ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how detente is viewed by Moscow. In “capitalist” countries it is in the interest of the elite composed of property owners to restrain the powers of the state, because the state is an adversary who, by means of taxes, regulations, and the threat of nationalization, prevents it from freely enjoying its property. The historical fact bearing on detente is that the elite ruling the Soviet Union is for all practical purposes directly descended from a peasantry. In order to understand how, in view of what has just been said of its outlook on life, the Soviet government initiated a policy of detente with the West, one must consider the situation in which the Soviet Union found itself after the death of Stalin. Inaugurating detentes is for the USSR a relatively easy matter: There exist for action ample historic precedent and more than adequate theoretical justification.
