The USSR and Marxist Revolutions in the Third World

How did Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of perestroika affect Soviet support of Marxist revolution in the Third World? In this book, four experts on Soviet-Third World relations take a sharp-eyed look at the role the former Soviet Union played in providing assistance to Marxist revolutionaries and assess the changes in policy that occurred under Gorbachev's leadership. Often the Soviet Union pursued a patient strategy of providing relatively limited amounts of military assistance to revolutionary movements to ensure that they would not be defeated. Even when revolutionaries were able to seize power without a surge of Soviet military support, the Marxist movements often required substantial military assistance from the USSR and other communist states to stay in power. Under Gorbachev, the Soviet Union realized that its previous support for revolution had saddled it with the burden of propping up weak Marxist regimes and undermined efforts to achieve dé tente with the United States. Gorbachev then acted to reduce the political and economic cost of supporting Marxist third world regimes. The authors' essays offer a detailed and challenging analysis of the complexities that have defined the Soviet Union's support of Marxist revolutions in the past and will shape future Soviet policy.

What did Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of perestroika mean for future Soviet support of Marxist revolution in the third world? In this book, four experts on Soviet relations with the third world take a sharp-eyed look at the role the Soviet Union played in providing assistance to Marxist revolutionaries and assess the changes in policy that occurred under Gorbachev's leadership. Throughout the Cold War, the United States and other Western nations regarded Soviet support of revolutions in developing countries as a serious threat to Western security interests. Yet the Soviet Union learned that it could not successfully initiate revolution in other countries; at best, it could only assist revolutionary groups that rose up against existing governments. Because the authors do not share a common perspective, their essays offer a detailed and challenging analysis of the complexities that have defined the Soviet Union's support of Marxist revolutions in the past and that will shape Soviet policy in the future.

Acknowledgments; Introduction Mark N. Katz; 1. Successes and failures in Soviet policy toward Marxist revolutions in the third world, 1917–85 S. Neil MacFarlane; 2. Soviet military support for third-world Marxist regimes Wayne P. Limberg; 3. Gorbachev and revolution Mark N. Katz; 4. Gorbachev's policies toward the third world William E. Griffith; About the authors; Index.