ABSTRACT
Throughout centuries of history, the West, by its very existence, has had a profound impact on Russia. Marxist-Leninist ideology also has an obvious Western component. The very concept of an eventual worldwide communist victory is born out of the expectation that the working classes in developed industrial nations will rebel against their capitalist masters. Ideology has, of course, begun to decline as an important factor in Soviet society, but as it loses force, there is a growing fascination with Western culture and life-styles. The Soviet economy is also increasingly open to the West. The Russians have traditionally sought to graft Western technology onto a native political system, and the current Soviet regime is no exception. Western technology, investment, grain and meat are crucial for the Soviet economy. Since the late 1940s, deterrence has been and remains the most reliable way of influencing Soviet foreign policy calculations.
