ABSTRACT
The contradictory origins of the Soviet Union as both a regular state actor on the international scene and as the self-appointed nucleus of a future world revolutionary order have had several interesting historical consequences. First, they fostered a peculiarly striated view of the nature of the outside world, placing foreign state and non-state actors into a set of categories defined by the degree of ‘objective’ hostility or friendship towards the Soviet Union as the ‘motherland’ of the world revolution. Secondly, they led to the development of a series of unusual instruments of international activity in tandem with the formal organs of diplomacy. Practice in the operation of the various types of instruments in different countries and in different periods eventually produced a form of division of labour among them, giving Soviet diplomacy a shadowy, multi-dimensional character which brought advantages, but also some disadvantages, in the pursuit of the country’s foreign-policy objectives.
