Brezhnev Doctrine

Brezhnev Doctrine Click here for more free books!

Although in its immediate sense a riposte to the international condemnation of the invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968, the "Brezhnev Doctrine" was the culmination of the long evolution of a conception of sovereignty in Soviet ideology. At its core was the restatement of a long-standing insistence on the right of the USSR to intervene in a satellite's internal political developments should there be any reason to fear for the future of communist rule in that state.

Linked to the name of General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), Leonid Brezhnev, because of its encapsulation in a speech he read in Warsaw on November 13, 1968, the doctrine had already been expounded by ideologue Sergei Kovalev in Pravda on September 26, 1968, and, before the invasion, by Soviet commentators critical of the Czechoslovak reforms. It resembled in most respects the defense of the invasion of Hungary in 1956, and included aspects of earlier justifications of hegemony dating to the immediate postwar period and the 1930s.

Sovereignty continued to be interpreted in two regards: first, as the right to demand that the noncommunist world, including organizations such as the United Nations, respect Soviet hegemony in Eastern Europe, and second, as permitting the USSR's satellites to determine domestic policy only within the narrow bounds of orthodox Marxism-Leninism. Any breach of those parameters would justify military intervention by members of the Warsaw Pact and the removal even of leaders who had come to power in the ways that the Soviet political model would consider legitimate.

The elements of the Brezhnev Doctrine reflecting the exigencies of the late 1960s were the intensified insistence on ideological uniformity in the face of a steady drift to revisionism in West European communist organizations as well as factions of ruling parties, and on bloc unity before venturing a less confrontational coexistence with the West. Preoccupied with protecting the Soviet sphere against external challenges and internal fissures, the Brezhnev Doctrine lacked the ambitious, more expansionist tone of earlier conceptions of sovereignty.

Although not officially overturned until Mikhail Gorbachev and Eduard Shevardnadze radically reconceptualized foreign policy in the late 1980s, the future of the Brezhnev Doctrine was already in doubt when the USSR decided not to invade Poland in December 1980, after the emergence of the independent trade union, Solidarity. The debates in the Politburo at that time revealed a shift in the thinking of even some of its more hawkish members toward a discourse of Soviet national interest in place of the traditional socialist internationalism.

Bibliography

Jones, Robert A. (1990). The Soviet Concept of "Limited Sovereignty" from Lenin to Gorbachev: The Brehznev Doctrine. Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan.

Ouimet, M. J. (2000). "National Interest and the Question of Soviet Intervention in Poland, 1980 - 1981: Interpreting the Collapse of the 'Brezhnev Doctrine.'" Slavonic and East European Review 78: 710 - 734.

—KIERAN WILLIAMS

The Brezhnev Doctrine was a Soviet Union foreign policy, first and most clearly outlined by S. Kovalev in a September 26, 1968 Pravda article, entitled “Sovereignty and the International Obligations of Socialist Countries.” Leonid Brezhnev reiterated it in a speech at the Fifth Congress of the Polish United Workers' Party on November 13, 1968, which stated:

"When forces that are hostile to socialism try to turn the development of some socialist country towards capitalism, it becomes not only a problem of the country concerned, but a common problem and concern of all socialist countries."

This doctrine was announced to retroactively justify the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968 that ended the Prague Spring, along with earlier Soviet military interventions, such as the invasion of Hungary in 1956. These interventions were meant to put an end to democratic liberalization efforts and uprisings that had the potential to compromise Soviet hegemony inside the Eastern bloc, which was considered by the Soviets to be an essential defensive and strategic buffer in case hostilities with NATO were to break out.

In practice, the policy meant that limited independence of communist parties was allowed, but no country would be allowed to leave the Warsaw Pact, disturb a nation's communist party's monopoly on power, or in any way compromise the cohesiveness of the Eastern bloc. Implicit in this doctrine was that the leadership of the Soviet Union reserved, for itself, the right to define "socialism" and "capitalism". Following the announcement of the Brezhnev Doctrine, numerous treaties were signed between the Soviet Union and its satellite states to reassert these points and to further ensure inter-state cooperation. The principles of the doctrine were so broad that the Soviets even used it to justify their military intervention in the non-Warsaw Pact nation of Afghanistan in 1979. The Brezhnev Doctrine stayed in effect until it was finally ended with the Soviet non-invasion of Poland during the 1980-1981 crisis^[1] and later refusal of Mikhail Gorbachev to use military force when Poland held free elections in 1989 and Solidarity defeated the Communist Party.^[2] It was superseded by the facetiously named Sinatra Doctrine in 1989.

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Text of Brezhnev's speech

See also

• Truman Doctrine
• Domino theory
• Cold War
• Ulbricht Doctrine
• Leonid Brezhnev
• Reagan Doctrine
• Soviet occupations
• Sinatra Doctrine

References

1. ^ Wilfried Loth. Moscow, Prague and Warsaw: Overcoming the Brezhnev Doctrine. Cold War History 1, no. 2 (2001): 103-118.
2. ^ Hunt, p. 945

Bibliography

• Ouimet, Matthew: The Rise and Fall of the Brezhnev Doctrine in Soviet Foreign Policy. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill and London. 2003.

