cold war
Major Sources of Discord between the Bolsheviks and European States: 1917 to 1921 There were several major sources that created discord between the Bolsheviks and western states in Europe from 1917 to 1921. Conflicting ideologies that each attacked the very fabric of the other's respective society led to the notion that capitalism and communism could not coexist. The attempts of both actors to hold control of their own political system and to expand their political ideas internationally led to major conflicts between them. Also, the lack of respect for the upstart Bolshevik government by the west led to misperceptions concerning the actions of the Soviets. Russia's unsatisfactory involvement in World War I and their abrupt departure from the war which affected the western Allies war effort created much disenchantment between the two sides. The imperial and expansionist nature of both groups of actors led to conflict as the creation of both communist and non-communist blocs began with the independence of Poland as a free state in 1919. By using the Communist party as a vehicle to inject Communism into societies abroad, the Bolsheviks began to make free countries take notice of the threat that the "worker's party" presented an
Communism was injecting a fresh, utopian ideology into what was becoming a democratically driven world. The idea of the expansion of Marxist thought became a source of tension that pitted Russia and its experimental communist society against states of democracy and capitalism in Europe. I also brought major sources of discord between Germany and Russia. Lenin's main goal was to create a total communist world and the fall of Europe from the hands of democracy was the key to achieving his goal. He also agreed to allow the French to take positions as they pleased and enacted plans for trading between Russia and Britain that would allow "people in the business community to have a stake in Russia free of Communists" (Ulam, p. With the direction of the Bolshevik party, the Soviets were beginning to form a cohesive political machine that was to shape a new communist Russia, and eventually, a new communist world. In his plan for worldwide communism, Lenin concluded that Germany (the country that he referred to as "the giant") was the key to creating a Communist Europe (Harris). They tried to fight the Triple alliance, yet at the same time not acting in a way to infuriate Germany and cause a massive German assault on Russia (p. The Allies also began to explore the possibility that Russia had secretly aligned with Germany because the massive concessions given basically made Russia an economic slave to Germany (Ulam, p. Lenin further pushed for Communist expansion in the 1920's by calling for a plan to expand Communism into imperial colonies using a model of "two stage revolution" (Harris). 89) of the treaty that was dealt by the Germans created much disenchantment between the two sides (p. Along with the threat of the expansion of Bolshevism in the 1920's, the imperialistic actions of Russia became the principle source of tension between Europe and the Soviet Union. The Bolsheviks contended that capitalism itself was one of the human race's major evils and should be eliminated. The pro-White European states also were limited in the amount of aid they could give considering the monumental casualties that World War I had created, and getting heavily involved in another country's own civil war would not be popular in their respective homelands (p.
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