The October Revolution’s Foreign Policy Program: Origins and Results

In this article, the ideological origins of Soviet foreign policy practice after the victory of the October Revolution of 1917 are analysed. The Marxist and Liberal concepts of international politics had common roots. It predetermined the similarity of peaceful settlement's proposals made by the Russian Bolsheviks after the October Revolution; they corresponded to the proposals of the US President W. Wilson. The authors pay attention to the fact that the October revolution’s leaders initially viewed it as an integral part of the world revolution. So, the hope for success of the world revolution was a factor determining the Soviet Russia’s domestic and foreign policy. It is noticed that the Leninist conception of the world revolution supposed a close link between the labor movement and national liberation movements in colonial and semi-colonial countries. That link founded an important direction in Soviet foreign policy. In different periods of Soviet history, the attention to national liberation movements depended on the Soviet Union’s foreign policy situation. Despite all the contradictions in the foreign policy of the USSR, which was conditioned both by ideological and geopolitical factors, it always had willingness to support the principle of national self-determination, which in fact belonged to the legacy of the foreign policy platform of the October Revolution. As a result, the Soviet Union made a significant contribution to the elimination of the colonial system and thereby contributed to a change in the nature of world politics and international relations in the 20th century.