ABSTRACT
The problem of the relationship of the Soviet people to the outside world occupies, on the whole, a smaller place in ideological and political discussions in our country than discussions, say, on questions of ecology, the legal system, democratization, or the preservation of our historical heritage. But this important question nonetheless merits separate treatment because, until now, the theme has been almost completely closed to discussion. There have been denunciations of émigrés, of course, as well as of Western capitalist countries, and self-glorification has long been a staple of the Soviet media. But the whole complex of issues involving the meaning of patriotism, the nature of human rights, and the place of the USSR in world civilization could not be freely discussed until the development of democratization and giasnost, and until the new thinking about foreign relations began to shatter the "iron curtain" that isolated our society from the outside world.
