Suny, Chapter 13 (Tuesday, Week 10)
What was the fascist/Nazi position regarding the USSR and communism?
Did the USSR or the Communist International understand the threat of fascism in the 1920s? Explain.
Explain the meaning of the terms "Third Period" and "social fascists" as used in the resolutions of the 1928 6th Congress of the Comintern.
Did the "Third Period" policy of the Comintern support building anti-fascist coalitions? Explain.
According to Suny, what were the results of the "Third Period" policies?
In what way did the USSR shift its foreign policy emphasis under Litvinov’s leadership of the Commissariat of Foreign Affairs? Was Litvinov pro-German? Explain.
Why did Stalin give Litvinov so much leeway in foreign affairs until 1939?
Why were the communists so slow to abandon the "Third Period" policies and form anti-fascist coalitions in 1933-34? What was Stalin’s view of the Nazi threat at this time?
How did Litvinov lessen the USSR’s isolation in 1933-35?
What was "collective security," and when did the USSR adopt this policy?
What was the "popular front" strategy and when did the Comintern adopt this strategy? Was the Soviet communist party the leader or the follower in this policy?
Why does Suny call the late 1930s a "golden age" for the Left?
Were Great Britain and France eager to join with the USSR in a collective security agreement? Explain.
According to Suny on p. 299, was Stalin’s foreign policy guided by ideology or by power politics? Explain.
How did the Soviet leadership interpret British and French appeasement of Hitler? (See also Stalin on the State and the Intelligentsia" in Daniels)
How did the Munich agreement effect Litvinov’s policy of collective security?
Why didn’t France and Great Britain agree to join the USSR in an anti-Nazi alliance in 1939?
When, why, and by whom was Litvinov replaced, and what change in foreign policy resulted?
Exactly what did the USSR and Germany agree to on 23 August 1939? How did Molotov publicly explain this?
What were the strategic reasons for signing a pact with Nazi Germany? Was it a strategic failure or a success? Explain.
When and why did Soviet foreign policy become expansionist? Explain. How did Stalin justify invading Poland? Why invade Finland?
What happened in the 1939-40 Russo-Finnish War, and what lesson did this send to Stalin?
According to Suny, was the Red Army ready for war in 1941? Explain. (See assigned readings in Von Geldern for examples of the popular culture of military preparedness)
What effect did the Nazi-Soviet pact have on communist parties outside the USSR?
Had the USSR successfully broken its diplomatic isolation by 1940, or had it found itself again isolated? Explain.
When and why did Stalin "absorb" the Baltic states?
What were the main sources of tension between the USSR and Germany in 1939-41?
Why did Hitler delay Operation Barbarossa until June 1941?