Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
The Sources of Soviet Conduct: The Essence of Kennan’s Article
The essence of George F. Kennan’s article “The Sources of Soviet Conduct” is that Soviet conduct is based on the ideology of the founders of the Soviet system in Russia and on the circumstances that Soviet rule has foisted upon the country. Kennan breaks down what that ideology is and what those circumstances are in his article. For Soviets, Moscow was infallible, as Kennan (1947) described: the state was the supreme arbiter of the direction that society should take and its ideology was such that it could never collaborate with the capitalistic West but must, inevitably, act as a force opposed to the pursuits of the West. The essence of the Soviet State, according to Kennan, was that it would bide its time until the capitalist West collapsed under the weight of its own internal corruption. At that time, the Soviets would facilitate the revolution of the working class. Till then, the Soviet State was perfectly willing to wait and put forward a friendly face.
The Truman Administration embraced the concept because Truman wanted to appear strong. That is why he dropped to nuclear bombs on Japan to end WWII. He wanted to demonstrate with a show of force the fact that he was willing to and capable of causing massive destruction. It was a message to the Soviet Union: if you oppose us, we will not only win but we will utterly destroy you. The Truman Administration embraced the idea that the Soviet Union was ultimately opposed to the U.S. because the U.S. was ultimately opposed to the Soviet Union, at least under Truman. Roosevelt had been more inclined to work with the Soviets. Kennedy, at times, expressed a more hopeful attitude towards the Soviets. Truman was set on stopping the advance of the Communist ideology and he wanted no push back from the Soviets.
References
Kennan, George F. “The Sources of Soviet Conduct” by X. Foreign Affairs (July 1947): 566–82.
Soviet Union Trade Blocs Trade blocs (pacts) and mutual economic associations of interest are hardly new tactical weapons on the nation-state board of marketing strategies. They have been used across the eons for one or another purpose. Leaders of countries of all types have attempted to execute their own versions of this kind of economic vitality model, even when such cooperation forces them to reach outside of their controlling economic philosophies.
In an unprecedented move, Khrushchev denounced many of Stalin's excesses and set about changing Soviet policy towards the developing world. This change, some call it flexibility, was the branch the Soviets offered to developing countries, like Cuba. Looking around and seeing the alienated or disenfranchized, Khrushchev felt the time was right to solidify alliances with anticolonialists in Ghana, the Congo, and especially, Cuba (Hopf). After the Bay of Pigs fiasco,
Soviet Union and Stalin Era Understanding of Stalin and Soviet Union The Soviet economic system persisted for around 60 years and even after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the basic elements of the system still existed. The leaders exercising the most substantial influence on this system were -- Vladimir I. Lenin and Stalin, who started the prevailing patterns of collectivization and industrialization that became typical characteristic of the Soviet
Soviet Union and United States Comparative Analysis of Industrialization in the Former USSR and United States The political, economic, and cultural impacts of industrialization in North American and European countries are still widely evident today and have heavily affected international relations and global politics. The Industrial Revolution is usually considered to have originated in Great Britain in the mid 1700s, which at this point in time was the dominant empire in
The Soviet Union had been administered for the past 70 years through a tight control on information. Gorbachev's policy of openness threw open the floodgates. The Soviet people had been kept on a tight leash through tight control on information and "fear" by an oppressive government. (Kedzie, 1997) the lifting of the fear factor did not result in, as Gorbachev had hoped, improvement in the social and economic conditions
S.S.R. The movement began as strike action in protest against rising food prices. Lech Walesa acted as the leader of the Solidarity movement, unifying the public against government abuses. Although the movement was outlawed, and several workers imprisoned as a result, Gorbachev's reforms changed this. It was once again considered legal, and the movement translated itself as a social gain for citizens in protest against a government that, at the