The Peace Movement And The Soviet Union

First Published in 1990. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

There is a long tradition of opposition to war and organized peace campaigns date from 1815. Since 1945, however, modern weapons technology has threatened world wide destruction and has stimulated widespread protests. This book sketches in the background of thinking about peace and resistance to war before 1945, and then examines how public opposition to nuclear weapons and testing grew in the 1950s and early 1960s. Later chapters cover the major ressurgence of nuclear disarmament campaigns in the 1980s. The book also looks at how peace protest has spread from its origins in North America and North West Europe to embrace many parts of the world; opposition to nuclear testing has indeed been particularly strong in Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific islands. The period 1945 to 1990 was dominated by the Cold War between the USA and USSR, and the role of the Soviet-sponsored World Peace Council caused difficulties for indeptendent peace groups in the West. During the 1980s the emergence of autonomous peace activity in a number of East European countries, and even on a very small scale in the USSR itself, transformed the possibilities for East-West co-operation between citizens to urge disarmament and political change. A chapter examines these developments. Opposition to all forms of militarism has spread in the last 30 years. This book charts the struggles to extend the right to conscientious objection to military service, and draft resistance to particular wars - for example in Southern Africa and Israel. It also looks in some detail at the growing opposition to the war in the Vietnam. The recent protests against the Gulf War are surveyed briefly in an epilogue.

In the early 1980s the peace movements in most of the Western countries captured public attention as never before. This largely resulted from NATO’s decision in 1979 to deploy new medium range missiles in Europe in 1983 if negotiations with the Soviet Union to limit this type of weapon system failed. The main purpose of the peace movements in Europe was to put pressure on their respective governments to accept Soviet proposals in negotiations and not to deploy new missiles. Many large demonstrations and other ‘happenings’ were organised for this purpose. The Soviet and other Warsaw Pact countries accompanied and supported the activities of the peace movements by propaganda and disinformation campaigns. The national peace movements, despite their common aims, had different historic backgrounds and characteristics. This book, originally published in 1985, presents an authoritative review of the peace movements in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Great Britain, France, Italy, Germany and the United States. The authors discuss not only the history and organisation of each peace movement, but also their international cooperation, media coverage and prospects for the future.