Book Review: The Soviet Bloc
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206001500424 |
| Author | Adam Bromke |
| Published date | 01 December 1960 |
| Date | 01 December 1960 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
374
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
Indeed
the
reader
must
search
hard
on his
own
amongst
the
mass
of
quotations
for
really
firm
conclusions
as
to
"the
basic
patterns,
objectives
and means"
of
Soviet
foreign
policy,
the
avowed
subject
of
the
book.
It is
presumed
that
Soviet
long
term
objectives
remain
un-
changed,
namely,
to
maintain
the
status
quo
of
the
communist
world,
to
upset
the
status
quo
elsewhere,
preferably
by
non-military
means,
and
to
achieve
ultimately
the
goal
of
world
communism
(p.
xx). Two
basic
motivations
are
postulated:
Ideological
and
national.
It
is
as-
sumed,
however,
that
there
Is
no
basic
contradiction between these
two
motives,
an
assumption
that
begs
the
question
rather
than
offering
a
solution
(p.
xvii).
The
whole
tenor
of
the
book
is
indeed
that
ideology
is
unified
and unchanging,
and
a
decisive
force
in
moulding
Soviet
foreign
policy.
Yet
at
one
point
(p.
387)
western
negotiations with
the
U.S.S.R.
are
justified
on
the
ground
of
"its
business-like
attitude
to-
wards
its
own
national
interests".
It is
also
admitted
at
the
outset
that
It is a
"diluted Marxism",
a
fusion
of
the
original
doctrine with
Russian nationalism,
that
constitutes
the
ideological
component
of
Soviet
foreign
policy,
thus
suggesting
the
expedient
and
flexible
nature
of
Soviet ideology. The
book
therefore
leaves
unresolved
two
of
the
fundamental
problems
in
interpreting
Soviet
policy:
the
shifting
rela-
tionship
between
doctrinal
principles
and
practical
interests,
and
the
fluctuating
content
of
the
doctrine
itself.
Above
all,
no
attention
is
paid
to
the
possibility
of
the
emergence
of
different
interpretations
of
Marxism
by
Chinese
and
Russian
theoreticians,
especially
on
the
issue
of
"peaceful
co-existence".
This
contingency
which
has
become
more
and
more
evident
since
the
publication
of
this
book,
illustrates
the
danger
of
deriving
our
assessment
of
communist
policy
exclusively
from
current
Soviet
doctrine.
University
of
Toronto
H.
GORDON
SKILLING
THE SoviEr
BLOC.
Unity and
Conflict.
Ideology
and
power
in
the
relations
among
the
USSR,
Poland,
Yugoslavia,
China, and
other
Communist
states.
By
Zbigniew
K.
Brzezinski,
with
introduction
by
Robert
R.
Bowie.
1960.
(Cambridge:
Harvard
University
Press;
Toronto:
S.
J.
Reginald Saunders.
xxii,
457pp.
$9.25.)
One
of
the
most
significant
consequences
of
the
Second
World
War
was
the
seizure
of
power
by
the
communists,
or
what
the
Soviet
poli-
tical
theorists
call the
emergence
of
"socialist
systems",
in
several
European
and
Asian countries.
It is
this
fact
which
has
been
primarily
responsible,
both
as
cause and
effect,
for
the
bi-polarization
of
inter-
national
politics.
Within
the
last
decade
many
books
have
been
devoted
to
the
subject
of
relations
between
the
two
blocs,
many
others
have
dealt with
relations
among
the
participants
in
the Western
alliance.
Professor
Brzezinski
for
the first
time
attempts
to
provide
a
comprehen-
sive
analysis
of
relations
within
the
Soviet
bloc.
As
such
The
Soviet
Bloc
is
a
study
in
international
politics.
It
is
in
fact
much
more
than
that.
This
is
due
to
the
unique
character
of
relations
among
the
communist
states
which
must
be conceived
in
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