Paths to World Socialist Revolution: West and East

Abstract

When the Bolshevik party seized political power in October 1917, acquiring the responsibilities of a governing party, among the tasks it had to tackle were those of formulating its own domestic and foreign policies. The Bolshevik leaders set up a harsh dictatorship at home, while banking on the mistaken assumption that socialist revolution would very soon triumph in the rest of the world. The political and economic situation in the countries of Eastern and Western Europe supported their illusions, encouraging them to believe that their hopes were about to be realized. In 1919 an acute political crisis flared up in the countries of the former Triple Alliance, Germany and Austria–Hungary, which resulted in the emergence of Soviet republics in Hungary, Bavaria and Slovakia. The Bolshevik leadership tried to organize military and political support for these republics by sending them Red Army troops, weapons and propaganda material. Their efforts met with powerful opposition on the part of the Entente. General Haller’s 70,000-strong Polish corps was dispatched from France to Galicia in a remarkably short time. Haller routed the forces of the West-Ukrainian People’s Republic and pinned down units of the 1st Ukrainian Soviet Army. At the same time General Denikin’s White forces began an offensive against Ukraine. A planned advance by the 3rd Ukrainian Soviet Army was abandoned because of the defection of the divisional commander, N. A. Grigor′ev.