• Hunt, Lynn: "The Making of the West: Peoples and Cultures." Bedford/St. Martin's, Boston and London. 2009.

v • d • e Cold War Participants   ANZUS · NATO · Non-Aligned Movement · SEATO · Warsaw Pact 1940s Yalta Conference · Operation Unthinkable · Potsdam Conference · Gouzenko Affair · Iran crisis of 1946 · Greek Civil War · Restatement of Policy on Germany · First Indochina War · Truman Doctrine · Marshall Plan · Czechoslovak coup d'état of 1948 · Tito–Stalin split · Berlin Blockade · Western betrayal · Iron Curtain · Eastern Bloc · Chinese Civil War (Second round) 1950s Korean War · 1953 Iranian coup d'état · Uprising of 1953 in East Germany · 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état · Partition of Vietnam · First Taiwan Strait Crisis · Geneva Summit (1955) · Poznań 1956 protests · Hungarian Revolution of 1956 · Suez Crisis · Sputnik crisis · Second Taiwan Strait Crisis · Cuban Revolution · Kitchen Debate · Asian–African Conference · Bricker Amendment · McCarthyism · Operation Gladio · Hallstein Doctrine 1960s Congo Crisis · Sino-Soviet split · 1960 U-2 incident · Bay of Pigs Invasion · Cuban Missile Crisis · Berlin Wall · Vietnam War · 1964 Brazilian coup d'état · 1965 United States occupation of the Dominican Republic · South African Border War · Transition to the New Order · Domino theory · ASEAN Declaration · Laotian Civil War · Greek military junta of 1967–1974 · Cultural Revolution · Sino-Indian War · Prague Spring · Goulash Communism · Sino-Soviet border conflict 1970s Détente · Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty · Black September in Jordan · Cambodian Civil War · Realpolitik · Ping Pong Diplomacy · Four Power Agreement on Berlin · 1972 Nixon visit to China · 1973 Chilean coup d'état · Yom Kippur War · Strategic Arms Limitation Talks · Angolan Civil War · Mozambican Civil War · Ogaden War · Cambodian–Vietnamese War · Sino-Vietnamese War · Iranian Revolution · Operation Condor · Bangladesh Liberation War  · Korean Air Lines Flight 902 1980s Soviet war in Afghanistan · Olympic boycotts · Solidarity (Soviet reaction) · Contras · Central American crisis · RYAN · Korean Air Lines Flight 007 · Able Archer 83 · Strategic Defense Initiative · Invasion of Grenada · Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 · Invasion of Panama · Fall of the Berlin Wall · Revolutions of 1989 · Glasnost · Perestroika 1990s Breakup of Yugoslavia · Dissolution of the USSR · Dissolution of Czechoslovakia See also Soviet and Russian espionage in U.S. · Soviet Union–United States relations · NATO–Russia relations Organizations ASEAN · CIA · Comecon · EEC · KGB · MI6 · Stasi Races Arms race · Nuclear arms race · Space Race Ideologies Capitalism · Communism (Castroism · Guevarism · Juche · Maoism · Stalinism · Titoism · Trotskyism) · Liberal democracy Propaganda Active measures · Izvestia · Pravda · Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty · Red Scare · TASS · Voice of America · Voice of Russia Foreign policy Truman Doctrine · Marshall Plan · Containment · Eisenhower Doctrine · Domino theory · Kennedy Doctrine · Peaceful coexistence · Ostpolitik · Johnson Doctrine · Brezhnev Doctrine · Nixon Doctrine · Ulbricht Doctrine · Carter Doctrine · Reagan Doctrine · Rollback Timeline of events · Portal · Category

v • d • e Foreign relations of the Soviet Union Bilateral Albania · Angola · Baltic countries · Canada · China · Côte d'Ivoire · Cuba · Czechoslovakia · Germany before 1941 · Grenada · Japan · Laos · Tonga · United States · Vanuatu Multilateral Comecon · United Nations Doctrines and policies Brezhnev Doctrine · Peaceful coexistence · Sinatra Doctrine · Trade policy · Soviet occupations Diplomats · Spies · Treaties · Occupations by country · Dates when relations established with Soviet Union · Foreign ministry

v • d • e The Prague Spring Warsaw Pact Invasion · Normalization Period Major figures Vasil Biľak · Leonid Brezhnev · Oldřich Černík · Alexander Dubček · Gustáv Husák · František Kriegel · Zdeněk Mlynář · Antonín Novotný · Jan Palach · Petro Shelest · Ota Šik · Ludvík Svoboda · Ludvík Vaculík Related articles Action Programme · Brezhnev Doctrine · Moscow Protocol · Red Square demonstration · Warsaw Pact

This Soviet Union-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v • d • e

This article about politics is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v • d • e

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)