In 1920 it was well noted by the western democracies that “two stage revolution” was a real threat when Communist Party involvement was exposed in Turkey. Revolutionary leader Kemal Ataturk fought against imperialist control with the help of Russia. He used the Communist Party to build support for his movement, then later purged many of the members in order to gain more influence and sever his ties with the Communist Party (Harris). Even though communism did not reign in Turkey, it made the world realize the evident threat of communism developing on a grass roots level in their own country.
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. A territorial concern that created much strife was over the Slavic area that lie between Russia and Germany. After World War I, Poland was created as an independent state out of the three empires that had once occupied it : Germany, Russia, and Austria-Hungary (Ulam, p. 107). Poland had also created its own democratic government with the support of the League of Nations (Harris). With Poland becoming its own free state, a buffer zone was created between the Soviet/German border that would make it difficult for the Bolsheviks to gain access to Germany and lead a Communist revolution (Harris). The Treaty of Versailles had also created the countries of Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Yugoslavia and made careful arrangements to set up these counties as a bloc of democratic governments to curb Russian imperialism (Harris). Lenin’s plans for the expansion of Bolshevism into Germany became complicated by the new Polish state (Harris). They no longer had direct access to the German border. Russia also felt that Poland contained lands that were rightfully part of Russia. As a result, the Soviets invaded Poland in 1920 in an effort to reacquire lands that they had lost as a result of the Treaty of Versailles as well as regain access to Germany by taking further territory all the way to the German border (Harris). Upon their planned occupation of Poland, the Soviets intended to gather the support of the workers and lead a Communist revolution in Poland thereby destroying the Pole’s newly established non-Communist regime (Harris). Poland eventually defeated the Russians with the help of French troops in 1921, and the upstart attempt to create Communist revolution in the remains of a war tattered Europe failed (Harris). In 1921, Poland mounted its own offensive that pushed Russian troops all the way east to the city of Kiev. The expansionist actions of the Soviet Union undermined the peace negotiations that ended W.W.I. and caused much anti-Communist sentiment among the nations of free Europe (Harris).
With the Russian Bolsheviks coming to power in October of 1917, the spread of communism on a worldwide scale began. 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. The strife that developed between Russia and Europe was the result of expansionist movements by the Communist Party either directly or by encouraging grass roots communist growth within (Harris). Also, the questionable actions of both the Bolsheviks and the western Europe during World War I as well as the Russian Civil War created much hostility between the new Russian state and the establish states of the west. The actions taken by the Western states to hold back Bolshevik expansion clashed with the Communist’s revolutionary aspirations and dreams of global dominance. The struggle between two entities: one of rebellion and growth, and the other of maintaining social order and suppression become prevalent, and subsequently the “Cold War” had begun.
Major Sources of Discord between the Bolsheviks and European States: 1917 to 1921
STEVEN STILLER
PS 1510
First Paper
January 31, 2000
Johnathan Harris
STEVEN STILLER
PS 1510
First Paper
January 31, 2000
Johnathan Harris
The fifty years war, by richard crockatt 1995 London New fetter lane Publishing