and Peace (New York, 1942).Google Scholar

24 Planovoye Khozayistvo is the official publication of the Goslan (State Planning Commission): Gorny Zhurnal (“The Mining Journal”); Tyeplo i Sila (“Heat and Power”); Vyestnik Inzhenirov (“The Engineers' Messenger”); Azerbaizhanskoe Naftyannoye Khozyaistvo (“The Azerbaizhan Oil Industry”).

25 See Mandel, William, The Soviet Far East (New York, 1944)Google Scholar; also Socialist Construction in the U.S.S.R.; Statistical Abstract (Moscow, 1936) (Russian edition).

26 Voznesensky, Mikolai, Economic Results of the U.S.S.R. in 1940 and the Plan of National Economic Development for 1941 (Moscow, 1941), p. 8.Google Scholar See also Dobb, Maurice, Soviet Economy and the War (London, 1941).Google Scholar

27 Molotov, Vyacheslav M., Statii i Rechi (“Essays and Speeches”), 1935–1936 (Moscow, 1937)Google Scholar; Litvinov, Maxim M., Vneshniya Politika SSSR; Rechii i Zaiavlenii (“Foreign Policy of the U.S.S.R.; Speeches and Statements”), 1927–1935 (Moscow, 1937).Google Scholar

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