The USSR and Marxist Revolutions in the Third World

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How did Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of perestroika affect Soviet support of Marxist revolution in the Third World? In this book, four experts on Soviet-Third World relations take a sharp-eyed look at the role the former Soviet Union played in providing assistance to Marxist revolutionaries and assess the changes in policy that occurred under Gorbachev's leadership. Often the Soviet Union pursued a patient strategy of providing relatively limited amounts of military assistance to revolutionary movements to ensure that they would not be defeated. Even when revolutionaries were able to seize power without a surge of Soviet military support, the Marxist movements often required substantial military assistance from the USSR and other communist states to stay in power. Under Gorbachev, the Soviet Union realized that its previous support for revolution had saddled it with the burden of propping up weak Marxist regimes and undermined efforts to achieve dé, tente with the United States. Gorbachev then acted to reduce the political and economic cost of supporting Marxist third world regimes. The authors' essays offer a detailed and challenging analysis of the complexities that have defined the Soviet Union's support of Marxist revolutions in the past and will shape future Soviet policy.