ABSTRACT
Soviet leaders, individually and collectively, have often identified the chief aims of Soviet foreign policy. Soviet leaders' aims and especially their instruments vary considerably over different geographic areas, issue areas, and periods. The Soviet leadership has always sought national security, economic growth, and political stability at home; dissemination of its ideology and social institutions abroad; territorial expansion; and increased influence over non-Communist governments and parties, ruling and nonruling Communist parties, and revolutionary movements. Each interpretation accurately characterizes and explains Soviet international behavior in some important context. It is possible to cite examples of Communist expansionism, realpolitik expansionism, and self-defense in different geographic and issue areas under Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev, and Brezhnev. While universal generalizations produce misleading explanations of Soviet foreign policy, probabilistic generalizations can help explain diverse Soviet aims, activities, and accomplishments. Lenin and Stalin used meager diplomatic resources effectively and efficiently in the interwar years.
