ABSTRACT
The new Soviet state thus faced powerful opposition both inside and outside its frontiers and was soon forced to employ the most draconian methods to protect its interests. The international situation which had been inherited by the Soviet regime in the fourth year of World War I could hardly have been a more serious one. The Soviet Union was now for the first time in its existence a victorious power and in a position to improve upon the tightly drawn frontiers imposed a quarter of a century earlier. The Soviet Union was also in a strong position to ensure that other post-war territorial arrangements in the eastern part of Europe were to its advantage. In terms of its geopolitical characteristics in the aftermath of World War II, the Soviet Union undoubtedly attained a position very similar to those of the dominant states of the past.
