Dashichev, V.I. Mission impossible of the Soviet foreign policy

Abstract: This article is devoted to the analytic note, presented to the Secretary General of the CPSU Central Committee Y.V. Andropov. The sharp confrontation between the Soviet Union and the coalition of the Western states in the late 1970s made the Soviet leaders face a number of matters in the sphere of improvement of the Soviet foreign policy. The attack on the Western positions posed a huge pressure on material and moral resources of the state, overstepping its real abilities. In order to guarantee the Communist Messiah expansion and wage the “Cold War” the USSR spent 15 to 30 percent of the GDP (compared to 5 per cent of GDP for the USA). It threatened to undermine the economic fundamentals of the state. The Soviet government violated the fundamental foreign policy principle, as formulated by von Clausewitz, providing that the established foreign political goals should strictly conform with the material resources and international situation. However, instead of easing the tension in the relations with the West, and lowering the pressure on the economies of the Soviet Union and its partners in the Warsaw Treaty Organization, in the 1970s the Kremlin chose to intensify the tension.

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