The Soviet Union emerged from revolution and civil war isolated, exhausted, and surrounded by a world that was, at best, deeply suspicious of its existence. Many of the major powers had intervened in the Russian Civil War, refused to recognize the new government, and hoped that the Bolshevik experiment would ultimately collapse under the weight of economic hardship and political instability. Yet by the end of the 1920s, the Soviet Union had established diplomatic relations with many of those same states, expanded international trade, and secured a place in the European balance of power. How did such a dramatic transformation occur?

In this episode, we're exploring the Soviet Union's international position during the era of the New Economic Policy, a decade defined by a central tension in Bolshevik foreign policy: the relationship between world revolution and diplomatic rapprochement. The Bolsheviks remained committed to the long-term goal of international socialist revolution, supporting communist movements abroad through the Communist International, or Comintern. At the same time, the Soviet leadership recognized that the survival of the revolution depended upon peaceful relations with capitalist states, access to foreign technology, and the economic breathing space needed to rebuild a country devastated by war.

We'll examine how these seemingly contradictory objectives shaped Soviet diplomacy throughout the 1920s. We'll discuss the creation and mission of the Comintern, the failure of revolutionary uprisings in Germany and elsewhere, and the gradual acceptance that socialism might have to be built in a hostile international environment. We'll also follow the remarkable diplomatic achievements of the decade, from the Treaty of Rapallo with Germany to expanding trade agreements, formal diplomatic recognition by Britain and other European powers, and, eventually, recognition by the United States in 1933.

Along the way, we'll ask whether revolution and rapprochement were truly opposing strategies, or whether they represented two complementary aspects of Soviet statecraft. Was Soviet foreign policy driven primarily by ideological commitment or by pragmatic concerns of security and economic development? How did debates within the Communist Party influence relations with the outside world? And how did foreign governments respond to a state that simultaneously proclaimed the eventual triumph of world socialism while seeking normal diplomatic and commercial relations?

The answers to these questions would shape not only the fate of the Soviet Union during the NEP years but also the international order of the interwar period. They reveal a government navigating the difficult transition from revolutionary movement to sovereign state, attempting to balance ideological aspirations with the practical demands of diplomacy, trade, and national survival.

So join us as your host Jason explores one of the defining dilemmas of the early Soviet Union: how a state born from international revolution learned to coexist, negotiate, and compete with the capitalist world, while never entirely abandoning its revolutionary vision for the future.

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