ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by tracing the growth of Tsarist Russia, examines the Russian revolution and the present Soviet State, and describes the Communist creed, and Soviet foreign policy which is one of its forms of expression. The Russians entered history as inhabitants of the fertile prairies of the Ukraine and the less fertile forest belt of the Novgorod-Moscow area. At the close of two centuries of Mongol domination, emerged two Russian habits of thought that are still vital forces in the Soviet Union. The habits are: the idea that it is natural to live under a dictatorship in a totalitarian state; and the idea that Moscow is destined to rule and save the world. The Petrograd Soviet was too unwieldy a body to transact daily business in a revolution, and control of action was rapidly taken over by the Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Congress.
