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From Labor Action, Vol. 8 No. 49, 4 December 1944, p. 3.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
On November 16, the Russian Embassy published its Information Bulletin containing an article by Col. A. Galin, in which the author lists six basic principles of that nation’s foreign policy, which, he contends, have been followed consistently for twenty-years of its existence. The six basic principles are summarized in this way:
The program described by Col. Galin is NOT the “consistent” foreign policy which that country has followed for “twenty-seven years.” Workers’ Russia under Lenin and Trotsky followed a foreign policy that was totally different from that which is followed by Stalin’s Russia. After the Russian Revolution the country followed a foreign policy whose aim was to promote the interests of the workers all over the world. Workers’ Russia renounced all imperialist possessions of the Czar. Certainly, Workers’ Russia made alliances with capitalist-imperialist nations. Stalin’s Russia does the same, but with these differences:
Under Lenin and Trotsky, it was made clear that any alliance which Russia made was usually forced upon her by adverse circumstances. But Lenin always made clear to the Russian people and the masses of the world that such alliances did not mean that the workers of other countries must accept the rule of their capitalist-imperialists, or that those countries suddenly ceased being imperialists and had become “peaceful,” “freedom-loving” nations. On the contrary, Lenin continued to call upon the oppressed of the world to overthrow their rulers and establish real freedom, security and democracy.
The foreign policy of Russia certainly changed since Stalin destroyed the workers’ state and established the rule of the bureaucrats. Examples? There are many.
It must be remembered too, that up to the fateful day when the Wehrmacht crossed the Russian borders, the Stalinists all over the world blamed Great Britain and the United States for the war, exonerating Hitler from all responsibility. It was a time too, when Churchill and Roosevelt were called “war-mongers and imperialists.”
The new foreign policy changed all that. Now Germany was responsible for the war; Churchill and Roosevelt were great peace-loving benefactors of humanity.
This, then is but a brief illustration of the “consistent” Russian foreign policy which it has followed for “twenty-seven years.”
Now let us relate Russia’s stated war aims to the facts:
When Russian foreign policy is examined concretely it is easy to see that it does not differ essentially from the foreign policy of the capitalist powers with empires to defend and territories to seize.
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