The USSR and the Former Italian Colonies, 1945–50

Abstract

This article studies the motives determining Soviet leadership's actions concerning the former Italian colonies. Analyzing the body of documents from the Archive of Russian Foreign Policy (the Foreign Ministry Archive), the author came to the conclusion that Realpolitik imperatives clearly dominated ideological considerations on this issue. The architects of the Soviet foreign policy were interested in the geostrategic position of Libya, Somalia and Eritrea, rather than in the prospects for revolutionary development there. Soviet diplomacy showed remarkable persistence and flexibility (the official position was changed four times), trying to achieve a Soviet presence in the Mediterranean – a traditional priority region of Russian geopolitical aspirations.

Notes

A different version of this article was published in Russian under the title ‘SSSR I sud'ba byvshikh italianskikh koloniy (1945–50). (The USSR and the Fate of the Former Italian Colonies, 1945–50) in N. Komolova (ed.), Rossiya I Italia. Vypusk 3, XX vek (Russia and Italy. Issue 3, The XX Century),(Moscow: Nauka, 1998), pp.211–41. The author is grateful to M.L. Korobochkin for translating the article into English.

1. Kruglyi Stol, ‘O “novoi istorii. kholodnoi voiny (materialy diskussii)’ (The Round Table ‘On the “new” Cold War History (Record of Discussion)’, in A.O. Chubariyan (ed.), Stalinskoe desyatiletie kholodnoi voiny: fakty i gipotezy (Stalin's Decade of the Cold War: Facts and Hypotheses) (Moscow: Nauka, 1999), pp.223–47.

2. Robert Legvold, Soviet Policy in West Africa (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1970), pp.347–8.

3. Some of these documents were published in Rossiya i Africa. Dokumenty i materialy. XVIII v. – 1960. Tom II. 1918–1960. Pod redakziei A.B. Davidsona I S.V.Mazova (Russia and Africa. Documents and materials. The XVIII Century ‘ 1960. Vol. II. 1918–1960. Edited by A.B. Davidson and S.V. Mazov) (Moscow: IVI RAN, 1999), documents No. 95, 99, 100.

4. Vladimir O. Pechatnov, ‘The Allies are Pressing on you to Break your Will...’ Foreign policy correspondence between Stalin and Molotov and other Politbureau members, September 1945–December 1946’, CWIHP Working Paper 26 (Sept. 1999), pp.1–25.

5. Ibid., p.1.

6. AVP RF, fond (collection – f.) 0431/1, opis (finding aid – op.) 1, papka (folder – p.) 5, delo (file – d.) 33, list (page – l. ) 13.

7. Ibid., f. 07, op. 12, p. 23, d. 297, l. 2–3.

8. Ibid., f. 0431/1, op. 1, p. 5, d. 33, l. 13, 9.

9. Ibid., l. 13, 9, 10.

10. Ibid., l. 8.

11. Ibid., f. 06, op. 7, p. 17, d. 174, l. 60.

12. Ibid., f. 0431/1, op. 1, p. 5, d. 33, l. 14.

13. Ibid., l. 15.

14. Ibid., l. 16.

15. Ibid., l. 17–18.

16. Ibid., l. 15.

17. Ibid., l. 18–19.

18. Ibid., l. 19.

19. Ibid., l. 9.

20. Albert Resis (ed.), Molotov Remembers: Inside Kremlin's Politics. Conversations with Felix Chuev (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1993), p.74.

21. AVP RF, f. 0431/1, op. 1, p. 1, d. 1, l. 14, 15.

22. Ibid., f. 07, op. 12, p. 23, d. 297, l. 2.

23. Ibid., p. 4, d. 18, l. 6.

24. Ibid., l. 6–7.

25. Ibid., l. 5–6.

26. Ibid., l. 7.

27. Ibid., f. 0441, op. 1, p. 1, d. 6, l. 52–53.

28. Ibid., f. 0431/1, op. 1, p. 5, d. 33, l. 45.

29. Ibid., l. 46, 47.

30. Ibid., l. 47, 48.

31. Ibid., l. 57.

32. Edward Stettinius, US State Secretary in 1944–45, headed the American delegation at the San Francisco Conference (April–June 1945). In a letter of 23 June to A.A. Gromyko, head of the Soviet delegation, he wrote: ‘We will be glad to support in principle the Soviet proposal as to regard your government as a potential governing authority [over one of the trusteeship territories].. Quoted in G.A. Agafonova, ‘Diplomaticheskii crisis na Londonskoi sessii SMID (A Diplomatic Crisis at the London CFM Session)., in A.O. Chubariyan (ed.), Stalin i kholodanaya voina (Stalin and the Cold War) (Moscow: IVI PAN, 1998), p.71.

