Book Review Roundtable: The Soviet Search for Recognition as a Superpower | 2024 | Publications
In her section "Cold War Retrospective: Seeking Recognition as a Partner or an Adversary," Dr. Carol R. Saivetz offers her thoughts on Soviet foreign policy and discussions of implications for Russian policy today.
Dr. Saivetz writes,
"Although the Cold War ostensibly ended 33 years ago, we find ourselves in a new/renewed confrontation with Vladimir Putin’s Russia. It is, therefore, timely and illuminating to read Sergey Radchenko’s To Run the World: The Kremlin’s Cold War Bid for Global Power. Many of the themes underscored by Radchenko in this meticulously researched book have resonance today, and many of the legacies he discusses are relevant to 2024.
Radchenko’s central theme is that the Kremlin’s policies from 1945–1991 were motivated by what he calls “narratives of legitimacy.” He writes further that “these narratives were negotiated through constant interaction between Soviet ambitions and those who recognized and so legitimized them or those who refused to recognize them and, through their refusal, also (unexpectedly) legitimized them.”8 He adds that Soviet leaders were to a person concerned about the “legality and justice of their and their country’s position in the global hierarchy.”9 This explains the Soviet Union’s and now Russia’s obsession with being perceived as a co-equal of the United States.
Radchenko adds to our understanding of Soviet motivations by stressing that recognition could come from either being seen as a partner or an adversary. This is, in fact, the core tension in the Soviet Union’s ambitions: Could it achieve legitimacy as a partner to the West, while simultaneously seeking to be the leader of a worldwide revolutionary movement? As he illustrates in this detailed analysis of the Cold War, using newly available archival materials, Soviet leaders sometimes tacked toward attempting to partner with the West and at other times moved toward the more ideologically defined position as revolutionary."
Dr. Saivetz along with other contributors share different perspectives on Sergey Radchenko's new book, To Run the World: The Kremlin's Cold War Bid for Global Power.