In the recent past the Soviet government has been critically reviewing its earlier world view. This rethinking of the theory and practice of foreign policy has included a radical overhaul of the theory of national liberation movements which has formed the framework of Soviet policies toward the Third World. These new formulations, however, retain some elements of continuity. In order to ascertain Soviet policies toward the Third World, it is necessary to understand both the changes and continuities in this new political thinking.

Debates and controversies about the national liberation movements have existed among Soviet analysts and official policy makers since the establishment of the Communist International in early 1919, the most famous being the Lenin–M.N. Roy debate concerning the possibility of an alliance between the national bourgeoisie and local communist parties. Though the process of debate was halted at the time of Stalin, even then Eugene Varga, the Soviet Hungarian economist who believed that capitalist encirclement had been weakened, argued against the official position on the relationship between the colonies and the metropole.

From the 1960s onwards a growing debate occurred on the assessment of Third World societies. Some Soviet scholars questioned aspects of the models being evolved and initiated debates on the subject, but the official Soviet position remained dominant. Scholars thus have noted that “the basic outlines of Soviet doctrine on the Third World have remained quite stable since the death of Stalin.”