33. Quoted in Pechatnov, ‘The Allies are Pressing on you to Break your Will’, p.3.

34. AVP RF, f. 0431/1, op. 1, p. 4, d. 18, l. 14, 15.

35. Agafonova, ‘Diplomaticheskii crisis’, p.71.

36. AVP RF, f. 0431/1, op. 1, p. 4, d. 8, l. 42, 43.

37. Ibid., l. 44.

38. Ibid., p. 5, d. 33, l. 78.

39. Ibid., f. 07, op. 12, p. 23, d. 297, l. 71.

40. Ibid., l. 1.

41. Ibid., l. 69.

42. Ibid., l. 69–70.

43. Ibid., l. 74, 82.

44. Ibid., f. 0431/II, op. 2, p. 10, d. 41, l. 14.

45. Ibid., l. 162.

46. Ibid., l. 38.

47. Ibid.

48. Ibid., f. 06, op. 10, p. 49, d. 685, l. 21–1.

49. Ibid., f. 0431/II, op. 2, p. 10, d. 41, l. 102.

50. Ibid., l. 162–3.

51. Ibid., l. 163.

52. Ibid., l. 102.

53. Ibid., f. 07, op. 21, p. 20, d. 290, l. 6.

54. Ibid., f. 0432/II, op. 2, p. 10, d. 41, l. 130–31.

55. Ibid., f. 07, op. 21, p. 20, d. 290, l. 6.

56. V.M. Molotov, ‘Italiya I ustanovlenie mira. Rech na plenarnom zasedanii Parizhskoi Mirnoi conferenzii 13 avgusta 1946 goda (Italy and the Establishment of Peace. A Speech at the Plenary Session of the Paris Peace Conference on 13 August 1946)., in V.M. Molotov, Rechi na Parizhskoi Mirnoi Conferenzii. Iyun‘ – Oktyabr’ 1946 (Speeches at the Paris Peace Conference, June–October 1946) (Moscow: Gospolitizdat, 1946), pp.34, 35.

57. AVP RF, f. 432, op. 2, p. 3, d. 67, l. 27.

58. Ibid., op. 1, p. 3, d. 66, l. 125–6.

59. Ibid., f. 098, op. 30, p. 209, d. 8, l. 5.

60. Ibid., l. 6a.

61. Ibid., l. 5–6a.

62. Ibid., l. 6a.

63. Ibid., f. 07, op. 12, p. 23, d. 293, l. 114.

64. Ibid.

65. Ibid., l. 159–60.

66. Ibid., l. 160.

67. Ibid., f. 06, op. 10, p. 49, d. 681, l. 4.

68. Members of a Muslim religious and political order, established in Libya in the mid-XIX century. The Senusites headed the resistance to the Italian conquest of Libya in the early XX century. During World War II they were helping Allied forces.

69. AVP RF, f. 06, op. 10, p.49, d. 681, l. 4.

70. Ibid., l. 5.

71. Ibid., f. 098, op. 31g, p. 210, d. 9, l. 10–11.

72. Ibid., l. 10.

73. Ibid., f. 06, op. 10, p. 49, d. 684, l. 1.

74. Ibid., f. 098, op. 31g, p. 210, d. 9, l. 12.

75. Ibid., f. 0441, op. 1, p. 1, d. 6, l. 3.

76. Vneshnyaya politika Sovetskogo Soiuza, 1948 god (Soviet Foreign Policy, 1948) (Moscow: Gospolitizdat, 1951, Part II), p.32.

77. Ibid., pp.33, 36.

78. AVP RF, f. 06, op. 10, p. 49, d. 682, l. 6.

79. Ibid., l. 6–7.

80. Ibid., f. 0441, op. 1, p. 1, d. 6, l. 63.

81. Ibid., l. 52–3, 68–9.

82. Ibid., f. 06, op. 10, p.49, d. 682, l. 7.

83. Ibid., f. 098, op. 32v, p. 211, d. 10, l. 78.

84. Ibid., l. 100.

85. Ibid., l. 170.

86. Ibid., p. 104.

87. Ibid., l. 120, 136–68.

88. Quoted in Pechatnov ‘The Allies are Pressing on you to Break your Will’, p.22.