The Soviet Union in the Third World: Purpose in Search of Power

Although the Soviet Union inherited its ideological commitment to revolution in the Third World from Lenin, it was only in Khrushchev's time, after industrialization and victory in World War II had made the Soviet Union a world power, that this commitment became an important component of Soviet foreign policy. Khrushchev envisaged a fairly rapid transition by postcolonial states toward Soviet-type "socialism." This process was to be guided by the example of Soviet national development, protected by the deterrent shield of Soviet strategic power, and accelerated by a modicum of Soviet economic and military aid. But Khrushchev's vision exceeded the Soviet Union's power to fulfill it. Nationalists in power throughout the Third World advanced their own visions of the future, often at variance with Soviet views. And the Western powers were not restrained from intervening actively in the Third World where their interests were at stake. Khrushchev's successors have been less sanguine. They have tended to concentrate on specific areas of the Third World and have also been more willing to intervene in Third World military conflicts involving the United States. Only the future will show whether they use their increased power with the restraint that weakness imposed upon them in the past.