| Budget Amount *help |
¥1,500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,500,000)
Fiscal Year 1988: ¥500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000)
Fiscal Year 1987: ¥1,000,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,000,000)
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| Research Abstract |
The aim of the research project is to investigate the Allied war aims during the Second World War on the basis of the diplomatic documents published in the Soviet Union (including East European countries). In 1974 the official Soviet documents on foreign policy ceased to appear with the 21st volume which dealt with the year 1938. In 1978 the soviets resumed the publication, but it was not a continuation of the old series but a completely new series: documents on the Allied conferences and bilateral relations with major Allied powers like Great Britain, the United States of America or France. It is not difficult to surmise why they stopped the publication of the old series: They faced the awkward task of publishing diplomatic documents in the years when they cooperated with the Nazis. They skipped over this period and began to publish the documents on the next period when they cooperated with the Western Allies against the Nazis. In any event, it is an impressive collection of diplomati
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c documents on the Second World War which is worthwhile being investigated.
A lot of important documents were declassified which shed light on the hidden motives of some Soviet diplomatic initiatives during the Second World War. However, taken as a whole, the new documents do not tell much about the war aims policy of the Soviet Union. It is well known that during the Second World War the Soviet leaders pursued the sphere-of-interest policy which conflicted with the officially declared Allied war aims. The new documents keeps conspicuous silence on a number of incidents in which the Soviet became visible, such as the relations to the Yugoslay peritizans, the so-called Percentage Agreement with the British over the Balkans, the division of Germany, the treatment of postwar France, the agreement with the United States on the sovereign rights of China, the territorial claims to Japan etc.
A new look at the history of the foreign policy appeared with Gorbachev's ascension to power, but not immediately. In the beginning Gorbachev was very cautious on historical issues. It was only in February 1987 that he lifted the ban on the discussion of so-called 'blank sport' in history. In the initial period Gorbachev tried to limit the history debate to domestic issues, but it seems that approximately in April 1988 also the ban on the foreign policy was lifted. There appeared a constant and steadily increasing flow of controversial literature on the history of foreign policy.
Today in the Soviet Union something like the revisionist school of the diplomatic history seems to come into being. This will greatly facilitate our research on the Soviet war aims policy during the Second World War. Up to now, however, we have only journalistic essays on the topic. No publication of relevant diplomatic documents or serious scholarly elaboration has been undertaken. let us wait for a while. Less
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