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DISMEMBERMENT of nations, COMMUNIST state, TERRITORIAL partition, SOVIET Union -- Foreign relations -- Yugoslavia, and CZECHOSLOVAKIA -- Foreign relations -- Soviet Union

Abstract: When the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia broke apart, several prominent academics argued that this was because they were federations (or ‘ethno‐federations’ as they put it). This article uses Walker Connor's magnum opus on Marxist–Leninist strategy and practice in communist states to show the flaws in these analyses. Connor's work shows that it is more plausible to link the fate of the three communist states to their anti‐federalist practices than to the fact that they were formally federal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ECONOMIC policy, ETHNOGRAPHIC analysis, CHURCH buildings, CREATIVE ability, SOVIET Union -- Foreign relations, and SOVIET Union

This paper explores creative reuse as an alternative modality to upcycle the materiality and documentary capacities of things, beyond the linear entrapments of historical or functional redundancy. Drawing on an amphibious ethnography of Volgograd's riverscapes, we analyse the floating churches inaugurated after the collapse of the Soviet Union to support the revival of faith practices. Acting as mobile centres of religious activity, they morph various temporalities, functions and places into multidimensional operative domains that range from the embodied practices of sailing and engaging in religious rituals to the making of sacred space at a regional level. We conclude by suggesting that their operations and impact rely on topologies of fixed points and shifting spatialities, which provide a salient vehicle for broader geographical interrogations of memory, creativity and mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INTERNATIONAL alliances, DIPLOMACY, COLD War, 1945-1991, SOVIET Union -- Foreign relations -- 1953-1975, JAPAN-United States relations, and JAPAN -- Foreign relations -- Soviet Union

In the mid-1950s, the Soviet Union used a wedge strategy aimed at weaning Japan away from the United States. While the effort failed, this was far from an inevitable outcome. At the time, the Japanese government publicly expressed its intention to improve relations with the communist bloc. Moreover, Moscow offered Tokyo attractive carrots, mainly in the form of a favorable resolution of outstanding territorial disputes. I argue that the failure stemmed from how the United States deployed binding strategies--policies aimed at maintaining or enhancing an ally's loyalty--to counter Moscow's overtures. In doing so, I seek to expand our understanding of binding strategies and the dynamic interplay between binding and wedge strategies. To this end, I present a typology of binding strategies and develop a theory that encompasses dynamic interactions between binding and wedge strategies. I then test the theory with the case of the Soviet-Japanese-US triangular diplomacy and demonstrate that the two strategies are deeply intertwined and should be analyzed as such. I conclude by discussing broader theoretical implications, such as the possibility of developing a dynamic theory of alliance politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soviet Union -- Foreign relations, China -- Foreign relations -- Vietnam, Communism, Sino-Soviet Border Conflict, 1969, Socialism -- History, History, and Twentieth century

Declassified documents from Russian archives and official Vietnamese and Albanian materials and memoirs permit consideration of the under-studied topic of relations between the Soviet Union and the ruling Communist regimes in Albania and Vietnam and of Albanian-Vietnamese bilateral relations in the context of the two countries' relations with the USSR and with the People's Republic of China. The split in the international Communist movement from the late 1940s onward meant that, in the early 1960s, the Chinese Communist leadership set out to create a counterweight to Moscow composed of "the true Marxist-Leninist parties". Hanoi and Tirana had to define their places in this Sino-Soviet confrontation. Hanoi maintained normal relations with both Moscow and Tirana until the end of the 1980s, despite the severing of all bilateral ties between the Soviet Union and Albania in the early 1960s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COLD War, 1945-1991, CUBA -- Foreign relations, SOVIET Union -- Foreign relations, EASTERN Europe -- Foreign relations, NICARAGUA -- Foreign relations, and FOREIGN relations of the United States

This paper examines the relations of the Soviet Union, Cuba, and the East European socialist states with Nicaragua from Anastasio Somoza's removal in July 1979 until Violeta Chamorro's election victory in February 1990, using a wide array of original documents, collected from Polish, Hungarian, Bulgarian, German and Czech diplomatic, party and security services archives. It delves deeply into the motivations behind the Kremlin's circumscribed approach, attempting to break new ground by looking in detail at Moscow's communication and coordination with its East European allies and Cuba, aimed at supporting Managua without risking major confrontation with Washington. This research aims to contribute to the existing historiography by looking not only at the motivations behind Soviet and Eastern Bloc involvement, but also by taking into account the circumstances preventing Moscow and its allies from developing more comprehensive political and economic relations with the Sandinista regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SOVIET Union intelligence service, RUSSIA-United States relations, SOVIET Union -- Foreign relations, SOVIET Union -- Politics & government, and HISTORY of the Soviet Union

The article explores the political warfare or active measures reportedly associated with Soviet security services. Topics discussed include the definition of active measures according to the Russian Committee for State Security (KGB), the significant role of active measures in the foreign and domestic policies of the Soviet Union, and the common perceptions of the U.S. government on Soviet active measures which tend to influence the relations between the two regions.

INTERNATIONAL law -- History, PEACE -- International cooperation, REVOLUTIONS, HISTORY, DIPLOMATIC history, SOCIALISM, INTERNATIONALISM, SOCIALISM -- History, POLITICAL attitudes, and SOVIET Union -- Foreign relations

This article is devoted to an analysis of the Soviet doctrines of foreign policy, international law and relations. It is claimed that Soviet international law was based on two conflicting ideas -- the idea of universal peace and the idea of world revolution. These ideas were reflected in two conflicting principles of Soviet international law -- the principle of peaceful coexistence and the principle of socialist internationalism. Throughout its history the USSR was balancing between these ideas and principles depending on its internal and external interests and the current political situation, moving its foreign policy from the first principle to the second one, and vice versa. The article divides the history of Soviet foreign policy into five major stages -- the foreign policy of Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev and Gorbachev -- to analyse each of these stages in turn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

NATIONAL liberation movements, SOVIET Union -- Foreign relations -- 1953-1975, ZIMBABWE -- Politics & government, and ZIMBABWE -- Foreign relations

This article is one of a pair of unusual contributions to this special issue offered by Dumiso Dabengwa and Vladimir Shubin. They are unusual, in that they offer personal views and interpretations, shaped by the authors’ own involvement in the southern African struggles of liberation. Dabengwa and Shubin were key participants in ZAPU and in Soviet support respectively, and they at times interacted directly with one another. Based on presentations originally made to theJournal of Southern African Studies’ Conference, titled ‘Southern Africa Beyond the West’, held in Livingstone, Zambia in August 2015, their accounts explore the relationship between the USSR and ZAPU in particular, reflect on personal encounters and careers, and also range much more widely. Accounts such as these provide an important resource for developing new insights into the transnational histories of liberation movements. — The Editors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]