page_title: Foreign relations of the Soviet Union
section_title: World revolution
hierarchical_section_title: Foreign relations of the Soviet Union / 1917–1939 / World revolution
caption_attribution_description: Русский: Плакат «Скоро весь мир будет наш». [Екатеринбург]&#160;: Уральское отделение РОСТА, [1920]. Цветная литография, 1 лист, 35×53 см Українська: Плакат «Скоро весь світ буде наш». [Єкатеринбург]&#160;: Уральске відділення РОСТА, [1920]. Кольорова літографія, 1 лист, 35×53 см English: Poster «Soon the whole world will be ours». [Yekaterinburg]&#160;: Ural department of ROSTA, [1920]. Color lithography, 1 leaf, 35×53 cm Français&#160;: Affiche «Bientôt le monde entier sera à nous». [Iekaterinburg]&#160;: Ural department of ROSTA, [1920]. Lithographie couleur, 1 feuille, 35×53 cm
context_page_description: After the Russian Revolution the Bolsheviks took over the old Russian Empire in 1918, they faced enormous odds against the German Empire due to World War I, and then again against both domestic and international enemies in the bitter civil war. Czarist Russia was reorganized as the Soviet Union in 1922. At first, it was treated as an unrecognized Pariah state because of its repudiating the tsarist debts and threats to destroy capitalism at home and around the world. By 1922, Moscow had repudiated the goal of world revolution, and sought diplomatic recognition and friendly trade relations with the world, starting with Britain and Germany. Trade and technical help from Germany and the United States arrived in the late 1920s. Under dictator Joseph Stalin, the country was transformed in the 1930s into an industrial and military power. After the appeasement policy of Britain and France, the Soviet Union shifted from a strategy of antifascist collective security to one of national security. By signing a treaty with Germany in 1939 the Soviet Union hoped to create a buffer zone between them and Germany.
context_section_description: The Bolsheviks seized power in Russia in November 1917 but they could not stop German armies which advanced rapidly deep into Russia. The Bolsheviks saw Russia as only the first step—they planned to incite revolutions against capitalism in every western country. The immediate threat was a German conquest. In early March 1918, after bitter internal debate, they agreed to harsh German peace terms at Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Moscow lost control of the Baltics, Poland and Ukraine and other areas that before the war produced much of Russia's food supply, industrial base, coal, and communication links with Western Europe." Britain and France felt, "The treaty was the ultimate betrayal of the Allied cause and sowed the seeds for the Cold War. With Brest-Litovsk the spectre of German domination in Eastern Europe threatened to become reality, and the Allies now began to think seriously about military intervention [in Russia]."
  In 1918 Britain sent in money and some troops to support the anti-Bolshevik "White" counter-revolutionaries. France, Japan and the United States also sent forces to block German threats. The Russian Civil War saw multiple uncoordinated attacks on the Bolsheviks from every direction. However, the Bolsheviks, operating a unified command from a central location, defeated all the opposition one by one and took full control of Russia, as well as breakaway provinces such as Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The U.S. and France refused to deal with the now successful Communist regime because of its promise to support revolutions to overthrow governments everywhere. U.S. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby stated:
  It is their [Bolshevik] understanding that the very existence of Bolshevism in Russia, the maintenance of their own rule, depends, and must continue to depend, upon the occurrence of revolutions in all other great civilized nations, including the United States, which will overthrow and destroy their governments and set up Bolshevist rule in their stead. They have made it quite plain that they intend to use every means, including, of course, diplomatic agencies, to promote such revolutionary movements in other countries.
  The first priority for Soviet foreign policy was instigating revolutions across Western Europe, above all Germany. It was the country that Lenin most admired and assumed to be most ready for revolution. Lenin also encouraged revolutions that failed in Germany, Bavaria and Hungary from 1918 to 1920 - this support was solely political and economic, and the Red Army did not participate in these revolutions. In 1920 the newly formed state of Poland expanded eastwards into the Russian territories of Ukraine and Belarus. The Red Army retaliated, but was defeated outside Warsaw in August 1920. Shortly afterwards, the RSFSR sued for peace, which was signed at the Peace of Riga on 18 March 1921. The RSFSR recompensed 30 million roubles, as well as sizeable territory in Belarus and Ukraine.
  Independent revolutions had failed to overthrow capitalism. Moscow pulled back from military action and set up the Comintern, designed to foster local communist parties under Kremlin control.
caption: Soon all the World will be ours, 1920
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