ABSTRACT
This chapter explores Soviet conceptions of security. It presents something of their own view of Soviet perspectives, based on evidence with the imperfections they have noted. In the 20 years after the consolidation of Soviet power, the regime's security conception had evolved from considerations determined largely by the expectations of Communist revolutionary doctrines to ones quite similar to those that had traditionally assured the physical survival of nation-states in times of peril. The chapter is concerned with determining how successive Soviet leaderships have sought to define the security requirements of the Soviet Union, how they have gone about satisfying these requirements, and how successful they have been. Security to Bolsheviks meant safeguarding the regime's ability to institute the societal and other changes it planned—but still in the context of a broader, revolutionary environment. As the prospect of intracapitalist wars seemed to dim after World War II, the emphasis shifted to the inevitability of capitalist-socialist war.
