ABSTRACT
Mikhail Gorbachev has said that ideology should be removed from interstate relations. Ideological differences and the conflicts they engender are the objects of his criticism. Ideology serves several functions for Soviet foreign policy. Marxism-Leninism is a theory which presumes that societies are moving toward a better future through dialectical struggles between advanced and regressive forces. The ideology's vision of a communist social future as the historical destination of humankind has in a certain sense supplied a basic motive or ultimate goal for Soviet foreign policy. Marxist-Leninist ideology has provided an international identity for the USSR as champion of the good, challenger of the old and evil. Soviet links with the struggles of progressive forces in other countries and support to successful revolutionaries helps to confirm the country's Marxist-Leninist identity as an instrument of progress, and to validate the leadership's purposeful uses of power.
