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Soviet Union [USSR] THE SOVIET UNION AND THE THIRD WORLD
Until Stalin's death in 1953, Soviet activity in the Third
World was limited. Khrushchev recognized that the number of
independent Third World states was increasing because of post-World
War II decolonialization, and he pictured these states as moving
onto the noncapitalist path of development and progressing quickly
toward the achievement of Soviet-style socialism. Khrushchev
divided the Third World states into three categories. The first
category, capitalist-oriented states, mainly consisted of newly
independent states that had not yet chosen the noncapitalist path.
In the second category were the so-called national democracies,
anti-Western states that were implementing some economic
centralization and nationalization programs and hence had embarked
on the path of noncapitalist development. In the third category
were "revolutionary democracies," which professed Marxism-Leninism
as their ideology and had set up ruling communist-style parties
(termed "Marxist-Leninist vanguard parties" by the Soviet Union).
Since the late 1960s, the term "socialist orientation" has been
increasingly used in the Soviet Union to describe Third World
states on the noncapitalist path of development, although the
states with ruling vanguard parties still have been termed
revolutionary democracies.
Since the late 1970s, Soviet analysts have tended to regard the
nature and future of the Third World either conservatively or
pragmatically. On the one hand, conservative Soviet analysts have
seen the Third World as making a choice between two paths--
capitalism and socialism--and have maintained that only the latter
path leads to political, social, and economic development.
Pragmatic analysts, on the other hand, have seen the maintenance of
some elements of capitalism as essential for the economic and
political development of Third World countries. Among the pragmatic
analysts, though, there have been different views about the pace of
the transition to socialism in the Third World, with the more
pessimistic theorists even suggesting the indefinite existence of
mixed economies in Third World states.
The conservative theorists have tended to advocate the
establishment of Marxist-Leninist vanguard parties in Third World
states, whereas the pragmatists have advocated a united front
strategy in which the local communist and leftist parties ally with
other "progressive" parties and groups and work to achieve change
peacefully through elections and propaganda. Internal Soviet
debates aside, the Soviet Union began to favor a dual policy toward
the Third World in the 1970s, stressing the establishment of
vanguard parties in some states and the united front policy in
others. Rhetorically, and to some degree in action, though, Soviet
leaders have placed greater emphasis on the united front policy in
the late 1980s.
In the CPSU party program and in the political report delivered
by Gorbachev in February 1986, there was a discernible de-emphasis
on Soviet concern with socialist-oriented Third World states. The
party program emphasized that "the practice of the Soviet Union's
relations with the liberated countries has shown that there are
also real grounds for cooperation with the young states that are
traveling the capitalist road." According to some Western analysts,
Gorbachev indicated the nature of this reorientation during his
visit to India in November 1986. At that time, Gorbachev referred
to Soviet relations with India as the model of the "new thinking"
toward Third World states having a "capitalist orientation."
Reasons for this possible Soviet reorientation may have
included desires to use technologies available in some of the
"newly industrialized countries" for Soviet economic development,
desires to foster positive trade flows and earn hard currency or
access to desirable commodities, and attempts to encourage antiWestern foreign policies and closer alignment with the Soviet
Union. As of the late 1980s, this possible reorientation did not
include political-military abandonment of Asian communist states
(Laos and Vietnam) or of "revolutionary democratic" or
"progressive" regimes (such as Angola, Libya, Mozambique, or
Nicaragua). The reorientation, rather, may have represented an
attempt to widen the scope of Soviet interests in the Third World.
As of 1989, the only case of possible Soviet "abandonment" of a socalled revolutionary democracy would be the withdrawal of military
forces from Afghanistan, although the Soviet leaders hoped that
they would be able to maintain some presence and influence in Kabul
and in areas bordering the Soviet Union and in other enclaves.
Data as of May 1989
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