The Soviet Union in Asia

by Geoffrey Jukes

304 pages, Unbound

Published January 28, 1973

About the author

A former civil servant and scholar in international relations, Geoffrey Jukes spent 14 years in the UK Ministry of Defence and Foreign and Colonial Office, specialising in Russian/Soviet military history, strategy and arms control. He was a Senior Fellow in International Relations at ANU from 1967 to 1993, and an Associate of the Centre for Arab & Islamic Studies (the Middle East & Central Asia) until his death in 2010.

Reviews

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Soviet Union in Asia is a diplomatic and economic review of the actions taken by the USSR since 1917 until about 1970. This book looks at the turn towards Europe as minimal attention as given during the early years to Asia. As Japan encroached Mongolia was used as a buffer to hold Soviet Units as a warning. Eventually Stalin would of course invade Manchuria, but his stay would be short lived and he would not engage long there. It was not until Khrushchev that the Soviets paid attention again to Asia and this time not engaging the communist parties in the area (with the exception of China) but instead other nationalist governments in India, Indonesia and Cambodia. North Korea and Vietnam (North) remain more client states of China then Russia and the Soviets have limited engagement with Taiwan, Australia/New Zealand, and Singapore. Overall this book is straight to the point but it is a story of limited engagement in aeras other than India.