Polityka USA wobec ZSRR w latach 1917-1939

Abstract

The policy of the United States towards the Soviet Union may be characterized by some facts. Firstly, up to 1933 it consisted in the distrust of the new state and refusing it credits on the ground of the disapproval of the way it had come into being, the methods of governing it, its attitude towards religion, and its rejection of pre-revolutionary debts. Secondly, in November 1933 diplomatic relations were established chiefly because of the impedence in the Far West (felt in both the US and USSR and determining the policy of the latter) and the hopes of the placing of enormous surplus production of American industry in the Soviet market. Many agreements which were to solve numerous problems took place then. Many of them were not realized through the fault of both the parties concerned. The Soviet country became an object of severe criticism on the ground of its refusal to pay the debts as well as the actions of the International. Moreover, the expected increase of Soviet purchases did not take place which led to the revival of the opinion about the worthlessness of the co-operation with this partner. Two factors contributed to this situation. They confirmed and strengthened, as it were, the above-mentioned conviction in American public opinion. The first one was a negative attitude towards the Soviet political practice in 1936-1939, especially towards the range and forms of the purges as well as the trials of well-known public characters. It resulted even in the discerning of analogies between the Soviet system and fascism. The second factor was the attitude towards Soviet foreign politics. Many authors who had tried to find the motivation of the actions of the USSR either in the ideological or in the nationalistic sphere had' been for a long time engaged in disputes. The events of 1939, especially the war against Finland caused an almost general and uniform surge of anti-Soviet attitudes. A severe crisis took place in the relations between both countries, there were some restrictions, but the relations in question did not cease in spite of the demands of some statesmen since the US president – as Hull wrote in his memoirs – did not want to make of the Russians still closer allies of Germany. Two different facts closed the interwar period in the American policy towards the USSR. On the one hand, diplomatic relations were established which could result in the overcoming of mutual prejudices; on the other hand, the American bias against the Soviet country was strengthened. It was to disappear, though only to a certain extent, during the years of co-operation in the coalition.