Sublime

Hello Mate

It is difficult to answer your point without a very long and boring lecture, let alone letting off expletives about Stalin and Putin.

For me their similarity to the Romanovs (and to each other) in terms of foreign policy comes from the fact that neither are really communists in the Marxian sense. Things to consider...

1. Marx said "I am not a Marxist". By which he meant, many late 19th Century "Marxists" failed to grasp his and Engels teachings.

2. Lenin wrote a pamphlet entitled. "Left-wing Communism:-  An infantile disorder". Which put simply is him moaning about west European communists and independent Marxists failing to do what they are told by Moscow.

3. From it's foundation the Bolshevik Party was shaped by it's dealings with the Tsarist Secret Police. You could say that the KGB learnt everything it knew from them. It was paranoid about infiltration, and rejected the idea of a mass revolution, and followed a vanguardist "we know best" approach.

4. That meant that from almost day one the Soviet Union was a misnomer. Soviets had been worker's councils open to anyone who wanted to take part. Once they were restricted to party members only they ceased to be real "Soviets".

5. All of the above produced two results. Firstly that a communist society (i.e. one based on co-operation between self-governing communes) could never be achieved. Because the Party-led State could never allow itself to pass out of existence. Secondly that Russian foreign policy would always be the primary concern of western "Communist" parties whether they wanted it that way or not.

6. In the pre-war era Stalin's goals were 1) Crush the Left-Opposition at home. 2) Maintain rigid control of the Communist Parties abroad. (This would end in disaster, most tragically, in Germany and Spain). 3) Grab back as much of the old Russian Empire as possible.

7. In the post-war era it meant fixing the borders of the old Empire once again. Then forming a buffer zone in eastern Europe and sabotaging any attempts at Marxist revolution or parliamentary socialism . (Also remember Stalin was quite happy to allow the "west" win in Italy and Greece, and was never particular fond of Tito).

8. Which brings us to Asia. Even ignoring the Bolshevik's abject failure to create a communist society in Russia. Stalin's only real interest was limited to the territory that had been fought over in 1905. Although we are taught to think in terms of "the domino effect" with a monolithic communist movement in control. It has to been borne in mind that Stalin had no control over the fighting in China during the Civil War. And took no part in the war to re-unify Korea. Even after his death Moscow and Beijing continued to squabble. And in South-East Asia it was Vietnam who crushed Pol Pot not the western powers.

9) To my way of thinking the "Fall of Communisn" didn't happen in 1990, it happened in 1914, when the Second International failed to prevent the First World War, and thus paving the way for the Bolsheviks to cock everything up.

Spike aka Warts 'n' all.